Buffalo Chicken and Poatoes

My husband LOVES casseroles, so lately I have been trying out different kinds trying to discover recipes that we both love.  I had found this Buffalo Chicken and Potatoes Casserole a couple of years ago. The first time my husband and I tried it, it was... okay. But we both were a little disappointed. This week we decided to try it again, but make a few tweaks here and there to the recipe. It turned out AMAZING! I thought that this casserole would feed us for a couple of days, but it was just too good. We ate it up pretty fast and my husband is already asking for it again. And I have to admit, I kinda want it again too. Here is what I did to make a recipe gone bad into a recipe that is amazing.

Here is what the recipe originally calls for-

• 1 1/4 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch strips 
• 1/3 cup buffalo wing sauce 
• 6 cups frozen (thawed) southern-style hash brown potatoes 
• 1 cup ranch or blue cheese dressing 
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (2 oz) 
• 1 can (10 oz) condensed cream of celery soup 
• 1/2 cup corn flake crumbs 
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted 
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions (3 to 4 medium) 

Here is what I actually used-

• boneless chicken (You can really use as much as you want. We used a little less then called for because we are poor Grad students :)
• 1/3 cup Franks Hot Sauce (Remember that hot sauce you used in the wingers recipe? Same thing, awesome right!)
• About 6 cups of cubed red potatoes. (I kinda eye balled it. But they were sure yummy!)
• 1 cup ranch
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• green onion (however much you want really) 

Cooking Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. In medium bowl, stir together chicken strips and wing sauce.
3. 3 In large bowl, stir together potatoes, dressing, cheese and soup. Spoon into baking dish. Place chicken strips in single layer over potato mixture.
4. In small bowl, cut in the crumbs and butter. Sprinkle in baking dish.
5. Cover with foil. Bake 30 minutes; uncover and bake 30 to 40 minutes longer or until potatoes are tender and juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut. Sprinkle with green onions. 

The recipe is easy cheesy, and it is a must try.... that is if you like potatoes ;) 
 

Can you just say yum!

"WIngers" Chicken

For those of you who have been to Idaho, you may have heard of a restaurant called "Wingers." The food there is really good, especially if it comes with their famous wingers sauce. Now that I am no longer in Idaho I have been really missing their sticky goodness. Thankfully for me I found a version of the sauce on Pintrest.  (You can find the original recipe here) My husband and I have now made this a few times and love it. There are however two things that I do differently.

First, the recipe calls for frozen chicken tenders. We hardly ever have that in our home so what I do if fry me up some boneless chicken. There are two ways I have done this. And you can use whatever chicken you have on hand.

1. First cut your boneless chicken into strips. Then get a frying pan hot with some olive oil on the stove. There needs to be enough oil to cover the whole bottom of the pan. and the heat should be around medium. Next, have two separate bowls sitting out. In the fist bowl put in a couple of eggs and scramble. In the second bowl put in flour and whatever seasoning your heart desires. (I usually just add a little salt and pepper). Now take your chicken and first coat it in the egg batter and then the flour mixture. Now you are ready to fry the chicken in your pan. Remember to be patient and to not flip the chicken until the flour mixture has time to become crusted on. 
2. The second way I sometimes make my chicken is the same as before expect I use breadcrumbs instead of flour. I personally have a lot easier time creating a crust on the chicken when I use the breadcrumbs. 

The second thing, that I try to change each time, is the quantity of the recipe. Right now it is just my husband and I who eat at home. (My little girl is so sad to be too little that all she can eat is bananas and cereal. One day little girl, one day) Since it is just the two of us, we need to cut the recipe back by a  lot. We forgot to do this last time we made this... which was early last week... and we are still going through the sauce... and we have used it several times. The original recipie for the sauce is,

• 1/3 c. Franks Hot Sauce (It has to be Franks Hot Sauce... no other sauce will taste as good)
• 1 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. water
Heat up hot sauce, brown sugar and water in a saucepot until all the sugar dissolves. Next remove it from heat and allow to cool to room temp before adding to the chicken. OR prepare ahead of time and refrigerate. The wings turn out best if you don't pour warm sauce over them. You want it nice and thick.

I suggest cutting the recipe by at least a third. Not that having left overs is a bad thing, They make some amazing wingers chicken tacos!

Wingers chicken with flour coated chicken