This week’s CEimB recipe is Buffalo Chicken Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing and was chosen by AJM of You Eat Now. It was really a nice weeknight recipe, the chicken cooks up quickly under the broiler and the salad dressing was whipped up in no time. We are big fans of buffalo chicken in our house so this was a great way to get our “hot wing” fix in a much healthier way.
The recipe calls for simply tossing the uncooked chicken strips in your favorite hot sauce (Frank’s is the way to go!). I decided to add another layer of flavor to the chicken by marinating it with some olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and chili powders before adding the hot sauce. Also, since we like it really hot, I tossed the broiled chicken in more hot sauce before topping it on the salad. I wasn’t sure if it would be filling enough for my husband, but he seemed pretty satisfied and said it was great. Oh…and I thought the dressing was really yummy. I poured all the ingredients in a small mason jar and just gave it a few shakes…and voila, homemade blue cheese dressing.
Recipe from Ellie Krieger, The Food You Crave
2 (8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper hot sauce (or other hot sauce), plus more to taste
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 hearts Romaine, cut into 1-inch strips (about 8 cups)
4 celery stalks, thinly sliced
2 carrots, coarsely grated
2 scallions, green part only, sliced
1/2 cup Blue Cheese Dressing, recipe follows
Preheat the broiler. Put the chicken between 2 sheets of waxed paper and pound with a mallet or hammer so the chicken is an even thickness of about 3/4-inch, then cut the chicken crosswise into 1/2-inch strips. In a large bowl, combine the hot sauce and the oil, add chicken and toss until the chicken is well coated. Arrange the chicken on a baking sheet and broil until it is cooked through, about 4 to 6 minutes, turning once.
In a large bowl combine the Romaine, celery, shredded carrots and scallions. Toss with the dressing. Divide the greens between 4 plates, top with the chicken. Serve with extra hot sauce.
Blue Cheese Dressing
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt (I used Greek yogurt to avoid the straining process)
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Fold a full sheet of paper towel into quarters and put it into a small bowl. Spoon the yogurt onto the paper towel and place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to drain and thicken. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk and thickened yogurt into the mayonnaise until smooth. Add the vinegar and sugar and continue to whisk until all the ingredients are well combined. Stir in the blue cheese and season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
Aggie, this looks delicious. I’ll bet it’s as tasty as it is beautiful.
Aggie it looks so good. I wish I had thought to marinate my chicken. the hot sauce on mine just sort of poured right off my chicken and into the oven! But it was very tasty. Yours is beautiful.
I love having salads for dinner in the summer. I will be making this one.
I’ve never been a huge fan of blue cheese, but I think this would be quite tasty with ranch!
Your salad looks great! I also added some extra spice to my chicken.
Oh my gosh this looks awesome! My husband is a HUGE buffalo wing fan, and we both love dinner salads with chicken. I’ve never made a buffalo chicken salad though – love this lighter version. I am making this asap!
That salad looks seriously tasty. I loved it too and I am definitely planning on making it again. It seems like it was a hit all around.
Lovely. We had a speaker at school from Sudan — one of the Lost Boys — and he related his horrible experience of having his village raided, much of his family and community exterminated. He escaped and spent almost 20 years in refugee camps. He ended up relocating here and one of his favorite things is buffalo wings. He’s raising money to build a school, so I want to do a blog in his honor. I will link your healthy recipe to my blog.
Yum – great refreshing combination of flavors. I especially like the blue cheese dressing!
I love entree salads. This sounds and looks delicious!
This looks really good!! Marinating the chicken is such a good idea, I’ll be doing that the next time I make this salad
That looks delicious!! Most of my kids can’t stand any spicy stuff, so I will save this for when they aren’t home one night!!
Josh LOVES his buffalo wings, except he likes the fried gross ones:) Maybe he will settle for this salad!
Love it! Buffalo chicken is sooo delicious! I actually think I enjoy it more on chicken done in the oven vs. frying because you can really taste the heat!
This looks so delicious; I can’t believe I missed it. I will have to go back and make the chicken (I will follow your example and kick up the heat!) and maybe try to find a good low fat ranch dressing recipe to go with it (hubs is very averse to blue cheese, and it’s not my favorite either). Your salad looks gorgeous!
Thanks for sharing this recipe that looks so tasty.
Aggie- your salad looks absolutely fabulous. So delicious.
My idae of the perfect salad!
I bet that salad is packed full of flavor! It looks gorgeous!
Where do you get Greek yogurt??
Yes, this was a great recipe, wasn’t it? I love wings, so this is a nice, healthy and delicious alternative. Great pictures, Aggie!
You had me at buffalo! Yum – but I would add more Tabasco to mine!
I love buffalo chicken too and thought this week’s pick was wonderful.
It is really great to find a fellow blogger that focuses on healthy eating! We are few and far between! Pop over and take a look sometime. http://danazia.wordpress.com/
I love your blog, great pictures. I am going to save this recipe and make it this week. Thanks!
Dana Zia
This looks absolutely delish. I think I’ll make it for dinner tonight!
Also trying to make more salads in my kitchen. Would love this on my dinner table tonight.
sounds and looks lovely! what a nice way to healthify an otherwise “dangerous” salad. I love ellie kreiger’s recipes! foods I crave indeed!
I’ve enjoyed a buffalo chicken salad at a restaurant and it didn’t look even 1/2 as terrific as yours does! I love salads as meals, and your recipe here would be a total hit with me. I love homemade blue cheese dressing, too. YUM!
This salad sounds so good! Creamy blue cheese dressing…mmm…