This is for all of you Buffalo Chicken fans out there. I LOVE buffalo chicken. Not the wings (sorry! not a bone person), but I love the boneless ones. Probably a crime to some of you, but there you go. Whenever we are at a restaurant that has buffalo chicken, I always have to fight myself as to whether I want to get some or not. I usually do. So good.
So, as I was pondering on the yumminess of buffalo chicken, I started doing some searching to try to find a buffalo chicken recipe that would be a little different, but just as tasty as my beloved buffalo chicken, and maybe even a little less messy. I found this recipe for the chicken, but it was for a buffalo chicken sandwich. That sounded good, but not exactly like what I was hoping for. I modified the recipe a little, and decided to couple it with one of my other favorites – nachos. The “Game Day” Buffalo Chicken Nacho was born! 🙂
These little bad boys are SOOOOO good. The chicken turned out tasting just like my beloved buffalo chicken, and it was perfect as a nacho. My husband came home and had two plates full of them. And I had two plates full of them. They were that good. Pepper jack cheese is a good pairing, but mozzarella or provolone, or possibly cheddar would work fine too. You could also top with black beans, salsa, whatever makes your nacho heart happy. I am a purist, so I just stuck with the cheese and the buffalo chicken, but go wild. 🙂
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. chicken breast or tenderloin
- 1-12 oz. bottle Frank's buffalo wing sauce
- 1/2 of 1 oz. packet of Ranch dressing mix
- 1-1/2 Tbs. butter, melted
- Pepper Jack cheese (I used the shredded Kraft kind with the cream cheese mixed into it)
- Tortilla chips
- And your "coolants": carrots, celery, Bleu Cheese dressing (or Ranch), etc.
Instructions
- Put the chicken, HALF of the bottle of the buffalo sauce, and your Ranch dressing mix into your crock pot and let it cook on low for 4-5 hours (for tenderloin) or 6-7 hours (for breast).
- Shred the chicken and pour most of the remaining buffalo sauce in, as well as your butter. Let the chicken keep cooking for 30 min. to soak up the sauce.
- Place a layer of tortilla chips on a plate. Top with some of the shredded buffalo chicken and some pepper jack cheese. Melt cheese in microwave if needed.
- ENJOY!!! 🙂
Notes
Do NOT leave the butter out. That is what helps it taste like "buffalo wings" instead of "spicy buffalo chicken". The fat from the butter MAKES the recipe.
I already put this in the recipe notes, but I want to reiterate it again – DO NOT TRY TO BE “HEALTHY” AND LEAVE OUT THE BUTTER! I tried the chicken BEFORE the butter, and it tasted like spicy buffalo chicken, which was okay. After I put the butter in – HEAVEN! It tasted like beautiful buffalo wings. The fat is important. Don’t try to tell yourself that you are going to make this healthy by leaving the butter out. You just put a whole bottle of wing sauce in the chicken, which has quite a bit of sodium, and you’re about to put the chicken on crackers and cover it with cheese. This is an indulgence, not a healthy snack. PUT THE BUTTER IN!
Also, right after I shredded the chicken, but before I put the extra sauce in, I tried the chicken. It tasted really spicy to me. I remembered then, thankfully, that Ranch mix can make things taste (surprisingly, at least to me) spicy. I added the extra buffalo sauce with my eyes half-closed because I was sure it would just spice me out. The buffalo sauce actually HELPED the spiciness. AND, adding butter in will help cool it down a bit. My chicken came out with a perfect standard “spice” of a buffalo wing. Just your normal, not-super-spicy but not-super-mild variety. The chips and cheese help to cool it down a bit too.
