Chef at Home: 'Buffalo' Chicken Wing Salad with Blue Cheese

One of my favourite channels on TV has got to be the Food Network (Canada), however, it can be a love hate relationship. Some hosts I hate, others I love, or I love a hosts food but can't stand their personality or vice versa. One of the hosts I go back and forth on is Chef Michael Smith of Chef @ Home, Chef at Large, and Chef Abroad. I enjoy watching him because I believe he has excellent chef skills ans tasty ideas without the arrogance or pretension of many other on there.

He seems like a great guy, but sometimes, sometimes, he just seems to squeeky clean. His presentation style is very simple and warm, but I often feel like he's talking to kids not adults. Not that he's talking down to us, just . . . slow. On Chef @ Home he has great ideas of cooking for family, time restraints and for entertaining. But I'll be honest, I can't stand his kid Gabe - who I suspect is a bit spoiled after seeing him on the show several times. Oh others say he`s cute, but not me.

Anyways, I had him on today in the background with the episode Hearty Chili when I heard the magical words "Buffalo Wings." Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa? My attention became sharp to the TV, where I realized he was making a wing-influenced salad, but it still sounded pretty tasty. He talked about how to make traditional Buffalo butter sauce, and the significance of hot sauce. I wish the clip was on the world wide web, but its not. Either way, looks like a tasty salad, you know, for a salad.

Please Note - Chicken Wing Salad has no actual chicken wings in it.




'Buffalo' Chicken Wing Salad with Blue Cheese
Chef At Home - Michael Smith

Ingredients:

Salad

• 2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
• 1/4 cup flour
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 batch Spicy Chicken Sauce (recipe from this episode)
• 1 head of romaine lettuce, washed and sliced
• 2 ribs celery, washed and cut into sticks
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 8 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
• Spicy Chicken Sauce
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup Franks hot sauce
• 1/4 cup ketchup

Directions:

Salad

1. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Toss chicken with flour, salt and pepper until well coated.
3. Pour oil into pan and add the chicken.
4. Cook on one side until it's golden brown and then flip and cook the other side until the chicken is cooked through.
5. Remove with tongs and place in a bowl.
6. Pour Spicy Chicken Sauce over hot chicken, toss well to coat.
7. Put lettuce, celery and chicken into a salad bowl. Drizzle any excess chicken sauce over the salad and add the lemon juice.
8. Toss well and garnish with crumbled blue cheese.
   

Spicy Chicken Sauce

1. Whisk together the butter, hot sauce and ketchup

Photos from Food Network Canada