Today’s Sandwich: Buffalo Chicken Salad (Homemade)

We’re still shaking off the Patriots loss, and nursing our post-Superbowl chicken wing hangover here at From Away World Headquarters. As it turns out, two and a half pounds of Buffalo wings are just too many, when your Superbowl party is made up of just two people, no matter how enthusiastic about chicken those two people may be. I also way, way overestimated our needs in the celery stick, wing sauce and bleu cheese dip department, leaving us with a fridge full of various pots and containers full of sauces, yet no actual chicken wings.

In an effort to ease ourselves slowly back out of Buffalo wing eating season, as well as use up all those leftovers, we engineered this chicken salad sandwich. It captures all the flavor of the classic Buffalo wing, in a cool, surprisingly well-balanced sandwich that never overdoes it, in spite of all those competing strong flavors.

I like to poach the chicken for chicken salad sandwiches, mainly because I like the tender texture it gives the chicken. In this case, I also didn’t want to add too many additional flavors, since the sandwich already has so much going on; I imagine, though, that it would be equally delicious using grilled chicken breasts, or even leftover roast chicken parts. Use what you’ve got. You can’t lose with this sandwich.

Buffalo Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Makes 3 or 4 sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 6-8 slices of fresh bread, sliced
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 32 oz. box low-sodium chicken broth
• 3 stalks celery, finely chopped
• 1-2 carrots, peeled and grated
• 2-3 tablespoons bleu cheese dressing
• 2 tablespoons bleu cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons prepared buffalo wing sauce, or Frank’s Red Hot brand hot sauce
• 3-4 leaves of lettuce (Bibb or romaine work well here)

Method:

In a medium saucepan over high heat, cover whole chicken breasts with chicken stock. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low. You want to keep the water just below a simmer, or at about 190 degrees, if you have a candy thermometer. Cook, covered, about 20 minutes.

Remove chicken from broth, and let rest for five minutes. Chop chicken into chunks, and combine in large bowl with celery, carrots, bleu cheese dressing, crumbled bleu cheese, and buffalo wing sauce. If chicken salad seems to dry, supplement the dressing with a little more mayonnaise, a teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Stir to combine, and chill in refrigerator at least 30 minutes before serving.

To assemble sandwiches: Place 3-4 tablespoons of chicken salad on three or four slices of bread. Top with lettuce and top-half of bread slices.

Tagged as: buffalo wings, sandwiches

About the Author: Malcolm Bedell

My first memories of cooking start in Maine at six years old, when I wore a yellow rainslicker to avoid getting spattered by the bacon I was frying in a skillet. My interest in both Mexican cooking and recreating classic New England dishes from scratch developed while living in Mexico, on a steady diet of pork and habanero peppers. You can see more of my writing and photography online on Serious Eats, the Huffington Post, BlogHer, and Foodista, as well as in print for Downeast, Indulge, and Cigar Snob magazines.