Buffalo Chicken Tenders with Blue Cheese Dip

One of my biggest weaknesses is wings. Think about it: deep fried chicken wings, spun in various sauces, served with blue cheese or ranch dressing. Seriously...they're awesome. Plus I love anything that packs a punch, and we all know that buffalo wings can carry some heat. Last Sunday, my boyfriend Brink and I went to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings, and when they brought out my boneless wings, I realized something. These were nothing but frozen chicken nuggets that somebody had heated up and covered with sauce. I couldn't believe I had paid 8 bucks for something I could have made at home for a fraction of the cost. Not to mention how greasy and bad for you they are. Brink suggested I try to make a healthier version on my own, so here we are!


Two things I love about buffalo sauce are that it is delicious, and it uses vinegar as a base. How many calories are in vinegar? Zero. So buffalo sauce is nothing but calorie-free flavor. Cha-ching! Pair that with baked boneless skinless chicken breast tenders and some crisp celery and you have a lean, low fat meal. I also found a recipe for a low fat blue cheese dip. because what are wings without blue cheese? Both of these recipes showed up in a google search, the first was a post from grouprecipes.com and the other from eatingwell.com.


A couple of notes about this recipe...first of all, you don't need to bother with cutting the chicken yourself. Just buy the pre-cut chicken tenders at the store. Also, I couldn't find wheat germ so I just doubled the flour. I used Frank's RedHot Buffalo Sauce, but you can use any sauce or marinade you want: BBQ, lemon garlic marinade, honey mustard, teryaki, etc., so this can taste completely different every time you make it. I also wouldn't recommend substituting regular bread crumbs for the panko crumbs. These are a lot fluffier and they crisp better in the oven, so you get a little bit of texture. If you can find whole wheat panko break crumbs, spring for those instead of white.


Boneless Buffalo Wings:
Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into finger sized pieces
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Buffalo wing sauce
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs


1. Mix all dry ingredients, except breadcrumbs in a bag. Coat chicken strips in mixture.


2. Put buffalo wing sauce in a bowl, and dip floured chicken strips in the sauce.

3. Put panko crumbs in a bag (I just used a plate, and rolled them around), and coat the sauce-covered chicken with the bread crumbs.

4. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.




Blue Cheese Dip
Ingredients:
2 tbsp reduced fat mayonaise
2 tbsp non-fat plain yogurt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese


Wisk mayo, yogurt, and pepper together in a bowl. Stir in blue cheese

Taste Rating: 9.5
These were seriously amazing. The dipping sauce has soooo much blue cheese in it. It's so flavorful and creamy, you would never know that it was low fat. The chicken is really crispy on the outside, but moist on the inside. I might bump things up a notch and go for a hotter sauce next time (and there will definitely be a next time), or even try something completely different, like BBQ or teryaki.


Easy Rating: 8
If you just set up an assembly line with your bag of flour/chicken, bowl of sauce, plate of bread crumbs, and your baking dish, it's a really simple process. Just dip, roll, and you're done. The blue cheese was super easy, you basically just mix everything together.


Overall Rating: 9
This is definitely one of my favorites so far! I loved the way they tasted, but even more so, I loved the way I felt afterwards. These left me feeling energized and satisfied, not sleepy and gross like traditional hot wings. In fact, I'm about to go take a Zumba class, and I feel totally ready for a good cardio workout.