Cookbookaholic

Buffalo Chicken Flatbread Pizza: The Recipe

By now, I think the Buffalo Chicken Dip has become a staple of Big Game menus across the country. So, what’s another great way to enjoy the flavor without all that cream cheese? I found some inspiration at a new buffalo wing joint that opened up near the house. I found all of the ingredients at my favorite local grocery store and their deli & even used many of their private brand products to help cut down on the cost.

Buffalo Chicken Flatbread Pizza

2 pieces of prepared flatbread

2 cups cooked chicken breast, cubed

½ cup Buffalo Wing sauce

1 celery stalk, minced

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 cup, mozzarella cheese, shredded

Crumbled blue cheese, to taste

Fresh Ranch dressing, to taste

For the chicken breast, I purchased a rotisserie chicken from my grocery store’s deli department. The chicken is already cooked, hot & ready to go and has a really great taste. I cubed the chicken breast (about 2 cups total) and then added the minced celery. Season with a little salt and pepper and then add the buffalo wing sauce. Mix until all of the chicken is fully coated in the sauce. (I covered the container and let the mixture marinate overnight in the refrigerator; but, you can also mix and then use immediately.)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

For a flatbread, I chose the “Tandoor Baked Naan” from Stonefire Authentic Flatbreads for my pizza base. (You can also use Boboli, pita bread or any kind of flatbread that is out on the market now.) The Naan bread had all these cool bubbles that create nooks; and, I thought it made a really tasty crust. Plus, two came in the package and they were nicely sized for individual pizzas or as appetizers for a group. The package I bought had two flatbreads that were football shaped! Festive and appropriate!

Top the bread with the buffalo chicken and celery mixture.

Then, loosely cover the buffalo chicken with the shredded mozzarella cheese and place in the pre-heated oven just long enough to heat up the chicken and melt the cheese, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Once you’ve removed the pizza from the oven, sprinkle the crumbled blue cheese over the buffalo chicken pizza. Finally, drizzle the ranch dressing on top. Slice and serve.

Yowza! Slices of pizza with thick chunks of buffalo chicken, topped off with tangy blue cheese crumbles and creamy ranch dressing. It’s very filling and gives you the punch of the buffalo flavor (without bones and a messy cleanup) all on a thin slice of pizza. It’s a nice, new addition to the football watching menu at our house!

Tasty Tombstone Treats!

I wondered if this idea would work—I’m no Martha Stewart, but the trial and error process is always fun with chocolate! Keep in mind, this was just fun experimentation—but I’m hoping I can perfect these Tasty Tombstone Treats in time for Halloween.

From my local grocery store, I picked up the store brand versions of fudge-covered sugar wafer, fudge-covered graham crackers, a chocolate bar, white cookie icing and black decorating gel.

Separating the fudge-covered graham crackers was tough! Most of them were stuck together and didn’t give me too many “pretty” ones to work with. To decorate the tombstone and make it spooky, I used white ready-made Betty Crocker Cookie Icing and black decorating gel. I placed them on a cookie sheet and started to pipe out “RIP,” ghost shapes and skulls with the icing. Take this knowledge from my experiments and only use a thin layer! If the icing is too thick (and hasn’t set) the icing slides and ruins the design when you stand them up. I learned the hard way to use a thin layer AND put them in the fridge to firm/harden up the icing.

Next, I melted about half of a Hershey bar in a makeshift double boiler. I knew I needed something to “glue” the base and tombstone together. I chose the melted Hershey bar because I thought it would harden enough to keep the two pieces together—and hold the tombstone upright.

Then, I took the fudge-covered graham cracker tombstones and “glued” them to the fudge-covered sugar wafer tombstone bases. As a nice bonus, the Hershey bar dries the same color as the fudge covered base and tombstone! Nice…

 

Here are some of the “better” ones…I’m hoping to improve with some more practice. I think using real confectioner’s sugar icing would be better for the  “RIP” or piping out someone’s name on the cookie tombstone. The cookie icing is just too runny for piping out text on such a small area. I did like how the cookie icing made the basic ghost and skull designs all slick and shiny. Just got to keep workin' my piping skillz…