BBQ Buffalo Chicken Strips with Blue Cheese Dip
Today’s frozen mystery meat surprise turned out to be Buffalo Chicken Strips – which W was none to pleased about, so he had spinach pizza. All I did was lay them out on a cookie sheet and bake them for 20 minutes, then crumbled some blue cheese (I’m not a huge fan, but wanted to be authentic) into a bit of low fat sour cream and light mayo. We ate them with our fingers, and without much of anything else, unless you count finishing off W’s pizza crusts. To be honest I come home at the end of each day having not only worked around food for 10 hours or so, but having spent that time nibbling it.. we have to do several takes at the end of each recipe during which we “taste and reveal”, and because neither Ned nor I are stellar actors, we almost always have to do it over and over, attempting each time to take another spontaneously new and exciting bite. Not that I’m complaining.
We are in the final stretch of shooting – still every day early to late – tomorrow morning our call time is 5:30 due to a forecast for pandemonium at our location, being a Saturday that just happens to also be Valentine’s Day. (Our kitchen set is at Willow Park – the biggest wine and liquor store in Canada – so the noise of people and bottles and such interrupts our filming, even though it’s all cordoned off.) I just set my alarm for 4:30 (AM!) and it’s pushing 10, so I’m going to keep this brief. These seem like a weekendy sort of finger food though.
The classic formula for restaurant-style Buffalo chicken wing sauce is half butter, half hot sauce; using barbecue sauce cuts back dramatically on the fat and calories! I like to use a mild tomato-based sauce – it allows the flavor of the hot sauce to come through. If you want to make them in advance, you can freeze the dipped chicken strips on a baking sheet, then transfer to a plastic bag. When you’re ready to bake them place the frozen strips on a cookie sheet and bake as directed – there’s no need to thaw them first. If you want to skip the blue cheese dip, bottled low fat ranch or creamy cucumber dressing makes great dips too.
And THANK YOU so much for carrying me along with your recipe ideas! I am dying to get back home into my kitchen and try some of them. To keep you in the loop on my weight loss progress, I’ve managed to keep somewhat of a tight reign on my magic number despite this crazy new eating schedule. I’ve been hanging around 200 for a week or so, likely because I haven’t gone completely overboard with my daytime nibbling (it’s hard to not finish each plate of food I’ve started after wrapping each take), managed a few brief trips to the gym, and have steadfastly not given in to snacking from the time I get home to the time I crawl into bed. Being upright and busy for so many hours of the day probably helps.
We shoot tomorrow and Sunday, then break for Monday and Tuesday and then I have two full days on location on the 18th and 19th, so I will be back soon. Very soon. And I can’t wait. And I’ll finally arrange for Book Club!
Today during a particularly stressful moment on set I tried to bring myself to my Happy Place, and it was here.
BBQ Buffalo Chicken Strips with Blue Cheese Dip
AuthorJulie
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Season flour with salt and pepper in a shallow dish. Stir together the barbecue sauce and hot sauce in another dish.
Dredge chicken strips in the flour to coat, then dip into the barbecue sauce mixture and turn to coat all over. Place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for 20 minutes, or until cooked through.
To make the blue cheese dip, stir together all the dip ingredients. Serve warm, with blue cheese dip. Makes about 1 dozen strips.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Season flour with salt and pepper in a shallow dish. Stir together the barbecue sauce and hot sauce in another dish.
Dredge chicken strips in the flour to coat, then dip into the barbecue sauce mixture and turn to coat all over. Place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for 20 minutes, or until cooked through.
To make the blue cheese dip, stir together all the dip ingredients. Serve warm, with blue cheese dip. Makes about 1 dozen strips.
Sounds like you’ve had quite the week. Thanks for keeping us updated, especially with all that you’ve got going on.
?Happy Valentine’s Day!?
ACK apparently the heart turns into a “?” What I meant to say was:
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Hi Julie, hang in there. Thanks for the post. I have a question – what happens afterwards to all the food you guys cook on the show?
And a happy valentine’s day from me also: to you, Julie and to everyone else who comes here.
I hope everyone here gets at least one piece of chocolate (although a couple of those cinnamon hearts would be good, too…)
Erica, if you don’t mind a laying-down heart, try this one: <3
(And if you’re like me, all you need do is take off your glasses and it blurs quite nicely to look like a heart)
-Carol SB
p.s. don’t forget that old classic, the rose:
~~{@
p.p.s
Julie, I love that this is your happy place right now. With such a tremendous group, I’m not surprised. I don’t miss a day either. Your posts are always well worth reading: so are the well-wrought comments from your ‘peeps’.
Hiya guys, and Julie,
Have a lovely Saint Valentin gals.
Julie can’t wait till you’re back. Hope all is well with you and your family.
Take care.
MFO
That makes me smile that this is your happy place! How lovely. I would have to agree. I look forward to this blog every day!
I just finished icing 2 batches of the One Smart Cookie Classic Sugar Cookies, which are heart shaped of course!
Have a happy day Julie!
Julie, I was searching for something to do with the kale I bought on impulse yesterday (“it’s so good for you”) and came across an older post that also mentioned the no-knead bread recipe. This led me to wonder if you have come across the “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day” posts all over the internet? I tried it and am in awe. It REALLY works! Let us know what you think when the pace slackens for you. I’m about to tune in to “It’s Just Food” on Access…so glad I found you on the tube again!!
Aw! You’re so sweet! Happy Valentine’s Day!
Hey Julie,
Glad all the recipes gave you a break from posting. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Mrs. M… if you are reading, would you care to expand on the quantity of each ingredient in your crockpot Thai chicken recipe?
Kathy – to answer your question, it gets eaten! We have a hungry crew (of 8), and beyond them there are staff in the store that get any leavings…
Hi Julie, thanks for the reply. I may have to get a job @ Willow Park Wine & Spirits at least for when you are taping the show! [short of making the recipes myself that is].