Chipotle chicken tenders with blue cheese sauce

I like buffalo chicken, but I haven’t been all that motivated to make it at home. I don’t often buy chicken wings, and I never deep fry. When I spotted this recipe in Bobby Flay’s Grilling For Life, I wondered if it was possible to get the buffalo chicken flavor without all the fat. I actually think I like this version better than the original, and it comes together very quickly.

Since it was raining in California on the day I made these, I cooked the chicken on the stove rather than on the grill. The hot sauce can be customized to your heat preference, and the three types of chiles add a great depth of flavor. A little bit of honey cuts the acidity and the sauce is thickened by Dijon mustard and some butter. The original recipe called for the blue cheese sauce to be made with greek yogurt. I had both greek yogurt and sour cream in the house, so I did half of each. You could definitely use one or the other though.

The traditional accompaniments to buffalo wings are carrot and celery sticks. Since this isn’t quite your traditional version, I also went with a slightly different side: roasted carrot sticks.

Chipotle chicken tenders with blue cheese sauce

Serves 3-4

Chicken ingredients:

1 and 1/2 lbs chicken tenders

3/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1-2 tablespoons chipotle puree (depends on how spicy you want the sauce)

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon ancho chile powder

1 and 1/2 teaspoons New Mexico chile powder

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 and 1/2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
salt and pepper to taste

Blue cheese sauce ingredients:

1/2 cup low or non fat greek yogurt

1/2 cup low fat sour cream

1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese

salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons finely chopped chives

For the blue cheese sauce:

Combine all of the ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to one day. Garnish with more chives if desired.

For the chicken:

Bring the vinegar, 1 tablespoon oil, chipotle puree, honey and both chile powders to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once it reaches a simmer, remove the mixture from the heat and whisk in the mustard and butter. Set aside.

Heat a large saucepan on high, add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, add the chicken to the pan. Saute until the chicken is browned and cooked through, about three minutes per side. Toss the chicken with the chipotle sauce and serve with the blue cheese sauce.