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.

Grilled and marinated squash

Almost every Sunday during the summer we fire up the grill. This summer, I have been cooking my way through Grilling for Life by Bobby Flay. This past week, I made marinated grilled summer squash. My grocery store had a sale on all varieties of summer squash, so I ended up with green zucchini, crookneck squash, white zucchini and green and yellow pattypan squash. The squash is cut lengthwise and seasoned with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper before going on the grill. After the squash comes off the grill, it's doused with a marinade of lemon juice and zest, olive oil, salt, pepper, crushed chile and fresh basil. I garnished this dish with a sprinkling of lemon basil, purple basil and cherry tomatoes from my garden.

Grilled asparagus with tarragon vinaigrette

Grilling season is finally here! This past fall, I bought the Grilling For Life cookbook by Bobby Flay. By the time I got the book, grilling season was basically over. I've been looking forward to warmer weather so that I can put my new book to good use.

This was a great asparagus recipe. The vinaigrette is a combination of white wine vinegar, fresh tarrgon, olive oil, cornichons, capers, and hard boiled egg yolks. The hard boiled egg yolks are blended together with the vinegar to make a rich and creamy dressing. The grilled asparagus is topped with chopped hard boiled eggs and tarragon.

Grilled lamb chops with oregano vinaigrette and radish tzatziki

This recipe is from Bobby Flay's Grilling for Life. I'm trying to make the most of what's left of this year's grilling season. Lamb chops (he calls for rib chops, I used shoulder chops) are simply seasoned with salt and pepper and seared on the grill. The hot lamb chops are topped with a vinaigrette of fresh oregano, garlic, red wine vinegar, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper. Radish tzatziki is a twist on an old favorite. The recipe uses ingredients that are fairly traditional, but instead of shredded cucumber, this sauce calls for finely grated radish. Make sure to squeeze all the moisture out of your radish before you put it in the sauce. I had no idea that so much bright pink juice would leak out of radishes when they're shredded! The combination of the smoky lamb, slightly sweet vinaigrette and tzatziki with the bite of radish was amazing. I will definitely be repeating this recipe in the near future.