In this episode: Red hot Buffalo chicken wings can pack a punch without packing on the pounds, and a low-fat blue cheese dressing is the perfect condiment to cool them down. Sear and bake crispy chicken to dip in an atomic wing sauce with help from a professional chef in this free video on healthy cooking.
Hi, and welcome to "Food Courting." I'm Jennifer Iserloh, the Skinny Chef. Join us as I make the essential Super Bowl snack, that won't kill your New Year's resolution to eat healthier, or leave your guests feeling hungry at halftime. We're making red hot buffalo wings with blue cheese dressing. Join me for a date to learn about everyday healthy cooking. We're taking those fast food or food court favorites, and turning them into delicious, helpful meals that are friendly to your waistline, and your time. This is "Food Courting." I've eaten my fair share of hot wings, that's for sure. But, just because you love that spicy sauce, doesn't mean that you have to rely on takeout to get it. In today's episode, I'm going to show you how to make a crispy coating on your chicken that scales way back on the fat, but makes the ideal Super Bowl snack. So, let's get started. So, we're going to start with a blue cheese sauce, and that's where a lot of the fat can be hidden when you order out in a restaurant, or in traditional takeout versions of this dish. I have a half a cup of blue cheese here, and here's where I skim back on the fat. I use non-fat, plain Greek yogurt. Next, I have just a little bit of skim milk, just so that it blends up nicely, about a fourth cup. And last, I've got some Worcestershire sauce, and this is where you get the tang from. It adds a little bit of salt as well. This dressing's so easy, there's only four ingredients, and you blend that up. So, now we'll start with our chicken. Now, I use tenders instead of wings, because the skin on a chicken wing is the bad part, or the unhealthy part. So, you can buy these already cut up, or use a boneless, skinless breast, and slice them up yourself. So, to make the coating, I like to use sheets of wax paper, so I have less cleanup. And, I start with some cornflakes. Everyone loves the way cornflakes taste on top of chicken, and they add to the crunch and texture of the coating. Now, this is a secret ingredient that I use all the time, that I love. These are flax seeds. They're extremely rich in omega three fatty acids. Now, they come in two different varieties. They come in golden, or in brown. But, you have to make sure that they're ground up. Otherwise, you don't get the nutrients. So, I'm going to add a little bit of golden, because I'm using cornflakes here, and I like it just to blend in. And next, I'm going to set out a little bit of flour. And, this'll add another layer to the chicken when we bread it. And then, I use eggs. I'm just going to use whole eggs, because there's not much fat in this recipe, so we can save the yolks, and that's going to add richness in flavor as well. And, we're ready to bread our chicken. So, first you'll want to dip it in the flour, and you could put it right in the yolk, and then into our flax mixture with the cornflakes. So, I already have a plate of these done up at the stove, and we'll go over, and I'll show you how to cook them off. So, to cook the chicken, we're going to start the skillet over medium heat instead of high, because we don't want to burn that breadcrumb coating. But, we do want to crisp it. So, I'll put a little bit of olive oil, and add our chicken. And, after we brown these on both sides for about three minutes, we're going to slide the whole thing into the oven. Now, while that's browning up, I'm going to show you how to make the spicy buffalo sauce. One of my favorite things that's always in my fridge, Tabasco sauce. And, you really use any brand of hot sauce you like. Next, I add some beef broth, and I always use the low sodium type, because the hot sauce already has salt in it. So, next we're going to add some low sodium tomato paste. Now, we'll give our chicken a turn. And, next to our sauce, I'm going to add some hot cayenne chili, because I like my buffalo sauce to be red hot. So, now I'm going to add a little butter to the sauce to add a lot of richness. And, we're going to let this sauce cook down for about 10 minutes, until it thickens up. Now, our chicken is ready to slide into the oven, and I've already preheated my oven to 400 degrees. Now, I have already set up a platter here for my vegetables, and two dishes that will hold our sauces - our atomic hot sauce, and our blue cheese dressing. And, I've also added red bell pepper here, because it's so rich in Vitamin C. So, along with the carrots, we're getting quite a bit of nutrients on this platter. So, let's check out our chicken, I know it's done. And, look at that coating, crispy, golden brown. We're just going to sprinkle a little bit of salt, and we're ready to transfer this to our platter. So, there you have it, a Super Bowl worthy snack, that healthy eaters can cheer for, too. I'm Jennifer Iserloh, the Skinny Chef, and I'll see you next time on "Food Courting."
