CEiMB: Buffalo Chicken Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

I was really, really excited when I saw what the pick for this week was. I love Buffalo Chicken. I love it but I think I've had it one time. I think that I really like the idea of Buffalo chicken; you know, the chicken plus the super spicy sauce. But here's the thing: I am not a prissy girl. I'm not afraid to sweat and I'm not scared of getting dirty (in its proper time and place, like the Muddy Buddy) and there are many other ways that I'm not prissy. But, there are two aspects of my personality that make me a total priss: 1) I hate, hate, hate bugs and 2) I hate to eat things off of the bone. I mean, does #1 even really count? Doesn't everyone hate bugs? And #2, yup, I don't like ribs, I really prefer to eat my fried chicken with a fork and knife, and I don't like chicken wings. So, that pretty much explains why I like the idea of the Buffalo chicken wings but I don't eat them (and yes, I know that you can get boneless wings, that explains the time that I had them). So when I saw this recipe I was really excited because I'd get to have some spicy chicken goodness without the bone issue.

I love blue cheese. In fact, I have yet to meet a cheese I didn't like (much to the everlasting detriment of my hips). I didn't have buttermilk so I tried the trick of using some lemon juice in milk and it worked! Really well, actually. I also didn't have white wine vinegar so I subbed red wine vinegar, they're not that different after all. The other change that I made was to add a pinch of cayenne pepper to boost the heat factor of the dressing.

The chicken is where I really strayed from the recipe. Ellie wants you to bang on the chicken breasts to flatten them, cut them into strips, toss the raw strips with Tabasco sauce and oilve oil, and then cook the strips. I've mentioned before that when I get home from class at night I'm usually well on my way to what my friend calls "hangry." So, I like to have things ready to go as much as possible and I didn't want to have to get home and start pounding and cutting up raw chicken. Does anyone really like touching raw chicken? I also don't really love Tabasco sauce which just appalls my parents and anyone else aware of my Louisiana birthright. By the way, Dudley loves it and he puts it on everything but dessert. Seriously. Anyway, that's my long explanation for why I chose to marinate my chicken breasts in the Tabasco and olive oil while I was at class and then I just grilled them whole when I got home.

Verdict: Supremely delicious. I loved the whole thing. Loved the chicken, loved the dressing, loved it! And, unfortunately there aren't any leftovers or I'd be enjoying it in a whole wheat tortilla wrap for lunch (which is what I was planning on doing). I will definitely make this again! Head over to You Eat Now for the recipe!

Oh, it's cherry blossom time in Washington. My mom and dad were in town last weekend because my dad had a conference and I happily spent the weekend down on the Mall and around the Tidal Basin doing all of the fun Washington D.C. things that I am always complaining about not doing. I've been here for cherry blossoms before but I had so much fun last weekend. They're peaking right now so I'm trying to work out a time to get back to the Tidal Basin in the next few days. However, in the meantime, I thought that this might make a few people smile.