Baked Buffalo Parmigiana!

My few loyal readers know that I am obsessed with two deeply american cooking traditions: barbecue (i.e. cooking with smoke) and making things buffalo-style. Since I don't have a smoker in my tiny apartment, I decided to create a serious buffalo chicken dinner.

I admit that a lot of thought went into this. I recently perfected baked, breaded chicken parm, made with doctored breadcrumbs. For the buffalo meal, I decided to go with panko breadcrumbs, which would absorb the sauce better. And the chicken breasts would get a topping of blue cheese before saucing (hence the parmigiana moniker). To improve upon my buffalo sauce recipe from college, I decided to start with a base of sauteed jalapenos. And what the hell, I'd microwave some green beans and make milky mashed potatoes while I was at it.

Here's what I done did:







My place has smelled like buffalo sauce for two days, and I'm about to eat the leftovers.

Bad Buffalo at White Castle

Last week, I had the pleasure of lunching at White Castle in suburban Indianapolis with a colleague. The bacon cheeseburgers and fries were as good as they've ever been.

But the chain's Buffalo Chicken Bites (press release here) were just awful. Tragically, the sauce had just enough kick, but it coated an arid, supposedly fried, supposedly chicken, sawdust-like product. I couldn't have more than a few. And, sadly, they came with Ranch dressing, the fast food chain's answer to blue cheese's perishability problem.

Nice to see buffalo items in the chains, but we could do better.

Spike's

The RI-based hotdog chain serves up an AWESOME Buffalo chicken sandwich of two tenders on a bun. They must make their own sauce with butter and hotsauce. Tangy and home-made tasting.