Thursday, November 5, 2009

Buffalo Chicken Jalapeno Poppers

I usually record the Rachel Ray show every day during the week. One day, she mentioned these buffalo chicken jalapeno poppers and she really got my attention! My husband and I both love spicy foods and we LOVE the flavor of buffalo sauce on anything. Not to mention, we always have rotisserie chicken on hand for my little guy and my mom keeps giving me jalapeno peppers from her garden. I knew I was going to be making these immediately.

I started thinking about Rachel's ingredients and decided that I could really lighten up this recipe. I cut out some of Rachel's ingredients and made these with about four ingredients: jalapeno, chicken, Monterey jack cheese and a little buffalo sauce.

Buffalo Chicken Jalapeno Poppers - adapted from the Rachel Ray website, found here.
  • 16-20 jalapeño peppers
  • 1/3 cup hot sauce, such as Frank’s Red Hot brand
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 cups rotisserie chicken, skin and bones removed, shredded
  • 1 rib celery, finely chopped
  • 1/3 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
  • 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles, divided
Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 425ºF.

Working lengthwise, slice off the top quarter of each jalapeño. Using a small spoon or paring knife, scrape the seeds and ribs out of each jalapeño.

Place a small saucepot over low heat. Add the hot sauce and whisk in the butter until melted. In a medium size bowl, combine the pulled chicken, celery, Monterey Jack cheese and half of the blue cheese.

Scoop some of the chicken mixture into each of the peppers, filling them all up. Lightly mound the chicken into each pepper. Place the peppers in a baking dish and top with the remaining blue cheese.

Bake the peppers until tender and heated through, about 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Notes/Results: I had homegrown jalapeno peppers and they were much smaller (and hotter) than what was available in stores. Since they were so small, I had to scale down the filling. You pretty much have to eyeball the amount of filling you will need. I sliced the top half of the pepper off so I could create a cavity for the filling. I saved the top halves of the peppers, diced them up and added them back to the filling. I adapted this recipe to use less ingredients and tossed my shredded chicken with some bottled buffalo sauce. I used a light hand with the sauce, mainly because buffalo sauce is comprised of hot sauce and butter. I wanted these to be light appetizers that I could eat and not feel guilty about. I topped them with some monterey jack cheese, and didn't really have to use too much cheese. I baked them in the oven at 425 for about 15 minutes. They were really hot and spicy little bites, but they were delicious! I ate them until my mouth was on fire :D

On a personal note, my little guy will be turning three years old in about a week. Lately he has gotten himself into quite a bit of trouble just by being a "little boy". Last night, he clobbered me in the face with a toy and naturally I got mad. A couple of minutes later he told me "mommy, you're eyebrows are not angry anymore". After that he asked me if my eyebrows were happy. I thought it was so funny and cute that I had to share. It's funny to me that he notices all the expressions people make and how their eyebrows show their emotions. If only he could stay this cute and little forever!!

15 comments:

  1. These look absolutely wonderful. I so want one.
    Happy birthday to your little guy :D

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  2. This has dear old Rach written on it. Lovely looking and yes buffalo sauce is the thing to go for :)

    happy BD to the the little one!

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  3. Three? Already? Geez, where did the time go?

    Oh another note, I want one of those poppers so bad - I can almost taste them. We love love love spicy food too!

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  4. My DSO would soooooo love these poppers. I eat more spicy food than I used to, but poppers are too hot for me. They sure look good, though. I miss being surrounded by little ones--was an elementary principal for ther 17 years before I retired and I loved the stuff the little ones would come out with. They notice EVERYTHING! Keep those eyebrows happy, mom.

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  5. Those peppers look great! They give me happy eyebrows!

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  6. Perfect nibbles for game day - delish!

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  7. I am a Rachael fan as well, but I definite use her recipes more as jumping off points. I am constantly lightening them up. She is sometimes just a little too liberal with the cheese and olive oil.

    These poppers look delicious! Little bites of appetizer heaven. And your son sounds so adorable. The terrible twos are almost over!!

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  8. Happy birthday to your little boy!

    I love the eyebrow story. Kids are so cute at that age!

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  9. aw, your little boy is so cute! i have one just a little younger, and he's always getting in trouble for his two year old antics. it's cute though, i really do think i'll miss this age.

    the poppers look FANTASTIC! i've never made anything like this, i love it!

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  10. I should start recording Rachael--I always miss it! :-( I looove spicy foods except for the fact that my nose starts running uncontrollably. Eek!

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  11. I love how you lightened these up and love the angry/happy eyebrows story too. How cute!

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  12. Oh my goodness, my husband would go nuts for these! The only things he'd like more is if you wrapped the whole thing in bacon and deep fried it :)

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  13. Those look awesome! We love anything buffalo chicken at our house. Those are a "must try"!

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  14. I saw that Rachel Ray show too and the next day I had to try it. I liked it. I also change a few things if I remember. Didnt use the blue cheese, think I had feta and threw that in and I think I added some cream cheese. YUMMO as Rachel would say LOL

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  15. I could not refrain from commenting. Perfectly written!


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