Wingin’ It: Buffalo Chowder dethrones New England variation - Buffalo Rumblings

You like football. You like food. So do we! So much so, in fact, that we smash the two together to bring you a Buffalo Bills-inspired recipe each week. Whether it's a take on an opponents' fave or some real mad scientist **** coming your way, Wingin' It is the spot to watch. This week we're prepping for the New England Patriots!

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The idea came from Twitter via EZEricZ@EZericz so first our shout out. Just as important though is causing a stir about pronunciation. Perhaps you prefer the Quimby-esque "CHOWDAH!" or the more refined "shaudere." However you say it though, this Buffalo chicken chowder will keep you warm as the weather turns chilly and makes for a pretty easy recipe to relax a bit after the holiday chaos.

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Buffalo Chicken Chowder

Serves: 4-6

Active Time: 25 min
Total Time: 90 min

Ingredients

For the chowder
1 lb cooked bacon, crumbled
1 lb cooked chicken, shredded or chopped
3 Tbsp unsalted butter (optional, see below)
3 celery ribs, sliced
¹⁄₂ large onion, finely chopped
1 qt chicken broth, low sodium
2 large potatoes, washed and cubed
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp black pepper
4 bay leaves
2 cups heavy cream
4 Tbsp flour
Salt to taste

For the sauce
¹⁄₂ cup hot sauce
¹⁄₂ tsp garlic powder
¹⁄₂ tsp mustard powder
1 tsp ground red pepper
¹⁄₂ tsp parsley
2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1. Melt butter on MED/HIGH in a large sauté pan (see below for bacon grease option).
2. Add chopped onion and celery to pan; sauté until onions start to turn translucent, about 3-5 min. Remove from heat.
3. Pour chicken broth into a large pot and bring to boil on HIGH.
4. Add potatoes and celery/onion mixture to broth and stir. Add onion powder, thyme, and bay leaves to pot.
5. Blend (or whisk) heavy cream and flour together until smooth and set aside.
6. Continue boiling broth/potatoes until potatoes are tender but still whole, about 15 min total.
7. Stir in heavy cream/flour mixture. Stir in chicken and half of the bacon (the rest is to put on top once it's done).
8. Simmer chowder until thickened to desired consistency, about 30 min. Taste and add salt as needed (see below) and remove bay leaves when ready to serve. While simmering, prep sauce.
9. Combine hot sauce, garlic powder, mustard powder, parsley, and red pepper powder in a small sauce pan on LOW, stirring occasionally, about 5 min.
10. Add butter and stir in, remove from heat when butter is nearly fully melted. Stir in or drizzle finished sauce on top of chowder.

Wingin' It Tips and Prep Gallery

Two pretty simple prep pictures this week. I cut my celery as pictured. By cutting this thin, the celery adds flavor but isn't noticeable as whole pieces in the final product. If you want celery chunks cut it thicker. With the chicken you can see the approximate size but also that I gave it a bit of char.

And if you're really looking, you can see that it's not butter I'm cooking the chicken in. It's cheater week so let's discuss the cheat. There were two actually. First, I'm cheating by asking you to have the chicken and bacon already cooked. Second and more importantly, kudos to my wife who did the bacon for me and timed it perfectly for me getting out of work and transitioning to dinner time.

That's important to note because, if you're like me, you're not usually in the business of having crispy bacon and fully cooked chicken on hand. You'll be doing it for the recipe. Having that done saved me a lot of time and effort so here's a second shout out to my better half. With the bacon done, and the grease left in the pan, that allowed me to jump right into vegetable prep (she did the potatoes too, and is the official taste tester of Wingin' It). Instead of butter, I sautéed the celery/onion in bacon fat. I transferred the veggies to the pot, still leaving the grease in. Then I cooked the chicken in the bacon grease while I was waiting for the potatoes to soften.