Cooking all over the World: Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Posted: 18 Aug 2011 05:59 PM PDT

After the success of turning jalapeño poppers into grilled cheese sandwiches (aka the jalapeño popper grilled cheese sandwich) I was wondering what other dishes I could turn into grilled cheese sandwiches. The basic idea is to take all of the flavours of a food that I am already totally into and use them in a grilled cheese sandwich. It did not take me too long to think of something perfect and it is interesting that it is also classic bar food, buffalo chicken wings, which are also one of my favourites. Buffalo chicken wings are chicken wings that are tossed in a spicy hot sauce and they are commonly served with a side of carrot and celery sticks with a blue cheese dip.

I knew exactly where I was going to start with the buffalo chicken grilled cheese sandwich and that was with a quick buffalo chicken salad. I made the buffalo chicken salad by mixing shredded chicken with some mayo, carrots, celery, red onion and and a healthy dose of hot sauce. From there I built in the grilled cheese aspects with sour dough bread, some cheddar cheese which melts nicely and a touch of blue cheese to get the dips flavours into the sandwich. I was also thinking that I could use some blue cheese dip in place of the mayo and the blue cheese but I wanted some nice chunks of blue cheese in the sandwich so that they would melt and get all nice and creamy and good. All that remained was to grill the sandwich up until the outside was golden brown and the cheese had melted. (Tip: One trick to help make sure that cheese melts nicely in a grilled cheese is to bring it up to room temperature before you grill the sandwich.)

I have to say that the buffalo chicken grilled cheese sandwich exceeded all of my expectations and I promptly devoured it! You really cannot go wrong with a spicy filling encased in melted, ooey, gooey cheese all wrapped up in a buttery lightly toasted bread! I particularly liked the way the buffalo chicken flavours came through and they were definitely made even better by being in a grilled cheese sandwich. I served the buffalo chicken grilled cheese sandwich with a side of carrot and celery sticks with some blue cheese dip.

Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwich

All of the flavours of buffalo chicken wings rolled up into a golden brown grilled cheese sandwich.

Servings: makes 1 sandwich

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1/4 cup cooked shredded chicken, warm
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1/2 tablespoon mayo (optional)
1 tablespoon carrot, grated
1 tablespoon celery, sliced
1 tablespoon green or red onion, sliced or diced
1 tablespoon blue cheese, room temperature, crumbled
1/4 cup cheddar cheese, room temperature, grated
1 tablespoon butter.

Directions

Mix the chicken, hot sauce, mayo, carrot, celery and onion in a small bowl.
Assemble sandwich and grill until golden brown and the cheese has melted, about 2-3 minutes per side.