This recipe comes from Masterchef NZ winner Chelsea Winter's cookbook At My Table. Chelsea says "Behold, my ultimate signature dish! Before this book, only two people had the recipe, but I want to share it with you because it's too good to be kept under wraps. I'm not even going to be modest: I think one of my crunchy chicken nibbles dunked in creamy blue cheese sauce is as close to taste perfection as you can get - and my friends and family agree!"
Buffalo chicken originates from Buffalo, New York and in this recipe, chicken pieces are deep-fried and served with a hot sauce.
Aioli
| 1 | Free-range egg |
| 1 | Garlic clove, roughly chopped (Main) |
| 2 tsp | Lemon juice |
| 1 cup | Rice bran oil, or canola oil |
| 100 g | Blue cheese, roughly chopped (Main) |
| 2 Tbsp | Parsley, leaves, finely chopped |
Hot Sauce
| 100 g | Butter |
| 60 ml | Tabasco sauce (Main) |
| 1 tsp | Smoked paprika |
| 1 tsp | Sugar |
| 1 tsp | Salt |
Nibbles
| ¾ cup | Plain flour |
| 2 tsp | Salt |
| 2 kgs | Chicken nibbles (Main) |
| 1 to fry | Rice bran oil, or canola |
| 1 to serve | Carrot, cut into sticks |
| 1 to serve | Celery stalk, cut into sticks |
Directions
- To make the aioli, place the egg, garlic and lemon juice in a small food processor and blend until well mixed. With the motor running, slowly add the oil in a thin stream. The mixture will thicken. Add the blue cheese and parsley, and process until well combined. Taste and season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Set aside.
- To make the sauce, slowly melt the butter in a small saucepan without stirring. Gently pour the yellow liquid into a bowl, leaving the white milk solids behind. Discard the milk solids. Add the whole bottle of Tabasco, paprika, sugar and salt, and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 50C.
- Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, then toss the nibbles in the mixture to coat. You may need more flour and salt, depending on how many nibbles you have. Set aside while you heat the oil.
- Fill a saucepan with enough oil to half submerge the nibbles and heat to medium-high. Cook the chicken in batches for around 4-5 minutes on each side until golden brown and cooked through. Drain on paper towels, sprinkle with salt and place in the oven to keep warm while you cook the remaining nibbles.
- You can either coat the chicken in the hot sauce, or serve it on the side as a dip along with the blue cheese aioli. Add some carrot and celery sticks to the plate to serve.
Recipe is taken from
At My Table
by Chelsea Winter (published by Random House), photography by Kieran Scott.For morerecipesfrom Chelsea, see her
.