Lean and spicy, buffalo chicken burgers made with lean ground chicken, hot wing sauce, blue cheese and red onion is the perfect answer to buffalo wings: without the grease and mess!
From the moment I started telling people that Brad and I planned to move in together, I heard some variation of: “wow, what a big step” or “wow, that’s a big change!” It’s been about a month and a half and so far, the biggest change is that the amount of sports and sports media I consume has at least tripled, and the number of Grey’s Anatomy reruns I watch on a weekly basis has quickly plummeted to zero. A lifelong Chicago Cubs fan and a die-hard Buckeye, my boyfriend takes his sports very seriously.
As for me, I’ve never been much of a sports fan. When I was around 10 years old, I discovered that if I feigned an interest, my dad would let me stay up later with him to watch the Yankees, so I learned a good deal about baseball during my early adolescent years. As a result, I’m far more active a participant in watching Chicago Cubs games than I am during Ohio State football. Football is synonymous with fall and I really want to like football because I like pumpkin spice lattes, apple picking and sleeping with the windows open.
I don’t know if that logic is reasonable but I’m hoping a few of you will understand.
Luckily, where I make up for my lack of understanding about touchdowns, pass routes and rush yards, I compensate in my game day snack delivery. And right now, between playoff baseball (go, Cubs, go!) and college football on Saturdays, there are a lot of game days.
Buffalo wings have somehow become known as The Official Game Day Food for American Men, but there are a lot of cool ways to use buffalo-style sauce in recipes that don’t involve, you know, wings. It’s not that I’m anti-wing, but I think of wings as one of those things that are just better when someone else makes them for you, alongside sandwiches and salad which fall into the same category. Well, that and the fact that if I’m going to go full-fledged fat kid on a chicken product, it’s going to be chicken tenders and not chicken wings, but I digress.
Buffalo chicken burgers are a lighter option than butter drenched wings, but still perfectly festive for game day. If you miss the idea of dipping wings in blue cheese dressing, top your burger with fresh blue cheese and crunchy red onions to get those same flavors you love.
- 1¼ pound ground white-meat chicken
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup blue cheese, plus more for garnish (optional)
- ¼ buffalo-style hot sauce
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Vegetable oil cooking spray
- 4 large whole grain rolls, split
- Green leaf lettuce (optional)
- Sliced red onion (optional)
- Preheat grill or grill pan. In a large bowl, combine ground chicken, egg, breadcrumbs, blue cheese, hot sauce, salt and pepper. Mix until just combined. Depending on the thickness of your buffalo sauce, you may need to add some additional breadcrumbs to thicken the mixture. Form into patties.
- Spray grill or grill plan with vegetable oil cooking spray. Cook patties until brown on both sides and cooked through, about 8-10 minutes. In the last 2 minutes, place a little blue cheese on each burger. Place burgers on whole wheat buns and top with some lettuce and red onions, if desired.
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