Cooking Light - Blue Cheese-Stuffed Chicken with Buffalo Sauce

The good, the bad and the ugly!

Blue Cheese Stuffed Chicken with Buffalo Sauce - Cooking Light, March 2010 - page 117

This recipe is found in the section of "Oops! The 25 Most Common Cooking Mistakes" - and this was Mistake #12, "You Turn the Food Too Often" -- "Resist the urge to turn the chicken before it's time; otherwise you risk having the breading stick to the pan."

I should add -- or risk burning and not browning enough. And for good measure, repeat sticking to the pan, too.

In my case, two chicken breasts started to burn, and the others didn't even brown all the way or just barely. What a mess! And then I thought the oven baking would help finish browning and make it look pretty. It did not.

The chicken tasted rubbery and was tough. Unusual because we usually have good results with Costco's chicken breasts. I probably overcooked it because it just looked raw and awful.

It was my first time using Panko crumbs and bottled roasted red peppers. I must admit that Cooking Light does stretch my culinary muscles and increase my pantry with new items to try.

But on the positive side, we loved the sauce and will make that part of the recipe again --with a tried and true breaded chicken tenders recipe. And turn that leftover blue cheese into a dipping sauce instead.

Here's the Buffalo Sauce recipe -

1 1/2 teaspoons butter

6 tablespoons finely chopped drained bottled roasted red bell peppers --I chopped them in the food processor
2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce -- just a drop made it hot enough for us!

Combine 1 1/2 teaspoons butter, bell peppers, water, Worcestershire, and garlic in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer; cook until butter melts. Remove from heat, and stir in hot sauce.