Sunday, February 05, 2006

Super Bowl Food

aka-Gut Rot

We're watching the game now. Yep, that's right, we're watching the game. Partly for the commercials, partly for the sport, partly to see who was going to out diva who during the Star Spangled Banner, Aretha Franklin or Aaron Neville. I think, gratefully, it was Aretha.

Anyway, there, needs to be game food. 1) Nachos-YUM, 2) Buffalo Bites by Rachel Ray-not really...see below for the recipe as I had gotten it online a while back, then my notes below that.


Buffalo Popcorn Chicken Bites
Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

Vegetable oil, for frying
2 1/2 cups complete pancake mix, any brand, divided
1 1/4 cups water
8 teaspoons hot sauce, divided (recommended: Tabasco)
1 1/4 pounds chicken tenders or chicken breast cut into small bite-sized pieces
1 cup store bought, good quality refrigerated blue cheese dressing (recommended: Marie's brand)
2 scallions, finely chopped
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper, 1/3 palm full
Cut celery sticks, store bought

In a deep sided skillet heat 1 1/2 inches of vegetable oil over medium heat. If you wish to test the oil, add a 1-inch cube of bread to hot oil. If it turns deep golden brown in color in a count of 40, the oil is ready.

While the oil is heating make the batter. In a wide mixing bowl combine 2 cups of the pancake mix, 1 1/4 cups water and about 6 teaspoons hot sauce. (Use a regular teaspoon you would stir coffee with – that's what I did. I don't, technically, have a set of actual measuring spoons.) Place the remaining plain 1/2 cup pancake mix in another wide mixing bowl. Arrange the batter and the bowl of plain pancake mix near the cook top and the heating oil. Line a plate with a few sheets of paper towels and keep within reach.

Once the oil is heated and ready, toss the chicken pieces in 2 teaspoons of hot sauce then toss in the plain pancake mix, coat evenly and shake off excess. The plain dry pancake mix will help the batter stick to the chicken pieces. Add some of chicken to the batter, you are going to want to work in 3 to 4 batches coating and frying. Using a fork, toss the bites in the batter. Remove the first batch from the batter, shaking off the excess batter as you carefully add them to the hot oil. Fry for 2 minutes on the first side, or until the first side is a deep golden brown, flip and continue to fry for another 2 minutes or until deep golden brown all over. Remove from the oil and drain on the paper towel lined plate, season with salt. Repeat until all the popcorn chicken bites are fried. Serve immediately with refrigerated, good quality creamy blue cheese prepared dressing with chopped scallions and black pepper stirred into it for dipping. Garnish platter with celery sticks.

NOTES:
This was alright. Nothing spectacular. The batter was thick and doughy when fried up. So it was sort of like having some bad sweet & sour chicken pieces from a Chinese restaurant, all batter. Maybe thinning it out with more water...or beer?!!?!?!!!

And MORE Hot Sauce. It needed more. You could taste it, but I'd had a few more shakes of hot sauce.

We don't like bleu cheese, so we did ranch dressing...that was tasty.

We had less than a pound of chicken and we didn't even have half of it...so serving suggestions would be for four or six depending on what else you might have going on.

I bought a small box of Aunt Jemima (sp??) pancake mix. It was pretty much exactly the amount needed...give or take a bit.

The nachos were some chips, cheese, beans on 1/2...tomatoes, peppers, some cumin, fresh ground pepper, sour cream, salsa. Yum!


Also, FYI: Giant had Edy's Ice Cream, buy 1, get 1 free! Doesn't mean we didn't buy 3! And they had a one day only special...with a coupon, and your guest card, free 4 pack diet Dr. Pepper!

6 comments:

Dancer in DC said...

The bites were not awful. I think if you just made them with a simple beer batter or something it would be better, and definitely more hot sauce.

I love to make nachos - it's so easy, and everyone can pile on what they like. ScottE suggested I buy some beans for "my half," and that was nice, as they had a lot of substance.

Salsa is great, but use some fresh chopped tomatoes for some crunchy texture!

Anonymous said...

That looks like a lot of food. I should try that next time we have a game on TV

Stef said...

looks fun!

I do have a question related to my SuperBowl food (which I wrote about on onthewwwagon). How do you keep pasta from getting mushy in a soup? Particularly in a crock-pot soup? I can eat the pasta-mush, but I'd never want to share it with other people like that.

ScottE. said...

STEF: Saw that and was going to leave a comment.

I think you need to do an egg noodle. But I'm not really sure. Make sure the pasta is small in the first place, so that if it will get soggy it's not totally noticable?? Like alphabets or orzo? You could also do rice?

Of the soups I make, I don't add pasta...thinking, thinking...thinking...make it seperately...and add as you eat it???? an extra step, but it will keep it al dente!

Stef said...

Thanks. I had thought about an egg noodle, so I could try that next time. I just didn't want to deal with the huge bag of No Yolks noodles when I didn't need that much, and couldn't think of how else I would use the rest anytime soon. And the make separately/pour over thing works with a lot of stews, so I could try that too. My parents make a lot of beef/chicken noodle soups, so I need to figure out how they do it. I used to use Orzo, and it blew up into huge, mushy stuff, too.

Carmina said...

A great addition to my collection. Thanks for sharing. I can't wait to try this especially for my family.