Buffalo Blankets

I really love Super Bowl food – lots of spicy snacks perfect for a crowd of football fans. Two of my favorites are Buffalo Wings and Pigs in Blankets. I could easily gobble up entire bowls of wings or pigs in blankets with absolutely no remorse! Great comfort food whether or not your team is winning.

Pigs in Blankets are small sausages wrapped in pastry then baked, served with a mustard dipping sauce. I often make them using Pillsbury Crescent Dough. It only takes a couple of minutes to wrap small sausages in the dough and then bake them for 10 minutes. They are a quick and easy appetizer when unexpected guests arrive.

Buffalo Wings are thought to have originated in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York: chicken wings that have been deep fried then coated with a spicy vinegar-cayenne pepper sauce and served with celery sticks and blue cheese or ranch dressing. The culinary term “buffalo” is now used to describe any dish made with a similar sauce, such as buffalo shrimp or even buffalo pizza.

The problem I have with serving buffalo wings is that they create quite a mess. Fingers get coated with the sauce requiring lots of napkins and then there’s a big pile of chicken bones to deal with.

This year my solution was to take the best parts from each appetizer and make something new: Buffalo Blankets! I tossed shredded rotisserie chicken in buffalo sauce, added a small piece of celery, wrapped them in small blankets of Pillsbury dough, and baked them until the dough was nicely toasted. Served hot from the oven with blue cheese dressing for dipping – it was the perfect marriage of two of my favorite Super Bowl foods! Finger food – spicy flavor – easy to make - and little cleanup required.

Sadly, but not unexpectedly, our favorite football team isn’t playing in this year’s Super Bowl. As a matter of fact, our team hasn’t won a Super Bowl since 1969. But we can still put on our green-and-white team jerseys one more time and watch the final game of the season, reminiscing about the past while enjoying some delicious buffalo blankets.

BUFFALO BLANKETS

Ingredients

2 cups shredded baked rotisserie chicken
1 cup buffalo wing sauce (My favorite is M. Moore’s Original Buffalo Sauce)
4 celery stalks
1 package Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
Flour
Olive oil spray
Blue Cheese Dressing (My favorite is Kraft Roka Blue Cheese Dressing)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with non-stick foil.

In a small bowl, toss the chicken with the buffalo wing sauce. Stir to make sure that the sauce is even distributed.

Slice each celery stalk in half crosswise, then cut each half into four lengths. Each celery stalk will make a total of 8 thin pieces, each about 2 ½ inches long. You’ll need 32 pieces of celery for the recipe.

Open the package of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and divide it in two. Set one half aside. On a lightly floured surface, place one half of the dough and sprinkle with a little additional flour. Use a rolling pin to gently stretch the dough and seal all the seams, forming a single large square.

Use a paring knife to cut the dough into 16 square pieces (four rows/four columns).

Pick up a piece of dough and place about 1 tablespoon of chicken and a piece of celery near one corner. Roll up the dough diagonally to wrap the chicken and celery in a “blanket.” Place the roll-up on the baking sheet being careful to leave a little room for the dough to expand as it bakes. Continue filling and rolling all 16 pieces of dough.

Lightly spray the roll-ups with a little olive oil spray to help the dough brown evenly while baking. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes until lightly browned. Use a spatula to place the warm buffalo blankets on a serving platter.

While the first batch is baking, continue making the rollups with the other half of the dough, repeating the process as before.

Serve the buffalo blankets immediately with a bowl of blue cheese dressing for dipping.