Who doesn’t like Buffalo Chicken Wings with blue cheese dipping sauce? You over there, Ma’am? Yes, I know they are last minute cooking, either too hot or too bland, and yeah you have a point about how they’re messy to eat.
Friends, let me introduce my first fave new recipe of 2012—Buffalo Chicken Balls and Blue Cheese Dressing, from The Meatball Shop Cookbook by Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow. (Amazon is processing my order as I type— I mean a whole cookbook of meatball recipes! Nirvana.)
I tested the recipe last night with my captive diners— my father, and my sisters Meg and Julia—because I wanted to be sure that the Superbowl Buffalo Chicken Balls wouldn’t be so incendiary as to require sucking chipped ice through the third quarter. Neither did I want bland balls of blah.
Oh man, this recipe is a keeper—fiery, but just below the pain threshold. The texture is terrific; firm but not rubbery, and more importantly, not dry. I feared the possibility of dryness because we’re working with ground poultry here. It can be about as succulent as month-old granola.
The sauce is the best of its kind I have ever made and will be enjoyed as a dip to accompany your veggie platter, as well as a sauce for the meatballs, and that classic garnish for Buffalo Wings, the celery stick.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter
1/3 cup of your favorite hot sauce
1 pound ground chicken, preferably thigh meat
1 large egg
½ celery stalk, minced
¾ cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
For the Sauce
¾ cup sour cream
1/3 cup crumbled Blue Cheese
1/3 cup whole milk
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon salt or more to taste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Drizzle the vegetable oil into a 9×13-inch-baking dish, and use your hand to coat the entire surface evenly. Set aside.
Combine the butter and hot sauce in a small saucepan, and cook over low heat, whisking until the butter is melted and fully incorporated.
Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to cool for 10 minutes.
Combine the hot sauce mixture, ground chicken, egg, celery, bread crumbs, and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix by hand until thoroughly incorporated.
Roll the mixture into round, ¾ -inch balls, making sure to pack the meat firmly.
Place the balls in the prepared baking dish, being careful to line them up snugly and in even rows vertically and horizontally to form a grid. The meatballs should be touching one another.
Roast for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the meatballs are firm and cooked through. A meat thermometer inserted into the center of a meatball should read 165°F.
Allow the meatballs to cool for five minutes in the baking dish before serving.
For the Blue Cheese Dressing
Place the sour cream, blue cheese, milk, mayonnaise, salt, and vinegar in a medium bowl and whisk thoroughly until combined—I like a few chunks of cheese in my sauce.
Enjoy!
