March 4th, 2011

Trent LOVES buffalo chicken wings.  Actually, he loves boneless buffalo chicken wings strips.  I have to admit, I love them too.  Spicy saucy breaded chicken dipped in cold blue cheese dressing, heaven!  I was on the treadmill at the Y last week trying to think about anything but running. I started thinking about meal planning and making something Trent would like (he puts up with alot of Jenny serving what Jenny likes) and my mind went to Buffalo Chicken wings and trying to make a healthy twist on it.  I’ve done various meals doing this, buffalo chicken sandwiches, Rachel Ray’s Buffalo Chicken Chili, buffalo chicken salads, etc.  The buffalo wing sauce you buy at the grocery store is fat free, so as long as you curb the blue cheese and don’t fry the chicken, it’s fairly easy to lighten up. Then it came to me, Buffalo Chicken Blue Cheese Stuffed Meatloaf. 

Whenever you order wings, they come with carrot and celery sticks.  So I sautéed them with onions and garlic.

Half of the meatloaf mixture on the baking sheet, sprinkle blue cheese crumbles and top with the other half of meat.

I put wing sauce in the meat mixture and then mix honey and more wing sauce to glaze the meatloaf.  I can’t look at this picture without thinking about Charlie Sheen’s favorite “drink.”  Gross.

I had no idea if this concoction would work or be disastrous.  It worked.  I did something I never do.  I wrote out the recipe.  Here you go:

Buffalo Chicken Bleu Cheese Stuffed Meatloaf
1 pound ground chicken breast
1 onion, finely chopped
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
3 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely diced
1 teaspoon olive oil
3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 1/4 cup buffalo wing sauce, divided
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup honey
Cooking spray
salt
pepper
Prebake oven at 375 degrees. Preheat skillet on medium high heat, add olive oil, then add the onion, celery, and carrots, cook for 5-8 minutes until translucent.  Add garlic and cook 2 more minutes.  Remove from heat and cool.  In a medium bowl add ground chicken, 3/4 cup of wing sauce, egg, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.  When veggies are slightly cooled, add to bowl and combine without overworking the meat mixture.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and add half of the meat mixture in a loaf shape.  Then add the blue cheese on top of the meat and cover it with other half of the meat.  Make sure to seal all sides of meat to encase the blue cheese inside.  Mix together the other half of wing sauce and honey and brush all over the meatloaf.  Place in preheated oven for 1 hour.  Let cool slightly before slicing.