Grilled Buffalo Chicken Tenders with Blue Cheese Celery Salad

Growing up in upstate New York, I'm a HUGE fan of buffalo chicken wings!  HUGE!!!  However, we all know that they are one of the worst things you could eat...loaded in saturated fat with little meat to be found.  So why not lighten up the recipe and make it into a fantastic summer meal?

Thank you to the CHEW for this idea...Clinton Kelly cooked a version of this but with using chicken pieces and he was saying that one piece of this chicken, (such as a thigh with bone-in and skin on), was the calorie equivalent of 2 single wings!!!  Crazy!  I decided to take it up a notch and make it with boneless, skinless, chicken tenders cutting the fat and calories even more.  This delicious chicken, with all the flavors of my favorite comfort food, is served with a crispy, refreshing version of celery and blue cheese (the traditional buffalo wing accompaniments).  I served mine with some farm-fresh corn on the cob...nothing better than corn on the cob when its in season!  I had to have a bite of the celery salad with eat bite of chicken...my husband too.  And we both put extra hot sauce on our chicken.

Next time, I will baste the chicken with more hot sauce while it cooked and serve it with extra on the side.  Is there ever enough sauce???  Besides, this sauce has no butter added to it...its just straight up hot sauce.  I recommend a bran called Red Fork, Windy City Wings Seasoning Sauce.  Good old Frank's Hot Sauce works too, but this sauce made by Red Fork is all natural and I could identify every single ingredient in it.  I would qualify it more along the lines of clean eating.

Either way, now I'm hungry again.  I can't wait to eat some more of this!

Happy Cooking!
Sarah

Grilled Buffalo Chicken Tenders with Blue Cheese Celery Salad
Sarah's version was inspired by http://abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/grilled-buffalo-chicken-with-crunchy-celery-salad-clinton-kelly

1 lb of chicken tenders
1/2 cup of of your favorite hot sauce for marinading
1/4 cup of the same favorite hot sauce for basting (optional - I did not do this in the pictures provided)
1/4 cup of same hot sauce for dipping

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 english cucumber, thinly sliced
1 celery heart, thinly sliced
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
2 T red wine vinegar
4 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place the chicken tenders into a zip top bag and add the hot sauce.  Allow this to marinade in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to overnight.  (I marinaded mine for about 5 hours).

Before you preheat the grill, compose the blue cheese and celery salad.  In a large bowl, combine the red onion, cucumber, celery , red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Stir to combine.  Add the blue cheese and lightly toss.  Taste for seasoning and add more salt or pepper if necessary.

Now time for the chicken...preheat the grill to medium-high heat.  Cook the chicken tenders for about 5 minutes per side, basting with more hot sauce while it cooks.  Cook it until 165 degrees.  You can always use a meat thermometer.  Serve along side the blue cheese celery salad with some extra hot sauce.  Enjoy!