Loaded Buffalo Chicken Texas Toast

Here in the Cook Lisa Cook home, Eammon and I are huge fans of buffalo-ed foods.  One of our favorite meals is my Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole and we can’t resist Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings, so when I saw a recipe on Mercedes’ The Kitchen Life of a Navy Wife for Buffalo Chicken Texas Toast, well I was on it faster than you can say aye, aye Captain!

I made a few changes to Mercedes’ recipe.  First, I didn’t have wing sauce so I made my own and then I completely mixed her Gorgonzola cheese as we don’t care for stinky or blue veined cheeses.  I also decided to add bacon because…well, I just thought it would make the recipe and for us, and it did.  These Loaded Buffalo Chicken Texas Toasts were wonderful and I will say,quite filling. 

I’m not a huge bread person but I loved the thick, buttery, garlic Texas Toast and it held up well to the creamy ranch dressing and the spicy chicken and sauce.  

I loved that I could make all the components of the dish and have them ready so that when it was time to serve, it only took a minute or two to assemble, heat it up and have a wonderful little meal or a delicious appetizer, and these will be especially easy and good for the guys on game day.

Loaded Buffalo Chicken Texas Toast

• 8 slices Texas Garlic Toast
• 1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1/2 -inch pieces
• 2 TBS. peanut oil or oil of your choice
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt 
• 1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper 
• 1 tsp. garlic powder 
• 2/3 cup hot sauce 
• 5 TBS. butter 
• 3 TBS. ranch dressing 
• 1 cup Fiesta Blend Cheese or shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup crumbled bacon bits 
• 4 green onions, sliced

Bake Texas Toast according to package directions, allowing them to get a bit toasted.  In a microwave safe bowl combine the hot sauce and butter and heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted and incorporated into the sauce.  Set the sauce aside.

In a separate bowl mix together the cheese, bacon bits and green onions and set aside.

Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. Toss chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder and add to the skillet.  Cook quickly until the chicken is just cooked through.  Don’t over cook as you want the chicken to remain moist.  Add 1/2 cup of the buffalo wing sauce and stir to toss and coat the chicken.  Remove garlic bread from oven and switch oven to broil. Brush each slice first with ranch dressing, then with hot sauce mixture.  Next add the chicken and top with the cheese mixture.  Broil toast 2-4 minutes, watching closely and rotating the pan as needed. Once the cheese has melted, remove from the broiler and top with another drizzle of the hot sauce mixture.

Enjoy!

Note:  This recipe is spicy and on my Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole I get a lot of questions from people saying that they don’t do hot foods and what could they substitute for the hot sauce or how to tone down the spiciness.  So to address that question on this recipe, here are some suggestions if you don’t care for spicy foods.  Feel free to use your favorite BBQ sauce in place of the hot sauce.  Another suggestion is to increase the ratio of butter to hot sauce so to cool it a bit, On my casserole recipe people have had good luck using Italian dressing as the seasoning on the chicken and still using the ranch sauce as well.  Still others have mixed a little bit of hot sauce in with a larger amount of ranch dressing just to give a little flavor of Buffalo chicken.  Use this basic recipe and tailor it to you tastes and enjoy.