Buffalo Chicken Wraps and Cottage Fries

My husband and I both love a good buffalo wing, but they are often so greasy and heavy that I rarely ever indulge.  So last night for dinner I set out to create a buffalo inspired meal that was a little more figure friendly.  I knew the first thing I would need to do is eliminate the skin of the chicken.  This would immediately get rid of some of the fat.  But the skin is what allows the sauce to stick to the chicken so I would have to find a way around that.  Then I thought, if I dressed them up in a wrap, I could add some veggies and if I used a whole wheat wrap I could get some of our daily whole grains in too.  It's with these ideas that I hit the kitchen.

Since I pretty much created the recipe as I went, it seems backwards to put the recipe up front, but for organization sake, I'll go ahead and post it here:

Buffalo Chicken Wraps and Cottage Fries
Makes 4 servings
Start to finish: 1 hour

12 oz natural boneless skinless chicken breast
flour for dredging
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp Canola oil
3 leafs organic romaine lettuce, shredded (makes about 1.5 cups)
1 organic carrot, chopped
3 Tbsp Buffalo sauce (I use Ott's wing sauce)
4 whole wheat wraps
Ranch or blue cheese dressing as desired

2 organic russet potatoes
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp canola oil

First, heat a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Drizzle about 2 tsp canola oil around the pan.  While the pan heats up, take your boneless skinless chicken breast and cut it into strips.  I recommend cutting diagonally so the strips are not too long.

Next, salt and pepper the strips and dredge them in flour until lightly coated.

Cooking them with a flour coating now will help the buffalo sauce stick later.

Cook the chicken strips until they are just barely cooked through and browned on both sides.

While your chicken is browning, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Slice up a couple potatoes into 1/8 inch slices.  The best way I know to do this is with my mandolin.

Season liberally with salt and pepper.

Lightly drizzle olive oil over the potato slices, using a basting brush to coat them on both sides.  I said in the recipe 1 tablespoon but it could easily be less.  Just eye it.  You don't want to overdo it or your cottage fries will be greasy.

I sprayed the aluminum foil with cooking spray, hoping the potatoes wouldn't stick, but I quickly found this effort to be futile and half way through I discarded the foil and lightly oiled the baking pan and placed the potatoes on that.  They didn't stick and the other side browned better too.  Lesson learned.

By this time your chicken should be ready.  Pull them off the heat and let them rest.  Put the potatoes in the oven for 12-15 minutes.  While your potatoes are cooking, go ahead and prep your toppings.  Julienne the lettuce and chop the carrot.

Set these aside for later.

At this point go ahead and put your chicken in a medium sized bowl with 3 Tbsp wing sauce.  

Toss the bowl around to coat the chicken.  Side note: did you know that wing sauce on its own is not bad for you?  Only 20 calories per tablespoon!  That's on par with ketchup!  Knowing this now, I may start dipping everything in buffalo sauce.  But that's another blog post altogether...

When your timer for the potatoes go off, flip the potatoes over so they brown evenly.  Put your chicken on a baking sheet and put them on the rack with the potatoes.  Set the timer for another 10 minutes.  Putting the chicken in the oven will let the sauce bake onto the chicken, creating that classic buffalo coating.  When you take the chicken out, the sauce should be baked on, but not completely dried on.  

There should be some saucy goodness left on the bowl you tossed the chicken in.  Give them another shake in the bowl for good measure.

Build your wrap first layering on the chicken, lettuce, carrots, then dressing.  

A word on wraps: I usually buy whole wheat tortillas because it's the right thing to do, but as a rule, I've always preferred the taste and texture of white tortillas.  Wheat tortillas tend to get really brittle in the refrigerator and they usually have a weird taste.  Until I found these:

These tortillas are in the health food section.  They cost a little more than regular tortillas but they are well worth it.  Made with whole wheat, full of fiber, and only 50 calories! (100 if you get the big ones) They also stay soft after being stored in the refrigerator.  Winner.

The veggies are there to add crunch so do not skip the carrots and if you substitute romaine, make sure you use a crunchy lettuce.

I served the wrap and cottage fries with a simple salad.

These wraps were a hit at my house- all that spicy, buffalo deliciousness and half the guilt!  Looking back I think I would have skipped the dressing on the wrap altogether.  I thought it masked the buffalo taste and I like my buffalo wraps to be HOT so for me, next time I will skip that piece.  I may or may not have also dipped my wrap in more buffalo sauce...... what?!  Don't judge.