If you love buffalo chicken, you’ll go crazy for these Buffalo Popcorn Chicken Bites! Bite sized and fun to eat, these are great as an appetizer or a main dish.
Oftentimes, a certain ingredient is what pulls me into a recipe. Especially if that ingredient is one I have sitting in my pantry, and I need a way to use it up. That is what happened here – why I chose this recipe for these Buffalo Chicken Bites. Pancake Mix. Yep, you read that correctly – I made these just because of the pancake mix.
Let me just start off by saying I don’t necessarily have a problem with pancake mix. But growing up, my mom always made pancakes from scratch, and that is what I’m used to. And seriously, pancakes take so few ingredients, and ingredients that I pretty much always have on hand, so why not make them from scratch? Well, if you remember a little while back to those sausage bites I made. The original recipe called for “baking mix” but all I could find was pancake mix. So after I made the sausages, I still had half a box of pancake mix in my cupboard, staring at me every time I opened it up. I saw this recipe, and couldn’t pass it up!
I’m one of those people that think that you really can’t mess something up if it is fried. That is the case here. Delicious little fried bites of chicken. But honestly – I couldn’t taste the “buffalo” part that was supposed to be there. Neither could my husband. And I even added extra hot sauce. And even though that element was missing, we still managed to eat way too many of these babies!!
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Buffalo Popcorn Chicken Bites
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Main dish
- Method: Deep Fried
- Cuisine: American
Description
If you love buffalo chicken, you’ll go crazy for these Buffalo Popcorn Chicken Bites! Bite sized and fun to eat, these are great as an appetizer or a main dish.
Ingredients
- Vegetable oil, for frying
- 2 1/2 cups complete pancake mix
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 10 teaspoons hot sauce (I used Frank’s Red Hot)
- 1 1/4 pounds chicken tenders or chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
- Good quality Blue Cheese Dressing
Instructions
- In a deep sided skillet, heat 1 1/2 inches of oil over medium heat to about 350F. Alternately, heat oil in a deep fryer.
- While the oil is heating, make the batter. In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of the pancake mix, the water, and 8 teaspoons of the hot sauce.
- Place the remaining 1/2 cup pancake mix in another bowl.
- Once the oil is heated, toss the chicken pieces in the remaining 2 teaspoons hot sauce, then toss them in the dry pancake mix, coating evenly and shaking off any excess. Working in batches, add some of the chicken to the wet batter, shake off any excess and carefully add them to the hot oil. Fry for about 2 minutes on the first side, flip, and continue to cook for about 2 minutes on the second side, or until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on a paper towel lined plate. Repeat until all the chicken is fried.
- Serve with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks, if desired.
Recipe Notes:
adapted from Food Network Favorites
kuriouskitteh says
Ahah, I do that all the time; love looking up recipes to use up one lone ingredient XD.
I tried this last year using pancake batter from scratch (I don't believe in packaged mixes =P), and they were sooo good. I was making them for lunch, but was in a rush so had to pack and take them with me. When I got to settle down with my friends and brought these out, my lunch disappeared in a matter of seconds!
Plan to try this with pickles soon, thanks for sharing such a cool method!
~Kurious Kitteh
adri says
My friend sent me this and I made them last Monday.. soooo soooo yummy!! thanks for the recipe!! =)
Colleen says
These look so tasty! And the pancake mix is a surprise!
Mary says
You've spoiled my resolve. These look absolutely delicious and I love your presentation. What a clever way to use pancake mix.
Ingrid says
My kiddos would dig this recipe. This would be great for lunch.
Happy 4th!
~ingrid
tastestopping says
I am visiting after being drawn in by your presentation of the chicken bites in a cone. That's what my husband will do for my children when they think that having chicken nuggets from a fast food chain is preferable to something homemade. It wins them over every time.
But then I read on to the pancake mix "twist" in this post. Now, as someone whose cupboard currently has a large container of homemade pancake mix ready to go, but no boxed mix, I'm wondering if I can substitute that? Hmmm. This is a conundrum. I'll let you know what I come up with! Thanks for the great idea.
Best,
Casey
Editor
http://www.tastestopping.wordpress.com
Maria says
Hubs will love these, he is a huge fan of buffalo chicken. Happy 4th!
eatme_delicious says
Great use of pancake mix!
Grace says
i like it when mixes have multiple uses. although i like my pancakes from scratch, i wouldn't mind using the mix to create these clever little bites, and i love your cone presentation. excellent.
Nina Timm says
This is so clever for children's parties!!! I would maybe up the hot stuff in the sauce a bit, maybe some chili powder???Thx for sharing!!!
maris says
I never would have thought to use pancake mix for this but I can't think of a better way! Great snack for football games this fall!
Jean Bugs says
Looks kind of like "fair food"…and who doesn't like that?
Deborah says
I would make these again, but I would add a lot more hot sauce. But even without the "buffalo" taste, they were still quite tasty!
TheKeilShpeel says
So would you make these again? They look good.
Sophie says
This looks like perfect finger food, the presentation is so fun too! You know, my mom was never much of a from-scratch cook, at least when it came to pancakes and baked goods (she could make some mean savory meals though) so I grew up thinking that from-scratch meant from the bisquick box :P… oh, how I've learned :)!
kat says
What a great way to use pancake mix!
Rosa's Yummy Yums says
That sounds interesting and looks good!
Cheers,
Rosa