Buffalo Chicken Chip and Dip Super Bowl Bites

Don’t you just love Super Bowl snacking? I love the excuse to indulge in chips and dip. It’s like a free splurge day. A celebration day of a month of new year’s resolution of healthy eating and gym workouts. A day where chip and dips are the norm and nobody mentions calories.  The attention is focused on the game and sidelines not on the waistlines. I like to make chip and dip eating easy for my guests with one bite snacks. Having your chip and dip in one bite makes it easier to hold your beer in one hand and snack in another. It also makes less mess…just in case the coffee table just so happens to get bumped in reaction to a bad referee call…no bowl of dip to topple or chips to scatter. I bet just about every Super Bowl party will have buffalo chicken wings and some sort of chip and dip. My party will have them, too, in one bite.

These Buffalo Chicken Chip and Dip Bites are my alternative to buffalo chicken wings. I love eating buffalo wings, but hate the mess. These bites combine the celery and carrot stick snacking that often accompanies buffalo wings…counts as a veggie tray, right? Any boneless chicken can be used-thighs, tenders, breasts, or even turkey. I love to stuff each bite with cheese-some with cheddar, some with blue cheese, but cheese is optional…except in my house!

Use your favorite chip for the crispy coating. I like the cheesiness Doritos add but these are equally tasty with multigrain tortilla chips (if you want to count that as a healthier option.) Check your pantry for any stale chips and use them, nobody will know. Don’t mind the finger mess? Toss these in your favorite wing sauce.

Here’s another one of my favorite chip and dip bites:

LEFTOVER BAKED BEAN BALLS– My favorite and a fun one for the kids to assemble.  Begin with cold leftover beans. If too thin, mash an avocado into the beans. With moistened hands, roll bean mixture into balls, just as you would a meatball. Stuff the inside with cubes of cheese, a slice of leftover grilled hot dog or sausage, or leave plain. Roll ball into crushed tortilla chips or Doritos (a mini food processor works great for this job.) Put into refrigerator for 1/2 hour to set. (or overnight if prepping for a party.) Spray each well of a mini muffin tin with non-stick spray.  Place ball in well. Spray top side of ball. Bake at 375* for 10 minutes. Use a spoon to flip each ball. Bake an additional 10 minutes. If you prefer, the baked bean balls can also be deep-fried. Serve with a side of BBQ sauce.

Put your TO COOK IS TO CREATE Thinking Cap on: Think about what other veggies you could add to the Buffalo Chicken bites-broccoli, cauliflower, spinach? Like it hot? Add chopped jalapenos. What dip do you like with your buffalo wings? Ranch, blue cheese, honey mustard, BBQ? Think about all the different chips and kinds of cheese and how the flavors can easily be changed. How about adding cooked crumbled bacon to chicken mix? What other chip and dip combinations could you turn into a one bite snack? Still looking for some one bite snack ideas? Try Smoky Sweet Super Rib Bites

FOOD FUN: It is estimated Americans eat about 1.25 billion wings on Super Bowl Sunday. According to spoonuniversity.com this amount could circle the Grand Canyon 120 times! I wonder how many chips are consumed?