We love Buffalo Sauce, but we’ve really only used it with chicken in the past. So, we decided to try to make a Buffalo dish with vegetarian flare. The first attempts didn’t really work out as we’d hoped, but embracing our food trial and error roots, we kept tweaking and trying until we came up with one that works! This recipe relies on chickpeas that we’re turning into pseudo-chicken tenders. As always, we’re using Anchor Bar wing sauce because in our opinion, there’s no better…but any Buffalo sauce you like will work!
We served our tenders with a side salad. However, they would also go well with French Fries or Celery Sticks….OR the combination of both: Celery Root French Fries!
Time: 30 Minutes
Ingredients:
- Canned Chickpeas (1 can makes about 4 tenders)
- 1 Egg per can of chickpeas
- Bread Crumbs
- Salt
- Buffalo Sauce
- Optional: Crumbled Blue Cheese (we would have used if we had any)
- Oil for frying. We used peanut oil.
Method:
- Drain your chickpeas, and pulse them in your food processor until they become coarse
- Put your ground chickpeas into a large bowl, and add your eggs and some salt. Mash and mix everything together by hand.
- Add your bread crumbs, and mix them in completely too. Keep adding and mixing in until you can clump the chickpeas together.
- Form your chickpeas into tenders or nuggets, and set aside.
- Heat about a quarter inch of oil in a large heavy bottomed pan (we’re using cast iron). You want the oil to be at about 350 degrees F to get a nice crispy crunchy tender. Too hot, and they can burn…too cool, and they will absorb too much oil and become soggy.
- Carefully, place your tenders in your pan, and cook for about 4-5 minutes. Flip (they should be golden brown on the bottom), and cook for another 4-5 minutes.
- Remove from the pan, and set on a paper towel to drain any excess oil, and toss them lightly in your Buffalo Sauce (or pour the sauce over them).
- Sprinkle some crumbled blue cheese on top.
- Plate, devour, and enjoy!
