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a closed plain long sub roll with broad cooked white-meat chicken pieces coated in orange-red Buffalo sauce and a cool topping of thin celery and carrot ribbons in pale blue-cheese crème fraîche, without fried chicken crust, bones or garnish
Andrew Fowler

Buffalo Chicken Sub

Roast the chicken on the bone, remove the skin if the butcher hasn’t already, and pull the cooked breast into broad pieces rather than shredding it into threads. Those larger pieces stay recognizable after you toss them with Buffalo butter. The carrot and celery go into a cool blue-cheese crème fraîche mixture, so you get the familiar wing-plate crunch inside the roll without another bowl of dressing. Keep the slaw lightly coated and add it after the hot chicken. This is best eaten soon after assembly, while the contrast between warm sauced meat and cold vegetables still has some life.
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Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Servings: 4
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 2 bone-in chicken breast halves about 1 3/4 lb total, skin removed
  • 1 tbsp neutral oil
  • 1/2 tsp fine salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/3 cup cayenne hot sauce
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1 cup very thinly sliced celery
  • 1 medium carrot peeled into thin ribbons
  • 1/3 cup crème fraîche
  • 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 4 soft plain sub rolls 8 inches long

Method
 

  1. Heat oven to 400°F. Rub chicken with oil, salt and pepper and roast in a small baking dish for 40 to 50 minutes until the thickest parts reach 165°F without the thermometer touching bone.
  2. Rest chicken for 10 minutes. Remove every bone and any firm connective tissue, then tear the meat into broad bite-sized pieces.
  3. Warm hot sauce and butter together in a small saucepan just until the butter melts. Toss the warm chicken with the sauce until coated.
  4. Stir crème fraîche, blue cheese and lemon juice in a bowl. Fold in celery and carrot ribbons so the vegetables are lightly dressed rather than swimming in sauce.
  5. Split the rolls and toast only their cut faces under the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes. Divide Buffalo chicken along the bottoms and add the cold vegetable mixture.
  6. Close gently and cut across the middle. Serve one sub per person immediately, leaving any loose sauce in the chicken bowl.