Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole

By LTIPPETT

Buffalo chicken and loaded potatoes is kinda like having Buffalo chicken strips and loaded fried in a casserole! Make it as spicy or mild as you'd like by adjusting the hot sauce.

Ingredients

• TOPPING:
• 2 pounds boneless chicken breasts, cubed in 1" pieces
• 8 - 10 medium potatoes, cut in 1/2" cubes
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, optional
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 2 tablespoon garlic powder
• 6 tablespoon hot sauce
• 2 cups fiesta blend cheese
• 1 cup crumbled bacon, about 10 strips
• 1 cup diced green onion

Details

Adapted from sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Spray a 9x13" baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large bowl mix together the olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and hot sauce. Add the cubed potatoes and stir to coat. Carefully scoop the potatoes into the prepared baking dish, leaving behind as much of the olive oil/hot sauce mixture as possible.

Bake the potatoes for 45 - 50 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until cooked through and crispy and browned on the outside. While the potatoes are cooking, add the cubed chicken to the bowl with the left over olive oil/hot sauce mixture and stir to coat.

Once the potatoes are fully cooked, remove from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Top the cooked potatoes with the raw marinated chicken.

In a bowl mix together the cheese, bacon and green onion and top the raw chicken with the cheese mixture. Return the casserole to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and the topping is bubbly delicious.

Serve with extra hot sauce and/or ranch dressing.

I'm not real fond of extra HOT dishes, so I cut back on the hot sauce from 6 to only 3 tablespoons. I'm always short of sauce to have enough to cover the potatoes AND the chicken, so I end up making the sauce twice. So now, I just double the recipe for the sauce, spooning half in for the potatoes and saving the other half for the chicken. And in a double batch, I use 6 tablespoons of hot sauce. That's borderline hot/too hot for me. Just about perfect. But for those that like it HOT, feel free to sprinkle in some Chili Powder or Crushed Hot Peppers in addition to the full 12 tablespoons.