Buffalo Chicken Lasagne

I have made several of the recipes on the blog "A Year of Slow Cooking", and have even tried a "buffalo" recipe from that website. I often tweak the recipes, and they always come out delicious, so I'm always game to try another one.

I've had my eye on the Buffalo Chicken Lasagne recipe for a while. I'm so glad I made it - Andrew and I both loved this one. If you'd like the recipe, click the link to find it on the Crockpot Lady's blog.

As I said, I make changes to most recipes I make, and this one is no exception. The original recipe calls for marinara sauce. Since I dislike tomatoes, I opted to use a vodka sauce instead, and I was extremely pleased with the results. I think it goes much better with the buffalo flavor than a tomato sauce would. The vodka sauce is lighter, richer, and less acidic, making it an ideal pairing for the spicy buffalo flavor. Additionally, the recipe calls for "buffalo wing sauce". Rather than buying a special wing sauce, I mixed up my usual buffalo sauce, combining melted butter and hot sauce. The last change I made was to use all green peppers instead of the assortment of colors the recipe called for.

Enough talk, let's see some action, shall we? I started by assembling all my ingredients and getting my Crock Pot ready.

A dollop of sauce in the bottom of the pot prevents sticking. Then, start layering. Uncooked noodles first, then blobs of ricotta, a handful of peppers, and a sprinkling of the shredded cheeses.

Look at the fluffy ricotta! I used a "light" brand, and didn't notice any difference at all.

I thought the peppers were a nice addition. The green provided little pops of color, and the flavor of the peppers added some freshness and light to an otherwise heavy, cheesy, creamy dish. (Um, not that there is anything wrong with all things creamy and cheesy!)

I used a mixture of shredded mozzarella and shredded cheddar, as recommended in the recipe. We liked the creaminess the mozzarella lent the lasagne, and the sharpness of the cheddar matched the buffalo flavor beautifully.

Oooh, now it's time for my favorite part! Look at this gorgeous wedge of blue cheese I got at West Side Market:

If you use a wedge like I did instead of the pre-packaged crumbles, you'll need a quarter pound to equal the half cup the recipe calls for.

I didn't get any pictures of the finished product, but it looked pretty similar to the photo on the Crockpot Lady's blog. Mine was actually more "buffalo-y" looking than hers because of the vodka sauce - the overall color was very orange-pink, extremely reminiscent of good buffalo sauce.

Overall, I found this recipe was easy to put together and the resulting meal was the ultimate in comfort food. I will definitely make this again - the irresistible combination of buffalo sauce, shredded chicken, and delicious blue cheese were enough to solidify this recipe as a keeper.