Buffalo Chicken Panini

This is definitely one of our new family favorites: Buffalo Chicken Panini from The Lives and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch, who found inspiration for this recipe from Panini Happy. This one was simple, with few ingredients but with plenty of zing.

This was the last weekend for our beach to be open so of course, even though it was pretty cool for Indiana in the middle of August, we had to go. Then ds wanted to practice tennis before his try-outs on Tuesday so we went to the middle school and while ds and dd played tennis, I ran three miles. And while it seemed almost brisk at the beach, running around and around the track with absolutely no shade at all, it was anything but cool! Wow! By the time I made it home, I was beat and needed a tasty and easy dinner idea that I could get to the table quickly. Thanks Honeybunch for coming to my rescue!

No beautiful, drool-worthy photos for this one unfortunately though it definitely deserves one. I had to make the sandwiches one at a time and as I'd finish one, it would disappear before it hit the plate. No worries because I usually use my serving to photograph. Except, I got sidetracked and left mine in too long. Totally blackened the outside. I had to grab this half of a sandwich off of dh's plate just before he started eating it just to get a picture! Unfortunately, his was the first and I hadn't figured out how long to leave it in and the cheese didn't all melt, but at least you get the idea. My blackened sandwich tasted fine, just didn't look very appetizing! To see what this sandwich really should look like, look here or over here.

I was in a hurry to get dinner on the table so to speed things up even more, I used already cooked chicken rather than raw. I also didn't have any chicken wing sauce so I simmered the chicken in a mixture of about half and half butter and Frank's Red Hot Sauce. I also skipped the blue cheese, mainly because I didn't have any but we're not big fans so I likely wouldn't have used it anyway. I also used the sweet French bread we had rather than the pita bread and the sweetness was a nice contrast the the heat of the chicken mixture as well as complementing the sweet goodness of the caramelized onions.

This one was quick, easy and delicious. Just what I'm looking for in a recipe!

You can see the recipe over at The Lives and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch or you can check out the original recipe at Panini Happy.