Buffalo Chicken Bread

(Sorry for the horrible iPhone photo, I didn't think to take a photo until we were cleaning up, and this is what I could get!)

Last weekend I came across a recipe over at Buns In My Oven for BBQ Chicken Bread, and it sounded amazing. Unfortunately, when I went to make it a few days ago, I didn't have BBQ sauce. So, I improvised, and I came up with something equally as amazing! 

I had buffalo wing sauce, so I figured I'd try buffalo chicken bread. Everyone loved it, including my three year old! It is a touch on the spicy side, since I used buffalo sauce, but we like a little spice. Plus, with all that's mixed in, it tames the spice a bit. 

I pan fried my chicken, because I was short on time, so that's the recipe I'm going to give you, but this would be much simpler if you made the chicken in the crockpot. You can find a great recipe for crockpot buffalo chicken here. 

Here's what you'll need:

• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• Ranch seasoning
• Butter
• Buffalo Sauce
• Thick cut bacon
• Half of a red onion, chopped
• Shredded mozzarella cheese (I have no idea how much, maybe a cup or a bit more) 
• Loaf of french bread

Here's what you do. 

• Wash and season your chicken with ranch seasoning. Drop a dollop of butter in your frying pan (Paula Deen would be proud, y'all), and set the temp to medium/high. Once the butter is melted and bubbling a bit, drop the chicken breasts in. Obviously you'll need to flip your chicken a few times while they're cooking. (The crockpot version is probably healthier too, seeing as how you aren't frying something in butter.)
• While your chicken is cooking, start your bacon, and chop your onion if you haven't already. I used about 6 pieces of bacon, but you can do more or less. Once the bacon is cooked, blot the grease off and crumble the pieces.
• Preheat your oven to 350 and slice your loaf of bread in half. Once preheated, pop the bread in the oven until the edges are crispy and the bread is hot. Somewhere between 6 and 9 minutes. (Clearly I don't do precise measuring, timing, etc!) Take bread out of the oven and set to the side.
• Once your chicken is done (check it with a meat thermometer!), pull them from the pan and shred the chicken. Once shredded, put it back in the pan and add your buffalo sauce. I used about half a bottle, but it's up to you how spicy you want it. Mix the chicken really well with the sauce.
• Once the chicken is mixed with the sauce, add your crumbled bacon and red onion, and mix well.
• Spread the buffalo chicken mixture over the bread halves evenly, and top with shredded cheese. 
• Pop the bread back into the oven just long enough to melt the cheese really well. 
• Take out of oven, slice into pieces, and enjoy!

I served ours with a side salad with ranch dressing, because I really couldn't think of what would go with it! We were left with a whole half of a loaf, so we had leftovers the next day for lunch. This would be great at something like a party because it makes quite a bit, and who doesn't like buffalo wings!? Let me know if you give it a try, and I hope you like it!