I absolutely love buffalo chicken especially when paired with creamy ranch dressing. You honestly could just make that part of the recipe and skip the salad, but the salad brings it all together to make a delicious meal. You kind of forget you are eating salad since it is so packed full of flavor. At the beginning of the year, I posted buttermilk biscuits and since then I have been sneaking in buttermilk in other recipes to use it up. I honestly have become a big fan and found in this recipe it helps tenderize the chicken so that you have the perfect chicken tenders. The acidity in buttermilk jsut does way more than typical milk does and works wonders in making and other recipes. I’ll be honest my first attempt at this recipe the chicken tenders failed miserably, but I learned an amazing trick of putting parchment paper down in the basket of the air fryer. This helped the chicken not stick so that I could easily flip it over and get it crispy on both sides. It’s a new trick I’ll use for lots of recipes moving forward. So I hope you enjoy this salad as much as I did. I made three salads out of this and it was delicious as leftovers for lunch.
Buffalo Chicken Tender Salad with Homemade Buttermilk Ranch
Ingredients
Buffalo Chicken Tenders
- 6 chicken breast tenders
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup Frank's buffalo sauce divided in half
- 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt
Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 3 Tbsp buttermilk
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp dried dill
- 1/4 tsp dried chives
- 1/4 tsp salt
Salad ingredients
- 1/2 head romaine lettuce
- 1 carrot
- 2 Tbsp blue cheese per salad
- 5 cherry tomatoes per salad
Instructions
How to make the buffalo chicken tenders
- Place the chicken breast tenders in a Ziplock bag. Pour the buttermilk and 1/4 cup Frank's buffalo sauce over the chicken. Seal up the bag and gently massage the chicken so that it's coated in the sauce and the sauce and buttermilk are combined. Let rest in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.
- Preheat the air fryer to 375 F. Line the basket with parchment paper and set aside. Combine the panko breadcrumbs with the cayenne pepper and garlic salt on a small plate. Remove one piece of chicken at a time and place in the panko breadcrumb mixture. Gently press the panko into the chicken so that it sticks well. Flip over and coat the other side. Place the breaded chicken tender in the air fryer basket. Repeat with the other 5 chicken tenders.
- Spray the chicken tenders with cooking oil. Cook for 5-6 minutes in the air fryer until starting to turn golden brown. Flip over the chicken and spray again. Cook the other side for 5-6 minutes.
- Remove chicken from air fryer and brush with the remaining 1/4 cup of buffalo sauce. Be sure to brush both sides with buffalo sauce to get it fully coated. Feel free to use more than 1/4 cup if you want a really bold buffalo flavor.
How to make the buttermilk ranch dressing
- In a small bowl or jar add all the ingredients. Use the whisk attachment of an immersion blender to mix the ingredients all together. If you do not have an immersion blender you will want to really finely chop up all the dried herbs first and then can just stir everything together. You could also use a small food processor if you have one.
- If you prefer a thinner salad dressing you can always add a bit more buttermilk. Keep dressing in the refrigerator for up to a few days.
- Assemble the salad by cutting up the lettuce into bit sized pieces, cut the tomatoes in half, peel the carrot and then cut into thin slices. I used the side of my cheese grater to get the perfect sized pieces of carrot. I made a little assembly line and put together all three salads so the other two would be ready for lunch and just left off the chicken and dressing. I reheated the chicken in a toaster oven at work or you could put it back in the air fryer for a few minutes if able to. Slice the chicken tenders into bite sized pieces and place on top of the salad along with the blue cheese crumbles. Top with as much ranch dressing as you prefer.
