Super Bowl Bawls

I had one of my more brilliant ideas recently. After talking with a co-worker about a buffalo chicken dip he had, the wheels in my brain started turning. With the super bowl coming up, buffalo wings were on the mind. So I thought, why not take the idea for this buffalo chicken dip, and put it in ball form, fried up as a tasty half-time appetizer? I've made a lot of meatballs in the past, so I started thinking about ingredients and methods. I settled on the following for my first attempt.

Buffalo-style Kickin' Chicken Balls
Makes about 6 dozen
Filling:
1 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled from bones and hand-shredded
4 celery stalks chopped fine
1 1/2 packages of neufchatel cheese, softened
2 oz blue cheese crumbled
1/4 cup Frank's hot sauce plus more for dipping
2 cups unseasoned organic breadcrumbs
Breading and Frying:
1 1/2 cups flour
3 eggs beaten + 2 Tbsp water to make and egg wash
3 cups panko
Canola oil for frying

I started off by blending the cream cheese, the blue cheese, and the hot sauce until there were no lumps. I then stirred in the celery and the chicken. It looks like sort of a tuna salad consistency at this point.

Ingredients and Chicken ball batter (pre-breadcrumbs)

After that, I stirred in the breadcrumbs, 1/2 cup at a time until I reached an almost dough consistency. At this point you can use your hands to roll 1 inch size balls.

Balls taking shape

The next step is rolling the balls in a 3 part breading. First in flour, next in egg wash, finally in panko. Start leaving these on a platter until you're ready to fry (keeping as cold as possible - fridge if needed).

Roll em' and dry em'

Fry the balls for a just a few minutes 2-3, until they reach a light golden brown color. Set on a drying rack to drain any excess oil.

Fried up goodness

Serve the balls alongside some extra Franks (I like mine submerged quite honestly) and with some celery sticks, and you've got yourself a game winner.

Tasty Balls