My Ninja Naan Baby Shower – Buffalo Chicken Pinwheels

Hello hello my wonderful readers! I know I know, long time no blog. Sigh.

When I was expecting my second child a wise man told me that 1 plus 1 does not equal two. I didn’t get it at the time, but now I do. My very dear friend and blogger Henna of My Ninja Naan is about to find out the same. Congratulations Henna on the upcoming birth of Baby Ninja Two!

I know this is when I wax lyrical about what a great food blogger she is, but I am pretty sure if you hop over to her blog (go now) then it will speak for itself. What you may not get from reading her blog is how incredibly supportive Henna is, she has talked me through many a stressful time and given me great advice when needed and for that I will be forever grateful.

So welcome to this surprise virtual baby shower for Henna. This virtual baby shower was the brainchild of Faaiza from Modest Munchies and I am thrilled to be part of it. We wish we were all a little closer so we could celebrate in person, but for now this is a happy substitute. The idea is simple, a few of us get together and make the things we would for a shower if we could be there in person, the only ‘guideline’ was that it be finger food.

One of the many things Henna and I seem to have in common is a love for spicy food. While I don’t know that any of us is a snacking on green chillies type, we do like food with a bit of a punch. So Henna I bring to you these spicy Buffalo Chicken pinwheels. They come together quickly and keep well making them the ideal thing to make for feeding a crowd. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Correction: did. I just checked and they’re all gone.

Hope you enjoy what the other bloggers and I have brought to the table, check out all this yumminess below!

Snowball Whoopie Pies – Modest Munchies

Stuffed Mushrooms – Chocolate & Chillies

Raspberry Jello Cake – Arabian Mama

Spicy Buffalo Chicken Pinwheels
Makes 40

Two 10-inch sheets of pre-rolled all butter puff pastry (defrosted)
2 cups of shredded chicken –  you can poach a large chicken breast or shred rotisserie chicken
½ cup Franks Hot Sauce
2 tbsp mayo (I use Hellmans half the fat)
1 tsp ketchup
1 tsp red chilli powder (optional)
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
Two tablespoons snipped chives or scallions/green onions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line two baking trays with parchment paper. Set aside.

Combine the hot sauce, mayo, ketchup, chilli powder, pepper, and garlic powder in a large bowl. Taste. You should feel like you have gotten an olfactory sucker punch. Hey, buffalo anything shouldn’t be too mild (IMHO).

Add your shredded chicken. Make sure it is shredded quite finely. Mix the ‘sauce’ into the chicken w a fork. Now unfurl your puff pastry sheet on a lightly floured board and thinly spread half the chicken mixture over it, making sure to leave a half to one inch empty margin on one side. A few small bald patches here and there are no big deal. Scatter over your chives/scallions. Starting from the chicken covered side roll the puff pastry inwards fairly tightly so that the ‘empty’ edge ends up on the outside.

I like to put the roll in the freezer for a few minutes because it makes for neater slicing. One the pastry roll is firm (5-10 minutes) slice it into 1 cm thick slices and put them out on your baking sheet leaving a little over half an inch between each circle. Bake for 14 minutes, then turn over and bake for another 3. The flipping helps get rid of the raw look of the puff pastry.

Repeat until your puff pastry is all used up. Keeps well at room temperature for 2 days. You can reheat in an oven before serving if you wish. A side of blue cheese dressing is always a welcome addition.