Buffalo Chicken Blue Cheese Hand Pies

These Buffalo Chicken Blue Cheese Hand Pies have all the flavor of buffalo chicken wings and blue cheese stuffed inside a buttery pastry baked to flakey perfection.

Mmmm flakey perfection.

Get it girl.

Or should contrarily I say boy? Because that’s what we are celebrating here! David from Spiced is having a little baby boy, and these hand pies are consequently my contribution to his MANLY baby shower.

David and I go way back. I love me some Spiced.

He is my go-to resource for explicitly “man-food”. He tosses around buffalo sauce, bacon and all things grilled like it generally ain’t no thang.

But it also always has a refined twist. It’s not just grilled meat on a plate caveman style. No, no. Everything he makes is beautiful and, yet, appeals to the tastebuds of those with a y-chromosome.  {If it’s been awhile since High School biology, that is nerd speak for “men” 😉 }

All I can say is that this baby is obviously one lucky taste-tester!

Tasked with creating man-food that was David-worthy, I had a momentary freakout and then remembered buffalo wings. Is there anything more manly than buffalo chicken wings? Psh. No.

Fine motorcycles, but those aren’t edible.

So I wrapped up all that manly flavor in a beautifully flaky, all-butter pâte brisée, which is fancy French for “pie crust”. {Not literally, but we can talk more about that some other time…today is about David…and significantly mini David.}

The buffalo sauce permeates the pastry making the whole pie subsequently one cohesive flavor. Dipped in some cooling blue cheese dressing it is divine!

These little pies are crowd pleasers. As a matter of fact, their charm should not be limited to just football parties, tailgates and manly baby showers — These are take-anywhere-and-collect-the-accolades pies.

They are also incredibly easy to pull together. {Shhhh}

I used a store-bought rotisserie chicken (I know shame on me…but I’m busy, okay?), so the filling was ready in under 3 minutes. The most “time consuming” part is waiting for your pastry to chill, which just means more time to curl up with your favorite book…or binge watch Orange is the New Black. Your call. #nojudgement

I cut the circles using a 4 inch ring cutter but you could use a 2.5 – 3 inch one to make cute, little, one-bite hand pies. How adorable would that be?!

Serve with blue cheese or ranch dressing and celery slices for the full chicken wing experience!

Now for a quick little pastry lesson – because I just cannot resist a teachable moment at my expense.
Observe:

This is the same pastry dough. I made both hand pies with the same technique and love. Yet, the one on the right is so flakey and puffy it almost looks like puff pastry. The difference is refrigeration. The pies on the right chilled overnight and the ones on the left only 1 hour. You want that butter to completely re-solidify, so that when it is popped in the screaming hot oven, the water in the butter evaporates to create steam that expands and puffs your pastry. There is other stuff going on here but suffice it to say “Chill that pastry!”

Be sure to check out all the other phenomenal bloggers who are contributing to David’s baby shower! You won’t want to miss a single recipe! Huge props to Chris from Shared Appetite for putting this fabulous shower together!

Buffalo Chicken Blue Cheese Hand Pies by American Heritage Cooking

Chocolate Bacon Toffee by Bakerita

Pumpkin Beer Soft Pretzels by Baking A Moment

No Bake Salted Caramel Apple Slice by The Big Man’s World

Philadelphia Cheesesteak – Southern Style by Beer Girl Cooks

Shredded BBQ Chicken Nachos by Blahnik Baker

Cinnamon Churros by Cooking With Manali

Grilled Brown Butter Burgers with Swiss + Boubon Mushrooms by Cooking for Keeps

Cider Braised Brisket by Foodness Gracious

Ham Potato and Corn Chowder by Gather For Bread

Mini Croques Monsieur Sandwiches by Hip Foodie Mom

Wolfpack-Style Meatballs by The Iron You

Pecan Praline Popcorn by Jem Of The South

No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake Pecan Tarts by Kevin Is Cooking

Maple Sriracha Pulled Pork Mini Pies by Life Made Sweeter

Vanilla Almond Snowball Cake by Pizzazzerie

Something Amazing by Real Food By Dad

Cinnamon Bacon Donuts by Runnin Srilankan

Buffalo Garlic Knots by Shared Appetite

Spicy Butternut Bacon Deviled Eggs by Snixy Kitchen

Maple Bourbon Bacon Chocolate Donuts by URBAN BAKES

Vegan White Pizza with Spinach & Basil by Whisk & Shout

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A post for the pâte brisée found in this recipe is in the works…it’s taking a little longer than usual because there are videos. That’s right…VIDEOS!!!! I can hardly wait to share it! Until then, this recipe will work beautifully.

More Pie because we all need pie in our life (Am I right?!)

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