Buffalo Chicken Deviled Eggs

The week after telling Brian. The apartment is strange — same walls, same furniture, same kitchen, but the air has changed, the way air changes after rain, charged and clean and different. We are polite. We are carefully, painfully polite, two people navigating around each other in a space that has been redefined by a conversation at a kitchen table. The politeness is worse than fighting. Fighting would mean we still care enough to engage. The politeness means we have moved past engagement into choreography — you go left, I go right, we don't touch, we don't collide, we manage the space with the efficiency of two dancers who have rehearsed the same routine until it requires no feeling at all.

I made oyakodon — the "parent and child" rice bowl, chicken and egg simmered in sweet dashi broth over rice. The name is the metaphor: parent and child. The dish is about the relationship between the chicken and the egg, which is both beautiful and morbid if you think about it, which I am trying not to. I made it for Miya, who eats it happily, unaware that her parents are separating, unaware that the parent-and-child bowl will soon be served in two different kitchens, unaware that the world she knows is about to split into two worlds and she will need to carry both.

We told Miya together. We sat on the couch, Miya between us, and we said the simplest, truest thing we could: "Mama is going to get a new apartment, and you'll have two homes. One with mama and one with daddy." She said: "Why?" I said: "Because sometimes mamas and daddies need their own space to be happy." She said: "Like my room?" And Brian said, "Yes, like your room." And she accepted this with the devastating pragmatism of a four-year-old who has been told something enormous and has processed it through the only framework available: her room is her space. Mama needs a space. The logic is sound. The heart is breaking.

She asked if she could bring her play kitchen to both houses. I said yes. Of course yes. She can bring everything. She can bring the entire world to both houses if she needs to. I will carry it for her. I will carry anything.

I keep coming back to chicken and egg — the combination, the metaphor, the way the two things are inseparable in oyakodon and, it turns out, in my thinking about this week. I didn’t have the dashi or the patience for a full bowl the second time around, but I had hard-boiled eggs and leftover rotisserie chicken and a daughter who would eat anything if it was spicy enough and involved her helping me squeeze the filling bag. Buffalo Chicken Deviled Eggs aren’t oyakodon, but they are still parent and child on a plate — still the same two ingredients finding each other — and Miya declared them “the best eggs in both houses,” which is the only review that matters.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 12 (2 halves per serving)

Ingredients

6 large eggs
1/2 cup shredded cooked chicken (rotisserie works perfectly)
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons buffalo wing sauce, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese, for topping
2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions, for topping
Pinch of celery salt, optional

Instructions

Hard-boil the eggs. Place eggs in a single layer in a saucepan and cover with cold water by 1 inch. Bring to a full boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a gentle simmer and cook for 11 minutes. Transfer immediately to an ice bath and let cool for 10 minutes before peeling.
Halve and hollow. Slice each peeled egg in half lengthwise. Pop the yolks out into a medium mixing bowl and set the whites aside on a serving plate.
Make the filling. Mash the yolks with a fork until no large lumps remain. Add mayonnaise, cream cheese, buffalo sauce, garlic powder, and onion powder. Stir until smooth and creamy. Taste and adjust buffalo sauce and salt as needed.
Fold in the chicken. Add the shredded chicken to the yolk mixture and fold gently to combine. The filling should be thick enough to hold its shape — if it feels loose, refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Fill the whites. Spoon the filling into a zip-top bag and snip one corner, or use a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe a generous mound of filling into each egg white half.
Garnish and serve. Top each deviled egg with crumbled blue cheese, a scatter of sliced green onions, and a small extra drizzle of buffalo sauce. Add a pinch of celery salt if using. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 4 hours.

Nutrition (per serving)

Buffalo Chicken Deviled Eggs — The Parent and Child, Reimagined