By Three weeks of Zoom teaching and I have learned some things. One: children with autism need to be able to see your face and hear your voice clearly and have the visual consistency of their space maintained, which is nearly impossible when their home environment changes daily. Two: parents are doing an incredible job under impossible circumstances and they should not be expected to also be special ed teachers. Three: the kids who are okay are really okay, and the kids who are struggling are really struggling, and the middle ground has largely disappeared.
I made a spreadsheet this week — very Patty of me — of each of my students, what they need, what they are getting, and what the gap is. Then I spent the rest of the week trying to close gaps. Extra phone calls, resource packets mailed to three families that do not have internet, a voice memo I recorded and emailed to a parent whose child responds better to audio than video. It does not fix everything. It closes some gaps.
My cooking this week has been batch-focused in a new way: I made a big pot of chicken soup on Monday that became soup on Monday, chicken salad sandwiches on Tuesday, chicken tacos on Wednesday, and fried rice with the leftover chicken and vegetables on Thursday. One Costco rotisserie chicken, twelve dollars, four dinners. Ryan pointed out that this is essentially what they do at the firehouse — cook once, eat all week — and I said I have been doing this my whole adult life and he said yes but now you are doing it with more variety. Fair point.
The blog post this week was the rotisserie chicken breakdown — how to get four dinners from one bird. It is the most viewed post I have ever written by a factor of three. I did not expect that. I expected to be writing into a void and mostly I have been, and now suddenly there are thousands of people reading about my chicken. The internet is a strange place and also, right now, one of the few places we have.
The rotisserie chicken post took on a life of its own this week, and of all the variations I cycled through — soup, salad, tacos, fried rice — this shredded buffalo chicken was the one Ryan kept asking about. It’s barely a recipe, which is exactly the point: you’re pulling meat off a bird you already bought, tossing it in a sauce that takes two minutes to stir together, and landing somewhere that feels like real dinner. On a week when closing gaps was the whole job, that mattered more than I can explain.
Shredded Buffalo Chicken
Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 25 min | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 rotisserie chicken (about 2 1/2–3 lbs), skin removed
- 1/2 cup buffalo hot sauce (such as Frank’s RedHot)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Ranch or blue cheese dressing, for serving
- Slider buns, tortillas, or lettuce wraps, for serving
- Sliced celery, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Shred the chicken. Using two forks or your hands, pull all the meat from the rotisserie chicken — breasts, thighs, and legs. Shred into bite-sized pieces and place in a large bowl. Discard bones and skin.
- Make the buffalo sauce. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk together the buffalo sauce, melted butter, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika. Heat for 2–3 minutes, stirring frequently, until just combined and warmed through. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
- Coat the chicken. Pour the warm buffalo sauce over the shredded chicken and toss thoroughly until every piece is well coated. Let sit for 2–3 minutes so the meat absorbs the sauce.
- Warm through. Transfer the sauced chicken to a skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5–7 minutes until heated through and slightly caramelized at the edges. Alternatively, microwave in a covered dish for 2 minutes, stirring once halfway.
- Serve. Pile onto slider buns, spoon into tortillas for tacos, layer over rice, or serve in lettuce wraps. Drizzle with ranch or blue cheese dressing and add celery sticks on the side.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 265 | Protein: 31g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 3g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 920mg