Wild Buffalo Wing Pie

It had been a while since I'd made Shepherd's/Cottage pie and was craving it's mash potato-meaty goodness. This time around I decided to spice things up, literally. My Kitchen Addiction had this great recipe for buffalo chicken shepherd's pie that she adapted from Rachael Ray's Buffalo Chicken chili. Even though the recipe is named "Buffalo chicken" chicken is not one of the ingredients. I guess you could use chicken, but at Meijer's, ground turkey is super cheap so there's no reason, in my book, to use chicken.

I could have made this dish look a lot nicer had I put the potatoes on in fancy blobs, or piped it out with a fancy large star tip frosting bag. I'm not that glamorous, so I just spread the whole thing out with a big boring old fork.

Mrblocko was over the moon about this dish. I mean why wouldn't he be. There is hot sauce in it. Hot Sauce people. (Have I mentioned his hot sauce addiction before? The man put hot sauce on his lasagna the other day. What kind of freaky freak does that??? My husband apparently.)

Even though this was a hot sauce festival in your mouth, I thought this was delicious. The sour cream and potatoes neutralized a lot of the heat from the hot sauce. It was spicy, but not overwhelmingly spicy.

Mrblocko and I thought the dish would be even better with more cheese. We really like cheese, ooey gooey cheese. Lots of people say cheese isn't good for you. I say it has calcium and I probably don't get enough of that in my diet. That's my excuse for my excessive cheese consumption and I'm sticking to it.

I wanted to point out that you can make this dish the night before. There is a fair amount of chopping and fussy work. It was so nice to just pop this in the oven a half hour or so before I wanted to eat. I had to bake mine for an extra 10 minutes, but it was worth the time saved before dinner.

Blockette was in a mood when I made this and decided she didn't want to eat. I told her dinner was made with buffalo wings and she asked "Buffalo Wild Wings????" I said, "Yes, Buffalo Wild Wings. I got the recipe from the restaurant. Wasn't that nice of them to give me the recipe?" She wavered a bit, but like I mentioned before, she was in a contrary mood and flat out refused to take more than an invisible bite.

When it came time to eating the leftovers she gladly ate her whole portion. Of course it could be that I squeezed a mess of BBQ sauce over the top. Then again it could be because I told her the squashed cherry tomatoes were "Buffalo Tongues." The kid who hates tomatoes was upset when she had "eated all her tongues."

Buffalo Chicken Shepherd's Pie from My Kitchen Addiction
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 pound lean ground turkey
2 ribs celery, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 cup + dash hot sauce
4 cups mashed potatoes
1/2 cup sour cream
2 ounces colby jack cheese, shredded

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray a deep pie dish or a baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Brown the ground turkey in the oil. Once the turkey is browned, add the celery, carrots, onion, and garlic. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for 4-6 additional minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Add the cherry tomatoes and smoked paprika. Season with salt and pepper. Deglaze the pan with the chicken stock. Add the tomato paste and 1/4 cup of hot sauce. Stir to combine. Reduce the heat and simmer while preparing the potatoes. In a mixing bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, sour cream, colby jack cheese, and a dash of hot sauce. Pour the chicken mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Spoon the potatoes on top of the chicken mixture.Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is golden and the filling is bubbly. Sprinkle with some additional smoked paprika.