Buffalo Chicken Celery Boats
Crisp celery sticks piled with a creamy, tangy buffalo chicken salad and a sprinkle of blue cheese. A cold, high-protein, grab-and-go take on wing night.
Nutrition per serving
6 celery boats- Net carbs
- 1.9g
- Calories
- 192kcal
- Protein
- 17g
- Fat
- 12g
- Total carbs
- 3.1 g
- Fiber
- 1.1 g
Calculated from USDA FoodData Central values for each ingredient (optional ingredients excluded). Brands vary — check your labels if you track closely.
Ingredients
Bacon ranch: No buffalo heat: ranch dressing and crumbled bacon make a mild, smoky chicken salad that kids love.
- Beat the ranch into the cream cheese and mayonnaise instead of the hot sauce. Fold in the chicken and most of the bacon, and sprinkle the rest on top in place of the blue cheese.
Dairy-free: Mayonnaise does all the binding, so there’s no cream cheese, and extra green onion stands in for the blue cheese.
- Whisk all the mayonnaise with the hot sauce and garlic powder, fold in the chicken and skip the blue cheese. The filling is a little looser, so chill it for 30 minutes before filling the celery.
Lighter (Greek yogurt): Full-fat Greek yogurt replaces the cream cheese and mayonnaise for a tangier filling with fewer calories and a little more protein.
- Stir the yogurt with the hot sauce and garlic powder until smooth, then fold in the chicken. Yogurt is looser than cream cheese, so pour off any liquid from the tub before measuring.
- Nice to have (optional)
-
3 tbsp Louisiana-style cayenne hot sauceleave out - Also add
- Nice to have (optional)
- Nice to have (optional)
-
2 tbsp mayonnaiseleave out - Nice to have (optional)
Estimated cost $5.12 for 4 servings ($1.28 each) · how we estimate
Instructions
-
Shred the chicken finely with two forks, or beat it in a stand mixer on low for 30 seconds. Fine shreds make a filling that holds together in the celery.
-
Beat the cream cheese, mayonnaise, hot sauce and garlic powder until smooth. Fold in the chicken and most of the green onions, then taste and add more hot sauce if you like it spicier.
-
Pat the celery pieces dry. If any rock on the board, shave a thin strip off the rounded underside so they sit flat.
-
Spoon the filling into the celery, mounding it generously. Top with the blue cheese and remaining green onions and chill until ready to eat.
Tips for success
-
Rotisserie chicken (skin removed) or leftover wing meat makes this a 10-minute job. - Choose wide, crisp stalks. If the outer ones are stringy, run a vegetable peeler down the back to remove the strings.
- Want it warm? Bake the same flavors as a buffalo chicken dip.
Nice to have, not needed
- A small cookie scoop or piping bag makes filling the celery fast — a teaspoon works fine.
Storage & meal prepMeal-prep friendly
- Keeps 4 days in the fridge
- Doesn’t freeze well
Reheat: Serve cold
Prep tip: Keep the filling and celery in separate containers and fill a few boats each morning, so the celery stays crunchy.
Refrigerate the filling up to 4 days, and the cut celery wrapped in a damp paper towel up to 5 days. Filled boats are best within a day.
Variations
3 variations, each with its own ingredients and macrosBacon ranch
FlavorNo buffalo heat: ranch dressing and crumbled bacon make a mild, smoky chicken salad that kids love.
- + 2 tbsp ranch dressing
- + 3 slices cooked bacon
- no Louisiana-style cayenne hot sauce
2.5 g net · 258 kcal · 20 g protein · 18 g fat · ≈$1.31 per serving (+0.6 g net carbs vs the original)
Dairy-free
DietMayonnaise does all the binding, so there’s no cream cheese, and extra green onion stands in for the blue cheese.
- cream cheese → extra mayonnaise
1.2 g net · 191 kcal · 17 g protein · 13 g fat · ≈$1.17 per serving (−0.7 g net carbs vs the original)
Lighter (Greek yogurt)
SwapFull-fat Greek yogurt replaces the cream cheese and mayonnaise for a tangier filling with fewer calories and a little more protein.
- cream cheese → full-fat plain Greek yogurt
- no mayonnaise
2 g net · 116 kcal · 18 g protein · 3.1 g fat · ≈$1.26 per serving (+0.1 g net carbs vs the original)
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