Wingin’ It: Buffalo Samosadilla for MNF against the Pats

You like football. You like food. So do we! So much so, in fact, that we smash the two together to bring you a Buffalo Bills-inspired recipe each week. Whether it’s a take on an opponents’ fave or some real mad scientist **** coming your way, Wingin’ It is the spot to watch. This week we’re prepping for the New England Patriots!

It’s cheater week so let’s talk shortcuts. The first shortcut is that this wasn’t my idea. The samosadilla was sent in by a reader who wished to remain anonymous. Thank you mysterious stranger! The second shortcut is the recipe itself, a fusion version of the samosa that looks to cut down on prep time by replacing dough for tortilla shells. Our anonymous fan sent this recipe for guidance and if you want more authentic Indian fare you might find some ideas to steer away from my heavy-Buffalo version.

Buffalo Samosadilla

Serves: 6-8
Active Time: 45 min
Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

4 Tbsp hot sauce
¹⁄₂ tsp garlic powder
3 Tbsp thinly sliced mint leaves
4 Tbsp chopped onion
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
2 large potatoes
¹⁄₄ cup chopped onion
¹⁄₄ cup chopped pepper (choose type based on spice level you want)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp garam masala
1 tsp salt
1 cup peas
1 lemon (for juicing)
Shredded cheese (optional)
8 tortillas, 8-inch size
Olive oil for frying

1. Combine hot sauce, garlic powder, mint leaves, and onion in medium saucepan on LOW; stir to combine for 3-4 min.
2. Stir in 6 Tbsp of the butter until melted, remove from heat and set aside
3. Chop potatoes to just under a half inch; add to a large pot of cold water (see prep gallery below).
4. Bring water to a boil on HIGH. Reduce heat to simmer; cook until potatoes are tender but not mushy, about 10-15 min. Drain and set aside in a large mixing bowl.
5. Melt 2 Tbsp butter in a large saucepan on MED; add onions and sauté until they turn translucent, about 3-5 min.
6. Add chopped pepper, garam masala and salt. Stir to combine all ingredients for 1-2 min.
7. Add peas and cook until tender, about 3 min.
8. Add onion/pepper/pea mixture AND hot sauce mixture into bowl with potatoes; stir until well coated. (Everything should be cooked at this point so feel free to taste and adjust salt/spices as needed.)
9. Heat large sauté pan on MED/HIGH; add 1 Tbsp olive oil
10. Spread one-quarter of the potato mixture (and cheese if you’re using it) between two tortillas and place in sauté pan long enough to brown, 3-4 min. Flip to other side and repeat. If your pan isn’t big enough to fry an entire 8-inch tortilla at a time, fold in half. Repeat until all tortillas/potato mixture is used.
11. Cut each tortilla into six wedges and serve.

Wingin’ It Tips and Prep Gallery

Grid View

One of the only ways I can think of to truly mess this up is by under- or overcooking the potatoes. I’m pretty particular about accuracy when it comes to food chopping, especially when different instructions can lead to very different results. The potatoes should still keep their shape and be recognizable as “chunks” rather than “mashed.”

So then:

Picture one shows me slicing the potato lengthwise in quarters. Afterwards you cut each of those sections in quarters, and then chop until you have pieces about the size of what I show in the second picture.

This is important because the recipe I based this off of shows similar cutting in the prep video (except they peel their potatoes) but labels it as quarter-inch pieces. For food prep, the measurement should be the widest dimension. The size shown is roughly half-inch and this could matter a lot. For the math inclined a half-inch cube has eight times the volume and mass as a quarter-inch cube and mine were actually a bit larger than a half inch. I’d worry that cooking quarter-inch cubes for as long as directed would lead to mashed potatoes.

I’m not trying to knock the author either, it’s a great recipe and this is a common issue. For this week’s tip I wanted to point that out. I tend to look for videos/images accompanying recipes and aim for what I’m shown rather than what I’m told when it comes to cutting sizes.

For the other two pictures, the third shows I still have chunks and the three layers of things (potatoes, onion/pepper/pea mixture, and hot sauce mixture). The last one shows after stirring. The potatoes are soft enough where you can see the starch has turned the more liquid-like ingredients into a gravy of sorts and binds everything together.