Buffalo Chicken Mozzarella Logs

March. Spring arriving. The crocuses are up, the redbuds are blooming purple against the gray sky, and my route — the eastern half, my smaller world — is waking up the way the whole city wakes up in March: slowly, tentatively, like a man coming out of a long sleep and blinking at the light.

The wedding is five weeks away and Marcus is alternating between ecstatic and terrified, which is the correct emotional range for a groom five weeks out. He called Thursday night and asked if I had any advice. I said, "Show up." He said, "That's it?" I said, "Son, that's everything. Show up every day. Show up when it's hard. Show up when you'd rather not. Show up for the arguments and the apologies and the quiet mornings and the long nights. Show up for the cooking and the cleaning and the kids if they come and the grief if it comes. Just show up. That's the whole marriage."

He was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "That's what you did?" I said, "That's what I've done for thirty-three years." He said, "And it worked?" I said, "You tell me. You turned out okay." He laughed. I laughed. And between the laughing was the truth: marriage is not a feeling. It's a practice. And practice, like BBQ, is something you do every day whether you feel like it or not, until the doing becomes the feeling and the feeling becomes the life.

I made smoked chicken wings this week — a batch of twenty-four, testing a new glaze: honey, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and sesame oil. Asian-influenced, which is miles from Memphis, but the smoke bridges the gap the way music bridges language — you don't need to understand the words to feel the melody. The wings were excellent. Rosetta said they tasted "international." I said, "They taste like wings with ambition." She rolled her eyes. I added them to the mental file of recipes I might make again, which is a file that grows larger every year and which, unlike my mail route, shows no signs of shrinking.

Those honey-soy wings turned out beautifully, but Rosetta’s comment about “ambition” stuck with me — because ambition in the kitchen, like ambition in a marriage, doesn’t always mean complicated. It means showing up and doing the thing right. So when I thought about what recipe to pass along from this week, I landed on these Buffalo Chicken Mozzarella Logs: same spirit as wings, same communal pull-them-apart energy, same crowd gathered around a plate laughing. Marcus and his bride are going to need a few easy, impressive recipes in their back pocket, and this one earns its keep every single time.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 18 min | Total Time: 33 min | Servings: 5 (10 logs)

Ingredients

2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1/2 cup buffalo sauce, plus extra for dipping
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles (optional)
2 green onions, thinly sliced
10 egg roll wrappers
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, beaten (for sealing)
Ranch or blue cheese dressing, for serving

Instructions

Preheat. Heat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Make the filling. In a medium bowl, combine shredded chicken, buffalo sauce, softened cream cheese, shredded mozzarella, blue cheese crumbles (if using), and sliced green onions. Mix until fully combined.
Fill the wrappers. Lay an egg roll wrapper flat on a clean surface in a diamond orientation. Place about 3 tablespoons of filling in a horizontal line across the center, leaving 1 inch of space on each side.
Roll tight. Fold the bottom corner up over the filling, then fold in the two side corners snugly. Roll upward toward the top corner, brushing the final edge with beaten egg to seal. Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.
Brush and bake. Arrange logs seam-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Brush the tops and sides generously with melted butter. Bake for 16–18 minutes, flipping once at the 10-minute mark, until deep golden and crispy on all sides.
Rest and serve. Let logs rest 3 minutes before serving — the mozzarella inside will be molten. Serve with ranch or blue cheese dressing and extra buffalo sauce alongside.

Nutrition (per serving, 2 logs)

Buffalo Chicken Mozzarella Logs — Wings With a Different Kind of Ambition