Out of desperation comes one of my favorite new snacks! Isn’t that often the way?

My friend Traci made me some firecrackers (fire crackers? Two words?) last summer and was kind enough to scribble down the recipe for me. I made some more of them last week but was trying to talk myself into something more substantial than crackers for lunch, when it occurred to me I had a cold roasted chicken in the fridge. Enter inspiration.

I shredded the chicken, tossed it in some ranch dressing, and put that on top of the firecrackers. It’s spicy with the peppers and cool with the ranch chicken, and oh so tasty!

Ranch chicken firecrackers

Ingredients

• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 package dry ranch seasoning
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 3-4 Tbsp. crushed red pepper, depending on your spice preference
• 3 sleeves saltine crackers
• Cold, cooked, shredded chicken
• Enough bottled ranch dressing to lightly coat chicken (these last two depend on how much you want to make, obviously)

Instructions

1. Add oil, seasoning, spices, and crushed pepper into a one-gallon zip top bag; seal the top and mush it all around till everything is well combined
2. Add in the crackers and shake them around a little to coat them with the oil and spice mixture
3. Let it all sit in the bag for a good 12 hours or so, flipping the bag over any time you think of it, till all the mixture is absorbed into the crackers
4. Once those are ready, just shred some cooked chicken with a fork (leftovers are your friend, here), toss it in as much ranch as you like, and put that on top of your firecrackers. So good!