Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese Recipe, Perfect for Tailgating and Football

 Recipes  6 Responses »
Sep 272013
 

For tailgating season as part of a sponsored post for Collective Bias I made one of my favorite tailgating recipes, Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese.

Fall means different things to different people: changing leaves, pumpkin patches, cooler weather.  It means all those things to us, as well, but the biggest thing that fall represents around here is football.  Football is serious business here in Kentucky.  We have lots of college teams that we love to support, plus two or three NFL teams within relative driving distance.

Lots of football means lots of occasions to eat (something else Kentuckians take pretty seriously).  Whether it’s tailgating at the game or having friends and family over to watch the game, there are plenty of dips, lots of chili and casseroles, burgers and ribs, and tons of sweets.  I have a variety of different recipes that I like to rotate through, but one thing I almost always make is my homemade Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese.

Tailgating Recipes: Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese #shop #MealsTogether

Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese is great for tailgating because it combines that great flavor of wings with delicious, comforting mac & cheese all in one dish.  It’s easy to double, triple, half – whatever you need for the size of the crowd you’re serving.  It’s also fairly easy to cook.  The only downside to making it was that it took a little longer to assemble than I would have liked. Continue reading »

Chicken Recipes: Buffalo Chicken Mac ‘n Cheese

 Recipes  No Responses »
Sep 142011
 

Chicken Recipes: A New Take On Wings

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that doesn’t love mac & cheese.  It’s an iconic comfort food, all warm and creamy and cheesy.  When I ran across this recipe in a magazine (I believe it was Taste of Home) that crossed mac & cheese with the classic flavors of buffalo chicken wings – I knew we had to try it.  I’m so glad we did!  This was scooped up quick, with just a little taste left for lunch the next day.  It can be hard to find new chicken recipes and it’s nice to have a new favorite to add to our rotation.

Buffalo Chicken Mac ‘n Cheese

7 T butter
1 lb. pasta (cavatappi is my favorite, but you can use elbows or any similar pasta)
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 chicken breasts, cooked & shredded
2 gloves garlic, minced
3/4 C hot sauce
2 T flour
2 tsp. dry mustard
2 1/2 C half & half
1 lb. yellow sharp cheddar, cut into 1″ cubes
8 oz. shredded Monterey jack cheese
2/3 C sour cream
1 C panko
2 T chopped fresh parsley

  1. Preheat oven to 350; butter a 9×13″ baking dish.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil; add pasta and cook for about 7 minutes.  Drain.
  2. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and celery and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the chicken and garlic and cook 2 more minutes, then add 1/2 cup hot sauce and simmer until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.
  3. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in saucepan over medium heat.  Stir in the flour and mustard with a wooden spoon until smooth.  Whisk in the half & half, the add the remaining 1/4 cup of hot sauce and stir until thick, about 2 minutes.  Whisk in the cheddar and pepper jack cheeses; whisk in the sour cream until thick, around another 2 minutes.
  4. Spread 1/2 of the cooked macaroni in the buttered dish; top with chicken and then the rest of the macaroni.  Pour the sauce over the entire thing.
  5. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a small skillet and mix in the panko and parsley.  Sprinkle over the sauce.  Bake until bubbly, 30-40 minutes.

As you can probably tell, this isn’t health food.  And while we generally try and eat healthily, I really think that every now and then everyone needs something creamy and cheesy.

Chicken Recipes - Tasty Tuesday

About the hot sauce: 3/4 cup sounds like a LOT of hot sauce and I was a little scared.  But it really didn’t end up being too much at all (though I do reduce it to about a half cup when I’m making it for the kiddos).  You can even use a combination to get different tastes.  Recently I had partial bottles of both Texas Pete’s Original Hot Sauce and Garlic Hot Sauce so I used a 1/4 cup of the garlic and 1/2 cup of the regular and it was quite tasty.

Do you have a chicken recipe you’d like to share?