Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

Spicy and tangy buffalo sauce balances the rich cheesiness of a classic mac and cheese. You can use leftover rotisserie chicken but searing chicken and adding it makes the mac and cheese even more tasty.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 25

Servings -8 servings

Calories 711kcal

Author Subhasmita

Ingredients

1 pound Short pasta
¾ cup Buffalo sauce (adjust as per taste)
¼ cup Butter
¼ cup Flour
3 cup Milk
1 cup Chicken stock
1 pound Chicken breast
2 teaspoon Oil
1 teaspoon Garlic powder
½ teaspoon Onion powder
2 cups Cheese (I have used mix of Sharp cheddar and mozzarella)

To season Chicken

1 teaspoon Garlic powder
½ teaspoon Onion powder
1 teaspoon Mild paprika
1 teaspoon Salt

Instructions

Pound thick part of chicken breast or cut extra large breast horizontally into cutlets.Season with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and salt.
Heat oil in a Dutch oven (or ovenproof skillet). Place seasoned chicken breast and cook undisturbed for 3-4 minutes on medium-high heat. Flip and cook for another 3 minutes. Remove and keep it loosely covered with a foil. After resting for 10 minutes, dice the chicken.
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Season it with salt. Cook pasta until it is 3/4 cooked. (ref note 1).
In the same pot , melt butter. Stir in the flour and cook on low heat for 2-3 minutes( take care not to brown the flour).
Keep the heat low. Stir in the chicken stock and milk. Increase heat to medium and keep stirring for a couple of minutes for the sauce to thicken a bit. Let the mix simmer for 2 minutes.
Switch of the flame. Stir in garlic powder, onion powder, half of the cheese and mix until you get a smooth sauce.
Add cooked pasta, chopped chicken breast, and buffalo sauce to the Dutch oven. Give a gentle stir to coat pasta with the sauce.
Sprinkle rest of the cheese. Cover and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake again for 10 minutes in the upper third of the oven to brown the top.
Quick Ranch Dressing (optional) - Mix 1/2 cup of mayo, 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt and 2-3 tablespoon ranch seasoning.
Serve with drizzle of ranch dressing and extra hot sauce if required.

Video

Notes

To avoid mushy over cooked pasta in the final dish, its important to cook the pasta until 3/4th done (to check the doneness, it should still have a bite at the end not al dente). Once the undercooked pasta is added to the sauce and baked, it will just be right.
We have added salt while searing chicken and cooking pasta. Chicken stock in the sauce also has salt in it. So add more salt towards the end if required.
If not making chicken from scratch, use about 3-4 cups of rotisserie/leftover chicken.
The amount of buffalo sauce is just right. It doesn't make the pasta too spicy or vinegary(sour). Adjust the amount of as per spice tolerance.

Nutrition