{"id":402,"date":"2010-04-06T13:12:40","date_gmt":"2010-04-06T18:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/?p=402"},"modified":"2010-04-06T13:17:54","modified_gmt":"2010-04-06T18:17:54","slug":"buffalo-chicken-macaroni-and-cheese-good-comfort-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/general\/buffalo-chicken-macaroni-and-cheese-good-comfort-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese &#8211; Good Comfort Food"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com<\/h4>\n<div id=\"attachment_403\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/CCI04062010_00000.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-403\" class=\"size-full wp-image-403 \" title=\"Food Network Magazine - April 2010\" src=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/CCI04062010_00000.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"314\" srcset=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/CCI04062010_00000.png 300w, http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/CCI04062010_00000-286x300.png 286w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-403\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Food Network Magazine - April 2010<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I subscribe to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foodnetwork.com\/food-network-magazine\/package\/index.html\">Food Network Magazine<\/a> and in the April 2010 issue they have an article written by Con Poulos that is devoted to different kinds of Macaroni and Cheese dishes.\u00a0 They have recipes for Spring Shells and Cheese, Triple-Cheese Spirals, Noodle Kugel, Mini Mac and Shrooms, and Buffalo-Chicken Macaroni and Cheese.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This past Easter Holiday I decided to make the Buffalo-Chicken Macaroni and Cheese for my family.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think too far ahead about doing this and forgot to pick up the rotisserie chicken at the store.\u00a0 Thankfully, my step-father picked one up for me on his way over.\u00a0 The only choices they had were a BBQ Sauced one and a Lemon-Pepper one, so I went with the BBQ Sauce chicken.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The recipe is somewhat simple but takes longer than the advertised 35 minutes to make.\u00a0 On your first go I\u2019d recommend setting aside an hour to prep it and another 50 minutes to cook and cool it.\u00a0 I expect that you will get much faster at making it the second time around.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>The ingredients:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>7 Tbsp butter<\/li>\n<li>1 pound macaroni<\/li>\n<li>1 small onion, finely chopped<\/li>\n<li>2 stalks celery, finely chopped<\/li>\n<li>3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken (1 whole chicken)<\/li>\n<li>4\u00a0cloves garlic, minced<\/li>\n<li>3\/4 cup hot sauce<\/li>\n<li>2 Tbsp flour<\/li>\n<li>2 tsp dry mustard<\/li>\n<li>2 1\/2 cups half-and-half<\/li>\n<li>1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, cut into 1-inch cubes<\/li>\n<li>8 ounces pepper jack cheese, shredded<\/li>\n<li>2\/3 cup sour cream<\/li>\n<li>1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)<\/li>\n<li>1 cup crumbled blue cheese<\/li>\n<li>2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you read the magazine article you will notice that I modified the recipe a little.\u00a0 I prefer more garlic and also like more blue cheese than was originally called for.\u00a0 I preheated my oven to 400 degrees and sprayed a 9\u2033 x 13\u2033 baking dish with butter spray.\u00a0 I also brought a large pot of water to a boil to cook the pasta.\u00a0 The recipe calls for the oven to be set at 350 degrees but I have found that most professional kitchen based recipes expect the oven to operate at a higher temperature than you typically realize at home.\u00a0 Due to this I usually increase the temperature on recipes I know are from non-home kitchens.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While the water was coming up to a boil I sauteed my onions and celery in a skillet on high\u00a0with 3 tablespoons of butter.\u00a0 When the onions were soft, I added the shredded chicken and garlic and stirred it all together to cook for 2 minutes.\u00a0 After the 2 minute mark I added the hot sauce and simmered the entire mixture for a few minutes.\u00a0 Once it was cooked I turned off the heat and set the mixture aside.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_405\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/mac_cheese.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-405\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-405 \" title=\"Todd's Rendition of Buffalo-Chicken Mac and Cheese\" src=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/mac_cheese-300x153.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"153\" srcset=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/mac_cheese-300x153.jpg 300w, http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/mac_cheese.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-405\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Result - Mmmmm Gooood<\/p><\/div>\n<p>By\u00a0this time the water was boiling so I put the pasta in and set the timer for 8 minutes.\u00a0 I was using spiral macaroni but it doesn\u2019t really matter what shape you choose.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With the pasta in the water I\u00a0heated a large metal sauce pan\u00a0on high and melted 2 tablespoons of butter in it.\u00a0 I stirred in the flour and mustard and mixed until it was smooth.\u00a0 I then whisked in the half-and-half and added the remaining 1\/2 cup of hot sauce.\u00a0 I let it cook until thickened, about 2 minutes and then turned the heat down to medium.\u00a0 I slowly added\u00a0the cubed cheddar cheese, a few cubes at a time, while stirring to prevent scorching.\u00a0 Finally I added in the pepper jack cheese and the sour cream and stirred until the mixture\u00a0was smooth, about 5 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>When the time\u00a0was up on\u00a0the pasta, I\u00a0poured the pasta into a strainer and strained the liquid away.\u00a0 I then reserved the pasta in the strainer and set it aside for assembly.\u00a0 To assemble the dish\u00a0I put half of the macaroni in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.\u00a0\u00a0I then topped the macaroni with the chicken mixture and another layer of macaroni.\u00a0 I then poured the cheese sauce over the top layer of macaroni.\u00a0 I was\u00a0careful to do this as the dish was\u00a0very full by the time everything was added and I still needed some room for the crumb topping.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While the cheese mixture settled on the top, I melted 2 tablespoons of butter.\u00a0 I mixed the melted butter in a bowl with the panko bread crumbs, blue cheese, and parsley.\u00a0 Finally I sprinkled the mixture over the macaroni and baked the entire thing for 40 minutes.\u00a0 Once it was done I removed it from the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes to cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n<p>I really liked the recipe and enjoyed the changes I made to it as well.\u00a0 The next time around I will add more hot sauce as it lacked the kick I like.\u00a0 I\u2019d probably add a tsp of salt too.\u00a0 You could lighten it up by using 2% cheese, low-fat sour cream, and maybe even buttermilk instead of half-and-half.\u00a0 I\u2019d have to try the buttermilk idea though to see what it does to the flavor profile.\u00a0 It may turn out okay given the tartness of the blue cheese.\u00a0 Let me know if you try it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com I subscribe to the Food Network Magazine and in the April 2010 issue they have an article written by Con Poulos that is devoted to different kinds of Macaroni and Cheese dishes.\u00a0 They have recipes for Spring Shells and Cheese, Triple-Cheese Spirals, Noodle Kugel, Mini Mac and Shrooms, and Buffalo-Chicken [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[117,114,50,24,100,118,116,115,69,113,119],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-blue","tag-buffalo","tag-cheese","tag-chicken","tag-food","tag-hot","tag-mac","tag-macaroni","tag-magazine","tag-network","tag-sauce"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions\/410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}