Once when I was a teenager living at home, my dad made a delicious buffalo chicken macaroni and cheese dish. It was super rich and savory, but it was clearly a lot of work. As I recall there was cream involved (maybe cream cheese), onions and celery in a food processor, and the dish was baked in the oven. There were many dishes and kitchen tools to clean, too. I loved the general concept of the recipe, though, so I started making my own rendition. My idea was to get about 85% of the way there with only a fraction of the effort. My mod became a hit in my family, and I’ve still been making it.
A few points before going into the details. First, my dad told me that Frank’s Red Hot brand hot sauce is the only one that should be used for the recipe he used. I’ve used a generic version before, but I agree with definitely sticking with something like Frank’s Red Hot Original flavor. Second, the original concept used fried breaded chicken strips – a local grocery chain made the best ones (and you’d come home smelling like them just from visiting the store). That being said, it definitely works with healthier roasted or grilled chicken pieces, even just plain chicken breast (or canned chicken in a pinch). The cheese provides plenty of fat and richness, so no worries. But if you’re going all-out, I’d suggest going for your favorite freshly fried chicken strips. Finally, pepper jack cheese goes great with the cheddar in this recipe, but it isn’t essential. If you want a little more heat without it, add a bit more hot sauce. And non-sharp cheddar is okay if needed.
I describe a single batch, but I’ll often make double-batches, whether to serve more people or just have more leftovers. Of course adjust to taste and your preferences!
You will need:
- One regular “blue box” macaroni and cheese dinner
- Milk as directed (a few tablespoons, also prepared dry milk works perfectly well)
- Half the butter directed (plenty of fat from the cheese later)
- Shredded sharp cheddar cheese, about 8oz
- Optional: Add or substitute some pepper jack cheese slices
- Cooked chicken, about a half-pound
- Frank’s Red Hot Original hot sauce or similar, about six tablespoons, plus more as desired to taste
- Optional: A few shakes of ground black pepper
Prepare the blue box macaroni and cheese as directed on stovetop, except overcook the pasta a bit (I always do that intentionally, to my spouse’s chagrin) and only use half the butter. Cut the cooked chicken into less-than-bite-sized pieces. Drizzle with the hot sauce (about six tablespoons), and mix around so the hot sauce covers all the pieces.
Once the blue box macaroni and cheese is prepared, turn the heat back on low. It’s time to add the real cheese. Mix it in well, watching for the mixture becoming stringy when pulling apart. If it takes a while, turn the heat up a bit, but be careful to keep the mixture moving as not to burn it (ahem, what I sometimes call caramelize). Do the same when adding the chicken – mix well and look for the stringiness.
This is the point where I’d personally want to add a bit more hot sauce to the mixture. However, keep in mind that you can always add more hot sauce to individual servings to taste, and you can’t practically reduce it (and for folks sensitive to spicy foods, they might consider it ruined). So I stopped there. Another potentially worthwhile addition could be ground black pepper – would add a bit of visual contrast too.
Enjoy! Bonus points for serving it pub-style with raw veggies and ranch dip. The saucepan will probably need to soak a bit with the cheese mixture adhering (especially if it makes it into the fridge with leftovers), but I think it beats the cleanup burden and return on effort of a more extensive recipe.
picocosm 