BBQ Chicken Mac and Cheese
I haven’t shared any recipes that I’ve created in a long time, but I decided that this new favorite of ours deserves to have its own post 😉 Back when we lived in Tucson, we used to love going to this one restaurant near the U of A campus called The Fix. It specializes in gourmet mac & cheese, but serves other types of comfort food. One of our favorite menu items was the Hawaiian BBQ mac & cheese, which featured BBQ chicken and pineapple along with the noodles and cheese. I still find myself thinking about it some days, so I finally decided to do something about it – and the results were just what we needed to satisfy that craving! Bonus: it takes under an hour to throw together and bake, and is only 5 ingredients. I haven’t actually added pineapple to my recipe, but maybe one day I will.
BBQ Chicken Mac and Cheese
Serves 4-6 • Prep time 20 minutes • Bake time 20 minutes
Ingredients
8 oz elbow noodles
1 cup shredded chicken*
1 cup BBQ sauce of your choice
1 can corn (or ½ cup frozen corn, defrosted by microwave or stovetop)
2 cups shredded cheese (IÂ used Mozzarella)
*To get perfectly shredded chicken, I put a couple boneless skinless chicken breasts or boneless chicken thighs in my crockpot, use just enough water to cover the chicken, then cook on high for 4 hours (6-8 if the chicken was frozen). You would only need 1 chicken breast for this recipe, but I usually do a few at a time and refrigerate the extra for another recipe.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º.
- Cook pasta as directed on the packaging. I add about ¼ tsp salt while cooking. Drain, then pour into 9×9 oven-safe 9 inch baking dish.
- Add in shredded chicken and mix till combined. If using canned corn, drain then stir into the chicken and noodles.
- Pour in the BBQ sauce. Make sure all the ingredients get some BBQ love. If the taste isn’t that strong, my husband is known to add in more sauce after it’s done baking 😉
- Stir in 1 cup of cheese along with the other ingredients. Use the last cup to cover the top. You definitely aren’t restricted to only 2 cups!
- Bake at 350º for 20 minutes. Let cool, then serve and enjoy! I say it serves 4-6, but the 2 of us love it so much, we’re lucky if we have any leftover.
