DIY: Recipe for Ham and chicken buffalo Mac and cheese

A while ago, I found and pinned this recipe from Sparkpeople. J loves pasta and I wanted to make something different from the usual meals I make. For the most part, I followed the instructions but not to the T. I made some variations to better suit our needs and it still tasted great. I did have some observations (below).

J and JOE both enjoyed the meal!

Ingredients:

4-cups of macaroni (NOTE: the ingredients listed below is what I used for 4-cups of macaroni. Feel free to adjust as needed)

2-cups of chopped broccoli

1-tablespoon unsalted butter

1-medium chopped onion

1-teaspoon minced garlic

1-6oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes

1-tablespoon whole wheat flour

2-cups skim milk

3-pieces of cooked chicken breasts

1-cup of diced ham

3/4-cup buffalo hot sauce (adjust to desired heat level)

1/2-cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Coat your baking dish with cooking spray.
• Cook pasta according to directions on box, drain and set aside.
• Place the broccoli in a microwave safe dish and cook on high for 2-minutes.
• Melt the butter in a large saucepan set over medium heat.
• Add the onions and then the broccoli and garlic. Cook until the onions is translucent.
• Add the fire roasted tomatoes and let cook until it starts to bubble a little.
• In a cup, add the flour and a cup of milk. Stir until fully mixed. Add the mixture to the saucepan and then add the remaining cup of milk while stirring.
• Add the buffalo hot sauce to the saucepan and cook for 2-minutes
• Add the cooked chicken and the diced ham to the saucepan and cook for another 5-6 minutes to allow the meat to fully marinate in the sauce
• Add the pasta and mix everything up
• Pour into your sprayed baking dish
• Top with cheese
• Bake in the oven for 15-minutes

Buon Appetito!

Feedback/Comments:

The dish was DELICIOUS! However, my biggest issue with it is that the original recipe required a lot of ingredients and had a lot of steps. I tried to shorten things a bit with my recipe but it was still a lot.

This is not a traditional mac and cheese recipe. As on commenter put it on the Sparkpeople site, "when I saw the title of this recipe, I envisioned a bubbly and cheese dish. This is not the case. This is not a cheesy dish at all as you would expect a man and cheese to be. That being said, I did likt it and will probably make again, and try to make it a bit thicker, the sauce was runny."

I didn't have any "runny" issues with the dish but I certainly noticed quickly that it was not entirely a cheesy dish.

If you do make it, let me know how it turned out. These two certainly enjoyed it! :-)

Have a fabulously blessed week!