Baked Macaroni Cheese with Chicken & BROCCOLI (One Pot) Recipe

There’s a complete big head of broccoli on this. And also you don’t even have to steam it individually, it will get cooked proper in the identical pot with the mac and cheese. 🙂 Plus chicken + pasta + cheese = full meal. No less than, in my books!

I am keen on Mac and Cheese. If I see it on a menu, particularly at posh eating places, I’ve to have it on the facet. Any Sydney-siders tried Neil Perry’s Mac and Cheese at his Rockpool Bar & Grill restaurant? It’s completely unbelievable.

It’s additionally so wealthy that I can’t have greater than a few (generously heaped) spoons of it.

So the Mac and Cheese I make at house that’s appropriate for serving as a meal is made with out cream through the use of a roux as a base. Sounds fancy (it’s French!), nevertheless it’s simply melted butter + flour whisked into milk to create a creamy sauce.

I make this within the oven in order that method you may make it multi functional pot, reasonably than cooking the macaroni individually and mixing it into the sauce. Making it this manner requires a precise quantity of liquid to macaroni ratio, particular water + milk combo (an excessive amount of milk = takes far too lengthy for pasta to rehydrate) and following the cook dinner occasions specified within the recipe.

Oh – the opposite very particular steps I do are:

a) Stirring the cheese in simply earlier than grilling/broiling to brown the highest (if you happen to add it beforehand, it takes endlessly for the pasta to cook dinner); and

b) Sprinkling the panko and parmesan on on the finish, then broiling/grilling it to brown. This serves 2 functions: browning the crunchy topping whereas the pasta finishes cooking utilizing the residual warmth, and the sauce thickens. You’ll be shocked how a lot the sauce thickens throughout the broiling part. 🙂

Common readers have in all probability seen that forged iron cookware seems usually in my recipes. It’s as a result of I like recipes that begin off on the range then end within the oven – one in every of my favorite methods. And forged iron cookware is so improbable for even distribution and retention of warmth on each the range and within the oven.

It’s additionally the #1 wrongdoer for the curses and screeches of ache that happens extra repeatedly than I care to confess.

I simply neglect HOW GOOD they’re with warmth retention, and the way scorching they keep even after an honest time frame out of the oven. I underestimate how lengthy it takes for the dutch ovens to chill down (ages and ages!) and go to seize the pot with my naked arms. Different occasions, I can’t discover my oven mitts so I attempt to take it out of the oven utilizing a flimsy dishcloth as an alternative (ouch ouch ouch!).

So it’s with many because of Burnaid that I’ve created a information for what to do if you happen to burn your self. I actually hope you by no means your self, however that is necessary info that everybody ought to know so please take a minute to learn it. 2 straightforward necessary steps. Have you learnt what they’re?

And know that you would be able to at all times simply discover it on my web site as a result of I’ve created a web page particularly for it now so you could find it beneath About on my menu bar.🙂

OK! So again to this Mac N Cheese….hmmmm. Unsure what else to say about this!

√ One pot
√ Simple
√ Creamy and tacky
√ Full meal
√ No cream

Errrm….ticked all my packing containers for a straightforward, delicious midweek meal! 😉

Baked Macaroni Cheese with Chicken & BROCCOLI (One Pot) Recipe

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Serves: 4 Prep Time: 15 minutes Cooking Time: 30 minutes 30 minutes

Nutrition facts: 530 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb / 500g skinless chicken breast or thigh fillets , cut into bite size pieces
• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 garlic cloves , minced
• 1 small onion , finely chopped
• 4 tbsp plain flour
• 2 1/2 cups milk , low fat
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp salt
• Black pepper
• 2 cups macaroni / elbow pasta (Note 1)
• 1 large head of broccoli , broken into florets (or 1 1/2 smaller ones)
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups grated cheese (cheddar, tasty or gruyere)
• 1/4 cup panko (or ordinary breadcrumbs)
• 2 tbsp parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
2. Heat oil in a deep heavy based skillet or dutch oven over high heat. Add chicken and cook until just cooked - it's fine if it's still raw inside. Remove chicken into a bowl. (Note 2)
3. Reduce heat to medium and melt butter. Add garlic and onion and saute for 5 minutes until onion is translucent. Add flour and cook for 1 minute.
4. Pour in half the milk and whisk it in so the flour butter mixture melts. It should thicken quite quickly - around 30 seconds. Pour the remaining milk in, whisking constantly, then add the water, salt and pepper.
5. Turn the heat up to medium high and cook, whisking occasionally, for around 3 to 5 minutes until you start seeing steam rising from the white sauce when you whisk it.
6. Add the macaroni and chicken, stir, then top with broccoli.
7. Place the lid on and bake for 20 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven, switch oven to broiler/grill on high.
9. Remove lid (Note 3), stir through cheese, then sprinkle over panko and parmesan. (Will still look bit watery at this stage).
10. Place pot under the broiler/grill for 5 minutes, or until top is golden.
11. Remove, then let it stand for 5 minutes before serving (sauce thickens quickly).

Notes

1. Don't use the teeny tiny macaroni, use the macaroni that is about 1.2cm/1/2" long. In Australia, the pasta used in Mac and Cheese is called "Elbows". The pasta labelled as "macaroni" is tiny - almost the size of jasmine rice - and it will cook far too quickly in this recipe.
2. Don't worry if you have brown bits on the bottom of your pan. It might mix into the sauce but it shouldn't make the sauce brown. You can see in the video that I have quite a bit of brown bits on the base of the pan but my sauce still ends up being nice and white.
3. When you take it out of the oven, there should still be plenty of liquid, quite watery. The pasta will be almost cooked, but not quite. It finishes cooking in the next step, and the sauce thickens too (especially when resting).
4. As with all pastas, this becomes less saucy the longer it sits out. So eat it while it's hot and fresh! Leftovers are brilliant to use for Leftover Pasta Fritters.
5. Nutrition per serving, assuming this is made using chicken breast and serves 5.