Yet another macaroni and cheese recipe!

Yet another version of macaroni and cheese!

I’ve posted two macroni and cheese recipes before. The first one is your basic ham macaroni and cheese recipe and the second one was a stove top version from Cook’s Illustrated which is fantastic.

So last night I thought I had all the stuff to make it, but then realized I didn’t have any ham. So, I thought, I wonder if cubed chicken would taste good? I made a quick call to my twin sister. I told her my idea, she said it sounded gross. But I persevered!

I took out 2 chicken breasts and trimmed all the fat off, and cut them into cubes. I didn’t want to have them just plain, so I tossed them in a skillet with a little olive oil, and put 1 tsp. ground cumin, 1 tsp. chili powder and 1/4 tsp. of cayenne pepper

In a big pot, I cooked one bag of wacky mac pasta, all different shapes and sizes and colors!

In a medium size pot, I added 2 TB. of Earth Balance Spread(or you can use butter) + 1/4 cup all purpose flour. Melt the spread or butter and stir the flour together for a few minutes, stirring constantly until it looks like this:

Add 3 1/2 cups skim milk/or soy milk and cook for about 10 minutes, until sauce is thickened. Once that was done, I added 1/2 cup of green salsa, plus 4 ounces of Mexican Blend cheese.

In a casserole dish, add the cooked noodles, the cooked chicken and the sauce and stir until the sauce has coated all the pasta. Sprinkle more cheese on top before baking at 350 for about 25 minutes.

This is what it looked like before going in the oven

And here is it after it was baked.

I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked it! I think the green salsa mixed with the sauce, and the spiciness of the cumin/chili powder/cayenne on the chicken gave it a nice heat without being too hot. I will definitely make this version again!

What’s your favorite version of mac and cheese??