Creamy Macaroni and Cheese with Chicken

I love Baylee's posts! She has done a great job and I hope she will add future posts! PLEASE ENCOURAGE HER!!!  She is also on me to take more pictures as I cook.  I get into cooking and completely forget about the camera. Also I can be accident prone, like last night, I dropped the camera into a bowl of chicken and noodles!! Baylee helped make the noodles so she did take lots of pictures. That recipe will be coming soon!

To honor Baylee, I am doing today's post on one of Baylee's favorite macaroni and cheese dishes.  She is all the time asking if I posted it yet.   Here you go Baylee!!!

First off we love macaroni and cheese and as the kids got older, I was able to start to add in onion, bacon, different types of cheeses, or even vegetables, but I have always been in search of super creamy with super taste.  I cannot tell you how often I made mac and cheese and it was bland, looked curded, or was dry! I came across a recipe in a magazine that was for Smoky, Creamy Mac and Cheese. It had bacon, cheddar cheese, Philadelphia Chive & Onion Cream Cheese, and Velveeta in it so I thought how can it not be creamy with all of these cheeses.  I did have to adapt the recipe since I did not have all of the ingredients and I was looking for a dish that I could use as a main entree. I replaced the bacon with chicken breast and I was incredibly pleased with the outcome.  It was super creamy and cheesy along with being addictive!!  I think we all had seconds. This original recipe was the side dish winner in a Philadelphia Cheese recipe contest.  Just based on the creamy cheesiness of the dish, I can see why it won!! 

Creamy Macaroni and Cheese with Chicken
2 cups of uncooked pasta  ( I used fusilli as it holds the cheese better)
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
8 oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese
4 oz Velveeta, cut into cubes
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese
1 cup of chicken, cooked and cut up (I used a large breast and season it well with chicken seasoning)
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup Panko crumbs
2 tsp butter, melted

Cook pasta according to package directions.
In a large saucepan melt butter and stir in flour until smooth.  Gradually add milk and bring to boil. Cook and stir for 1 -2 minutes as sauce thickens. Stir in the cream cheese, Velveeta and cheddar cheese.  Make sure the heat from stove is turned down to ensure that cheese melts well into the sauce. Add in the chicken and transfer to a greased 8 inch square baking dish. Combine the Panko crumbs with the melted butter and sprinkle over top.  Bake at 350 for 25 - 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Smoked Chicken

For weeks my husband talked about getting a smoker. It all started when he would go across the street and watch our neighbor smoke ribs, turkey and brisket. For weeks he asked questions and did online smoker research on techniques. Just after Thanksgiving, the smokers went on sale so he made his purchase. Soon after he worked a whole morning testing out how fast the water evaporates and what happens to the chips. By one o'clock, he was ready to add a chicken to the smoker. He decided to go with something inexpensive for his first attempt at smoking. Well 4 hours later, we had a juicy bird that tasted fabulous!


First he placed a 5 lb chicken in brine made of 2 quarts of water, 1/4 cup kosher salt, and 1/4 cup sugar for 10 hours. He pat it dry and rubbed it with a mixture of 2 tsp each of Sage, Thyme, Southwest Seasoning, and Herbs De Provence. He did add a little salt and pepper to the rub. He used Pecan and Applewood chips in the smoker with a temperature of 225. He place the bird about 3/4 of the way up in the smoker away from the heat. He smoked it for about 4 hours until the internal temperature was 160 degrees. We let it rest for about 30 minutes before we cut it.


We will definitely make lots of chicken in the smoker. Our daughter suggested making just the legs since they tasted like the turkey legs at the fair! It is a good idea and we will definitely be trying that idea!

Enjoy!

Pasta Stuffed Chicken

I am trying to get back into cooking and baking. Over the past several months, I have not had much time or desire and then when I would cook something, it would be a flop. I am not sure if it was due to lack of patience or if a person can just get rusty at what they are doing. I am hoping I am on a good path and starting to get my groove back! I found this recipe in a magazine. I ripped out the page and there is no identification anywhere on the front or back of the page to say what magazine it was. I guess it will not really matter because I adapted the recipe a little.

This is a little like Chicken Parmesan but instead of the chicken resting on a bed a spaghetti, the pasta is on the inside of the chicken. It was really good and I am sure I will make it again. It was not difficult to make.....remember I am going through a phase right now, and I was able to make it turn out!!!

Chicken Stuffed with Pasta

1/2 cup small shell pasta, like Ditalini

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley

salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup italian breadcrumbs

4 boneless chicken breasts

3 cups marinara sauce ( I used Classico tomato basil sauce)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook pasta according to their directions. While the pasta is cooking, combine the cheeses and half of the parsley in a bowl. Drain pasta and add the hot pasta to the cheeses; season with a little salt.

Prepare a 2 quart casserole dish with about 2 cups of marinara sauce spread in the dish. It will be about an inch thick in the dish. The chicken will bake on top of the sauce.

In a shallow bowl, beat the eggs. In a separate bowl or plate, place the breadcrumbs. Pound out the chicken breasts until they are about 1 inch thick. Place a spoonful of the cheesy, pasta mixture in the middle and roll. I used toothpicks to hold the chicken together because we will browning in a skillet before placing in the oven to thoroughly cook.

Heat up a skillet with a little oil over a medium heat. Dip the stuffed chicken breasts in the egg and then in the breadcrumbs. Place in the skillet and brown all sides. You are just doing this to get the chicken brown, not to cook all the way through. Place the browned chicken in the marinara sauce and place any of the left over pasta in the middle between the chicken. Bake for 30 minutes or until the meat thermometer reaches 165 degrees. During the last 5 minutes of cooking add some mozzarella and parsley to the top of the chicken.

While the chicken is baking, heat up the rest of the marinara sauce to be served with the chicken for those who like extra sauce.

Print recipe

Enjoy!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

I love looking for new recipes in blogs, magazines, websites, and cookbooks. I usually work in 2 or 3 new recipes a week. Some bomb and some are really good so they get added to my recipe binder. It is pretty rare that I follow a recipe exactly as it is written. I usually have to tweak it to my family's taste preference. My family is not a fan of the Cream of Chicken condensed soup so when I came across the recipe below, I knew I would have to make a change. The original recipe is from Sisters' Cafe. I made a couple of changes but this was really good. This one made it to my binder and it will be made again.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake
Adapted from Sisters' Cafe

2 Packages Stove Top Stuffing mix
1 can (10 3/4 oz) cream of mushroom soup
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 lb sliced deli ham, cut into 1 inch squares
1 cup Jarlesburg cheese, shredded (Swiss can be used)
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cups cooked chicken, cubed

Prepare stuffing mixes according to directions on box. Meanwhile in a bowl, combine soup and milk. Put chicken in a greased 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle with pepper. Layer with ham, 2 cups of the cheese, soup mixture and stuffing. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup of cheese on top. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake 10-15 minutes longer.

Print Recipe

Enjoy!