Thursday, January 8, 2009

Recipe Thursday: Buffalo Baked Chicken and Mac n' Cheese

***Update*** The "Italian Cheese" listed in the Mac n Cheese recipe refers to the package of shredded Italian cheese you can get in most grocery stores. It's with all the other packaged shredded cheeses and is a combination of Mozzarella, Parmesan, Provolone, Fontina and Asiago cheeses. Hope that helps.

Good Morning Everyone!

It's time once again for Recipe Thursday. This week's recipe is what we had for dinner last night and since it met with great reviews here in my house, I thought I would share it with you. It is, of course, a Rachael Ray recipe. What can I say...I like the woman's recipes!

Buffalo Baked Chicken

Ingredients:
6 Tbsps Butter
1/2 cup hot sauce (more if you like it hotter!)
5-8 pieces of Bone-in, skin on chicken of your choice. (The original recipe calls for Breasts and drumsticks; but I used thighs and wings because that's what I had in the freezer)
1-2 cups of breadcrumbs. Italian style or plain seasoned with Italian seasoning.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400
Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat and add the hot sauce, stir to combine
Season the chicken pieces with salt/pepper and place in a bowl.
Pour the sauce over the chicken and turn to cover. Let sit for 10-15 minutes
Press the sauce covered chicken into the bread crumbs and turn to coat.
Place the pieces on a non-stick baking sheet or grease another pan (I used my Pampered Chef large bar pan)
Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes until chicken is done.

Mac n' Cheese

Ingredients:

3/4lb small shell pasta
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
2 cups milk
1/2 cup shredded Sharp Cheese
1/2 cup shredded Italian Cheese
1 cup bread crumbs and some olive oil

Directions:

Cook pasta according to directions to a little less than done. It will continue to cook in the oven for a few minutes.
Melt the butter in a sauce pan and whisk in the flour. Cook for about minute.
Add the milk and bring to a boil, let thicken for 2-3 minutes.
Add the cheese (more or less to your taste)
Add the cooked pasta
Pour the mixture into a casserole dish and sprinkle the top with additional cheese.
In a bowl combine the breadcrumbs with a bit of olive oil until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Top the mac n cheese with the bread crumb mixture.
Put in oven with the chicken for the last 10 -12 minutes that it is cooking.
Should be bubbly and delicious!

3 comments:

Mrs. Murphy said...

What exactly is Italian Cheese? Monterey? Italian blend, like in the bag? Not ricotta! Need to know!

Kendra said...

Dori, was it too hot for the kids? or just right? it sounds good and will need to try it. the mac n cheese sounds good and always looking for something other than the box :)

Kendra said...

I made this all last night and really liked it. The only change i will make next time is to use less bread crumbs on the mac n cheese.
thanks for the good eats!