Being a fan can be the kind of hard work that builds an appetite. That’s why Buffalo Rumblings brings you a recipe every week to pair with the Buffalo Bills’ upcoming opponent, featuring a custom wing sauce to make it more “Buffalo.” Our opponent this week: the New England Patriots.
This week we put a Buffalo spin on lobster mac and cheese. Due to food allergies I’ll be swapping lobster with Buffalo chicken. In honor of our opponent, rather than do a full-blown mac’n recipe I’ll show you my cheater version that starts with boxed. For the sauce however, there’s no shortcuts on the process.
Buffalo Chicken Mac’n Cheater
Serves: 3-4
Active Time: 30 min
Total Time: 40
Ingredients
Mac’n and chicken:
- 1 box of your favorite macaroni and cheese, preferably with a powder-based cheese product
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- Whole milk (roughly twice what the box indicates you need), plus to taste***
- 4 oz cheese, cut into small cubes or shredded*
- Pre-cooked chicken tenders or nuggets or whatever cooked chicken you wanna use, heated per pkg instructions (Remember, it’s cheater week!)
Wing sauce:
- 1⁄2 cup hot sauce**
- 1⁄2 cup white wine, something toward the sweeter side
- 1⁄2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
Directions
- Prepare the mac’n: Bring pot of salted water to boil on HIGH; add noodles. Cook noodles per pkg directions; drain water, (reserving some in a small bowl***), returning noodles to pot over MEDIUM heat. Fold in butter and milk; then add cheese packet. Stir until thoroughly combined. Fold in cubed/shredded cheese; continue stirring until completely melted. Continue to simmer on LOW while you prepare the remainder of recipe.
- Prepare the chicken: Slice warmed chicken into half-inch cubes or thereabouts once cool enough to do so; set aside.
- Prepare the wing sauce: Put hot sauce, white wine, garlic and onion into a small saucepan and simmer on MED for about 5 min—just long enough to slightly thicken.
- Remove from heat and add butter, allowing it to melt in slowly.
- Prepare dish: Toss the chicken chunks in the sauce. Put them on the mac’n and enjoy your cheater-week eats!
Wingin’ It Tips
- *I used a combination of white cheddar and Swiss. Feel free to play around with cheese combos.
- **If you’re just coating the chicken there’s likely going to be a good amount of extra sauce. If that’s an issue, consider halving the recipe.
- ***Some people like their mac’n juicy like Dion Dawkins. Others don’t. If it’s not juicy enough, add a couple tablespoons of reserved salted water OR milk at a time and stir it up. If it’s too juicy, continue to heat and stir it up to thicken.