Mac and Cheddar Cheese with Chicken and Broccoli

nicoleb

I halved the recipe and made basically as written but I omitted cayenne (we don’t like heat) and I used freshly grated medium cheddar as we don’t like sharp. Instead of chicken broth I made a better than bouillon mixture with some reserved pasta water. And I also put much less mustard. <br /><br />I marinated some chicken breast in olive oil, salt, onion and garlic powder for a few hours in the fridge. A secret to moist sautéed chicken breast is to let it come to room temp at least a half hour before frying it. I cooked it about 75% done, took it out added the onion, and brought the chicken back in to finish cooking with onion. This allowed me to really caramelize the onion and it made the whole recipe in my opinion, and brought amazing undertones to it that you’d find in a diner. <br /><br />I put the broccoli in before the pasta as we like it softer, especially for our toddlers. <br /><br />Seasoned it with more salt at the end. <br /><br />I give it 4 stars because the sauce was grainy even with freshly grated cheese and I did panic for a minute. Once the broccoli and chicken were mixed together the florets left a lot of green broccoli specks that it didn’t make it as noticeable. If you skip broccoli you’ll definitely notice how grainy it is. <br /><br />Recipe did take a bit longer than expected because you have to use different pans for every step, rotisserie would save some time but you’d miss that caramelized chicken and onion mixture. <br /><br />We all went back for seconds. I would definitely make it again, but probably not as often as it required a bit of babysitting and with really small kids it’s seldom I make heavily involved stove top meals. <br /><br />4/5 stars! I recommend it!