Chicken, Bacon, Mac and Cheese Bake
By: Janet Roof
Can you say comfort food? The Chicken, Bacon, Mac and Cheese Bake is the ultimate indulgence. Cheesy, creamy, crispy--this baked mac and cheese recipe has got all the best food adjectives covered!
Notes
Yields approximately 12 servings. To create a serving for 6, reduce all ingredients by 1/2.
Follow along to really see how easy it is to make this scrumptious mac and cheese!
Yields12 servings
Ingredients
- 3 pound (to 4) boneless chicken
- 2 pound bacon
- 32 ounce cheddar cheese
- 1 pound medium shells macaroni
- 2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup (to 2) hot and spicy seasoned bread crumbs
- 1 onion
- 1 stick salted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Fry bacon in square frying pan until crisp. Drain on paper towels and set aside.
- Heat large skillet and add 3 tablespoons of butter.
- Dice onion and fry in melted butter; be sure not to burn the butter.
- Rinse chicken under cool water and drain. Be sure to wash your hands when handling raw meats.
- Dice chicken into small edible pieces; add about 2 cups of diced chicken to frying pan with onions. Fry chicken until golden brown. Remove fried chicken from pan and put in a large mixing bowl. Continue dicing and frying chicken until all the chicken is cooked. (Please note: You will need to add more butter to the pan each time you begin to fry a new batch of chicken. This will take a few minutes, so be patient.)
- While the last pan of chicken is frying, dice the pre-cooked bacon into small pieces and add to mixing bowl of cooked chicken. Once all the chicken is cooked and the bacon is diced, combine in large mixing bowl, stir mixture until combined, and set aside.
- Fill large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Add pasta and follow the cooking directions on the pasta box for best results (about 11 minutes) and drain.
- Add cooked, drained pasta to the mixing bowl of chicken and bacon and combine. Add shredded cheese (set aside 1 cup of shredded cheese) and mayonnaise to the mixture and combine well. Mixture should be sticky and moist enough to hold itself together. If mixture seems too dry, add more mayonnaise as needed.
- Grease the bottom and sides of the baking pan generously with soft butter, and spread chicken mixture evenly throughout pan.
- Sprinkle remaining shredded cheese over the top of the mixture, and top off with sprinkled breadcrumbs.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown.