Chicken Verde Mac & Cheese | Sunday Foodie Bits

I have a soft spot for macaroni and cheese. There are always boxes of Kraft mac and cheese in my cupboards. Always.
But, after a while, I do wish for something more. I've made homemade macaroni and cheese before, which was good, but not something to make regularly - cheese sauce takes a surprising amount of ingredients!

And then I found this recipe.
I tried salsa verde for the first time recently, and it was delicious, so I thought this recipe would be perfect for us.

It was a fantastic choice.

One thing I do need to mention, though, is where does one find a 10 ounce can of green enchilada sauce? I found multiple cans of the red, and one of the green (that was 2$!), and then the rest were 19 ounce cans (for just over 1$). And there was no generic/off brand green sauce, but there was for the red. Why no love for the green sauce?

So far as the recipe goes, it was super easy. If you know how to cook.
If you were to follow it to a T, I don't think it would be too much fun. Too many things open to interpretation that could go wrong.

First change I would make - use the whole can of chiles. But, drain them first. The sauce/liquid/water is what holds half the spiciness, so just don't use it. Problem solved.

Onto the chicken bits: the instructions also weren't too clear about how to cook the chicken. Because I know that letting it sit in sauce for 10 minutes is not going to cook my chicken all the way through! Neither will 15 minutes in the oven. So I cooked the chicken till it was half done, and then added the sauce. Next time I will cook the chicken with the chiles only, till it's just turned white, and let it simmer with the enchilada sauce about five minutes (until the chicken starts to brown).
A side note as well - I only used one large(ish) breast piece. Granted, there are only two of us, but there was enough chicken using one piece of a larger size. It's possible the recipe meant breast tenders (as those are smaller), but there is no way that this recipe needs two actual breast pieces - unless you are a carnivore or hate noodles.

And of course, the enchilada sauce reduced down quite a bit, so the larger can actually came in handy. I used about half a can in the pan with the chicken to simmer, and then added most of what was left before it all went in the oven.

Another issue I had with the recipe was this - are you to add the sour cream and cheese to the meat or the noodles? Because, from what I know, sour cream and cheese always goes to the noodles. Sauces and stir-ins (like the chiles) go to the meat.
Either way, that's how I did it.

I do not possess a 9x13 pan. I have a 7x11 pan. And that worked out perfectly. Seriously, it fit just right.
Maybe it was the "missing" chicken.

And you are greeted by this messy-looking thing after 15 minutes in the oven.

I dunno about you, but most things that I make that end up looking messy are freakin' amazing.
This was like that.

I've had just regular salsa in Kraft mac & cheese before, and it was delicious, but this goes well beyond that.
There was only a slight "kick" from the chiles, but that's because I drained them. If you wanted it to be spicier, you could marinate the chicken with the chiles before you cooked it all up.

I will say though, that the original recipe needs some work - the website is called "The How To Mom", and I'm just a bit disappointed at how badly the instructions were done.
I had written it out on a piece of scratch paper, to use while I cooked, and at first thought it was just my bad copy skills (saying "yeah, I'll remember what that means, right"), but the actual recipe leaves out a few (seemingly) important things.
Nothing life-shattering, and nothing I couldn't figure out, but it still irks me a little. Or just maybe all mom's know that cheese goes with noodles (but then how do I know, because I'm not a mom).

Either way - try this one. It's delicious.

~Havok

P.S. I promise - next week's recipe will be cheese-optional. I never realized before just how much cheese we actually eat. But goodness is it a lot!

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