Butter Chicken Mac N Cheese!

Welcome! Come one, come all! The Queen of Mac N Cheese has held court in her royal kitchen, and she is here to tell you all about it...

That's too cheesy...

Ok ok, all cheesiness aside. It's Friday, and I'm pretty sure I've officially created a monster. I'll call it "Macinstein?" But no, seriously. It's a monstrosity. A deliciously rich and creamy, cheesy monstrosity.

I'll get to the point. What you're about to witness, is the magical story of versatility that is macaroni (pasta) and cheese. I have baked up a pretty smashingly good butter chicken mac and cheese. It's got the perfect balance of cheese and Indian butter chicken spices. It's pretty effing wild. Here it is, in all it's buttery chicken cheesy glory.

*swoon*

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Here's how it's done...

I started this recipe with the butter chicken. To make my butter chicken, I used about 2 chicken breasts. I cut them into small bite-sized chunks, about the same size as the pasta I was using (rigatoni). For the spice on the chicken, I used 1 teaspoon of chili powder (regular chili powder - not Indian chili powder! I cannot stress this enough! 10/10 spicy!), and 1/2 a teaspoon of turmeric, along with salt & pepper. Mix the spices into the chicken, and let this marinate for 15 minutes.

Now for the sauce part of the butter chicken! I chopped 1 medium sized yellow onion. I grated about 5 cloves of garlic, and about a tablespoon of ginger. I'm sure you could add more or less garlic and ginger depending on your own tastes.

Once everything is prepped (lesson learned from last time!), heat up 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan, and brown your chicken! Once it's done, take it out of the pan and give it a rest on a paper towel lined plate.

Melt 2 more tablespoons of butter in the same pan. Add the onion, garlic and ginger. Then add your spices! I threw 3 teaspoons of garam masala, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1 teaspoon of chili powder (again, NORMAL chili powder), and 1/2 a teaspoon of Indian chili powder (yes, this time I'm using the Indian chili powder too). If you can't find the Indian chili powder, just use cayenne pepper. I found this Indian chili powder easily in the Asian foods section of my grocery store. I'm not sure what exact type of chili this is made from, but it's so spicy if you use too much by mistake! Let this mixture cook together, until the onions are pretty soft.

Add 1 391 ml (or 14 oz) can of plain ol crushed tomatoes. Stir it together with your onion, garlic & ginger mixture, and get it simmering. Then add 1 cup of water, and 1 cup of heavy cream. Mix it all together again, and let it come to a simmer. It should be a pretty reddish orange color!

To make my sauce smoother, I transferred it to a plastic mixing bowl and blended it with a hand blender. I added it back to a different sauce pan (because I mistakenly used my favorite pan for making mac and cheese! Oops!). I sprinkled a bit of curry powder on the sauce and stirred it in. Then the chicken goes back in the sauce with 1 cinnamon stick, and 2 more tablespoons of butter (I guess this is why it's called butter chicken).

How pretty! We're basically done with the butter chicken! If you want to stop here and serve this up with some rice and naan, go right ahead! But... I'm sure you didn't come here for that now did you?

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Things are about to get cheesy...

Alright, this is where things get a lil weird. I feel a tiny bit like a mad scientist in the kitchen tonight.

For my cheese sauce, I decided to go with mozzarella, because it doesn't have a strong cheese flavor, and I thought it would balance well with the butter chicken sauce.

I melted 2 tablespoons of margarine in a frying pan, and added 2 tablespoons of flour. I cooked it until it was light golden brown. To this, I sprinkled some salt & pepper on it, with a little dash of curry powder and chili powder.

Gradually add 2 cups of 2% milk to your flour and butter (or margarine) mixture, and let it thicken while you whisk every so often. Remove it from the heat. I used about a cup and a half of mozza cheese in this sauce.

I had to scoop the chicken out of the butter chicken sauce first, because I made a bit too much (Yay! Leftover butter chicken sauce!). Then I added the chicken to my cheese sauce, and about half of the remaining butter chicken sauce.

Woahh... this was pretty good! Weird... but pretty good!

I guess, if you wanna get technical... this is not mac and cheese. I used rigatoni today instead of macaroni! It turned out pretty good, but I would probably use a different pasta next time. Trial & error, right? I like to try to use different types of pastas in my mac n cheese too. The rigatoni was ok, but I think the pasta was too thick for my fiance's tastes.

Final verdict = surprisingly good! You wouldn't think this s#!t would go together, but it kinda does! Wow!

So we're all done here! Let me know if you give this a go, and if you liked (or didn't like) it!

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The Breadcrumb Topper!

If I'm being honest, I truly did not have a freaking clue if the breadcrumb topper that I love so much on mac and cheese was going to be a good idea for this dish or not, but I tried it anyway, and it was, in fact, really good. It added that extra something that I love in mac and cheese! Try it if you have time. It actually really is next-level s#!t, and it doesn't take that long.

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Recipe:

Ingredients:

(for butter chicken)

6 tbsp butter (divided)

2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks about 1/2 inch

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon chili powder

Salt & pepper

1 yellow onion, chopped

5 garlic cloves, grated

1 tbsp grated ginger

3 teaspoons garam masala

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon Indian chili powder (or cayenne pepper)

1 391 ml (14 oz) can of crushed tomatoes

1 cup of water

1 cup of heavy cream

1 cinnamon stick

(for pasta and cheese sauce)

2 tbsp butter (or margarine)

2 tbsp flour

2 cups 2% milk

2 cups of mozzarella cheese (divided)

1/4-1/2 panko breadcrumbs

Dash of salt & pepper

Dash of curry powder (optional)

Dash of chili powder (optional)

About 2 cups dry rigatoni pasta

Method:

Butter Chicken:

1. Cut the chicken breast into about 1 to 1/2 inch bite-sized pieces. In a bowl, mix chicken together with turmeric, chili powder, salt & pepper. Marinate for 15 minutes, Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a sauce pan (or deep frying pan) over medium heat, and brown chicken. Let it rest on a paper towel lined plate.

2. Chop the onion, grate the 5 cloves of garlic, and grate about 1 tbsp of ginger. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the same sauce pan the chicken was cooked in, and add the onion, garlic, ginger, then add the rest of the spices (garam masala, chili powder, cumin, Indian chili powder). Cook until onions are soft. Add the whole can of crushed tomatoes. Mix together and bring to a simmer, then add water and heavy cream. Bring to a simmer again.

3. Use a hand blender or a normal blender (optional/if needed) to smooth out sauce and add the chicken back to this mixture in the sauce pan with 1 cinnamon stick and remaining 2 tbsp of butter.

Pasta & Cheese Sauce:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and cook pasta until al dente.

2. While the pasta is cooking, melt 2 tbsp butter in sauce pan (or deep frying pan), add flour. Whisk together and let the flour cook until light golden brown. Sprinkle salt, pepper on this. (Optional: Sprinkle curry & chili powder on top of mixture). Gradually add milk while whisking, and let the mixture simmer while you stir it periodically. The sauce will thicken. Remove from heat, and add 1 and 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese. Melt the cheese into the sauce.

3. Add all of the chicken, and about half of the butter chicken sauce, and cooked pasta to the cheese sauce.

4. (Optional: Transfer all ingredients to a baking dish. Top with remaining cheese & panko breadcrumbs (optional) and broil for 5-7 minutes until cheese has melted and breadcrumbs have toasted).

All done!