Chicken and Bacon Macaroni Cheese

[cookie1]

Chicken and Bacon Macaroni Cheese:
4:
Ingredients:
250g macaroni or other short pasta
60g butter
50g plain flour
750g milk
120g cheddar cheese
80g Parmesan cheese
160g cooked, shredded chicken
2 rashers of bacon, cooked and sliced
90g frozen peas, thawed


Preparation:
1.  Put Parmesan in thermomix and grate on speed 8 for 10 seconds. Set aside.
2.  Place cheddar cheese in bowl and grate for 10 seconds on speed 8.
3.  Make sauce by placing butter, flour and milk into thermomix bowl and cooking at 90 degrees for 12 minutes on speed 4.
4.  Put sauce into a casserole dish and stir in half the grated cheeses, bacon, peas and chicken.
5.  Cook pasta as per instructions in the Everyday Cooking book. Drain and mix with the cheese sauce mixture.
6.  Sprinkle over the rest of the cheeses and bake in a moderate oven for about 15-20 minutes.

Photos:

Tips/Hints:

You could use any leftover meat or even vegetables to put in this macaroni cheese. The recipe could be prepared, refrigerated and then heated through and the cheese browned when you require it.
This recipe is adapted from a Women's Weekly recipe.

members' comments

GNMI - My mum (and now I) have always mixed in 1/2 tin (approx 220g) of Condensed tomato soup into the white/cheese sauce before pouring it over the pasta.  Great flavour boost!

Chelsea - I made this last night and we thought it was delicious. The flavour from the two cheeses was lovely.  Perfect comfort food after a busy weekend.

Caroline J - I made this tonight, and it was fabulous- the kids loved it!  I cooked the pasta on the stove though, while the sauce was cooking.  It saved time.

Thermaddicted - Great recipe !! We loved it!

Jezza -  so easy and very yummy.

dede - Had this tonight minus the chicken (as we had lamb chops). I give this recipe 5/5. Really yummy.

thermo18 - Really liked this, have done it twice, second time taken the chicken out and had it as a side dish with steak and steamed carrots and beans, only because I didn't have any chicken. I would definitely make again, doing it either way as both was lovely.

Chelsea - We really, really love this. I made it for a casserole night and it went down a treat there also.

Hally - good lunch dish for ds in his flask at school.

runnybabbit - it's delicious! Added some parsley.  Yummm. Love that I can make the bechamel sauce with skinny milk just so it's not QUITE so naughty -- just the full fat cheese to worry about.

maddy -  just added 200g of really smoked cooked bacon and lots of cracked pepper. I might try adding seeded mustard next time with the chicken. Thanks cookie.

Mills - Well I just made this for the 1st time, my 19 month old daughter sat there and fed herself a whole bowl and then kept scraping her empty bowl till she was given more. Thanks so much.

Foxx -I have never been a huge fan of Macaroni Cheese and was a bit skeptical on making this but it blew our socks off here. I added some pepper and sliced spring onions plus for the cheddar I used a smokey flavoured variety. Thank you for a lovely tasting recipe, it will be one added to my favourites.

JD - I had 3 chicken drumsticks leftover from last night and they yielded 200g chicken, they were pretty big ones.
This recipe serves 6 in this house and I have frozen 2 lots of 2 portions.  I decided to go with the option GNMI posted as I was thawing some of my tomato soup out for tea anyway and it sounded interesting. I just replaced 220g of the milk with the tomato soup and the consistency was perfect.  I think it cut the richness of me using full cream milk and full fat cheese which I don't normally buy but I picked up the wrong milk this week and the full fat cheese was so much cheaper for 1kg than low fat cheese.  We both really enjoyed it.

KarenH -  This recipe is so tasty - even cold and straight from the fridge. Must try the tomato soup variation sometime soon too. Thanks for a wonderful, easy recipe.

astarra - Miss 6 has been taking this in her thermos for lunches at school....and it always comes home empty! A great recipe, thanx. Also...yes it can be frozen, tho you might want to add a bit more milk before freezing as it can go gluggy.

CC -  everyone loved it. A big thank you Cookie from all of us.

Greyhoundmum -  The sauce is so simple and delish made in TMX.  To save time I cooked my pasta on the stove top so it was all done at the same time.  I also like my cheesy Mac to be browned on top so I chuck on some TMX herbed breadcrumbs extra Parmesan and sesame seeds then pop under hot grill for 2 mins.

Chris R - Yum, this is now one of our favorite meals.

Jamberie - Thank you for sharing this yummy recipe. I was having a lengthy dinner table discussion tonight with DH and didn't hear a peep from DD2 (I almost forgot she was there) as she was loving her meal so much... until she interrupted us with "more dinner"!
And the bonus.....it was so delicious none of her dinner ended up on the floor! We will certainly be having this one again.

charabelle - Kids loved this tonight, had seconds and there is still heaps left. I grilled the bacon and chicken with some onion and boiled the pasta on the stove. Added some dried breadcrumbs on top for extra crunch also. Yummo!

Wonder -  I cheated and just included the cheese in with the other sauce ingredients to make a cheese sauce, I also added some cayenne and mustard for a bit more flavour, didn't have any chicken so added some onion. I also used up some spreadable mersey valley cheese that DD bought and no one liked and used some other scraps of leftover cheese. It would have been great with some parmesan and parsley crumbs on top but I couldn't be bothered washing and drying the tmx to make them.

Now that I'm writing all the changes down it probably doesn't resemble the original at all!!!   It was very quick, easy and tasty and was great reheated for lunch today. I did find the sauce a little rich when I had it last night but today was fine.

Frogdancer - made this using ham, cooked the pasta on the stove and added some spring onions, parsley and mustard.

kt2 - it was really tasty and easy too. 

Deniser - A nice easy one.  Have ready to pop in the oven when I return from work tomorrow.  Used Chorizo in place of the bacon.  Used cheese and breadcrumbs on top and will place some sliced tomato over that before I pop in the oven.  Think it will be lovely comfort food served with Garlic Bread.

Amy - I've just made this to put in the freezer. I didn't have any cooked chicken so I cooked some in a frying pan with the bacon and then added the peas to thaw them. I was cooking this at the same time as the sauce in the TMX and the pasta in a pot on the stove. Super quick and easy, thanks Cookie.

Kimmyh - We loved it. Great use of last nights leftover roast chicken. Thanks cookie it's a great recipe.
I have also made it using leftover Christmas turkey. Very tasty.

[Thermomixer]

Great work - making white sauces is SOOOOOOO easy in the TMX - makes it easy to do this while battling with the kids. 

[brazen20au]

oh YUM!

shame it's not ww core plan friendly but mayb eit can be my treat one week

[GNMI]

My mum (and now I) have always mixed in 1/2 tin (approx 220g) of Condensed tomato soup into the white/cheese sauce before pouring it over the pasta.  Great flavour boost!

[Caroline J]

This sounds like a great one for my kids, will put it on my menue plan this week

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

I made this last night and we thought it was delicious. The flavour from the two cheeses was lovely.  Perfect comfort food after a busy weekend.

Being the busy (hmmm lazy??) person that I am, I have been racking my brains trying to think of a way to simplify the method a little.  It would be good to include the cooking of the bacon and peas in the TMX somehow and maybe even the chicken if raw.  I'm wondering if this method could work:

1) grate the cheese (and set aside)
2) cook the white sauce (and place in baking dish with half of the cheese)
3) steam diced raw chicken thigh fillets and chopped bacon in varoma with water in bowl for 20 minutes at varoma temp
4) add macaroni to bowl and peas to varoma after 10 minutes
5) strain pasta, combine everything in baking dish, sprinkle with remaining cheese . . . .

I'm thinking it might work??  Can pasta be cooked at varoma temp? 

[Thermomixer]

You can run into trouble with pasta and Varoma temp as the starch sometimes causes it to boil over.

You don't really need to cook the bacon, but if you cut the raw chicken into thin (3-4 mm slices like stir-fry) and placed them into the Varoma and cooked for a few minutes before adding the pasta and turning it back down to 100^oC, then the chicken should cook enough, especially when going to be mixed into hot pasta and placed in the oven for 15- 20 minutes.

The bacon can just go in as is and it should be fine, more like adding ham.  If you want to thaw the peas out, then throw them in with the pasta for a minute just before straining.  You can even put them into the colander and then pour the pasta and water over them - they will be fine.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Thanks Thermomixer.  I was hoping there was a lazy option for me. 

[cookie1]

They sound like great adaptions, Thanks. Anything to save time.

[Caroline J]

I made this tonight, and it was fabulous- the kids loved it!  I cooked the pasta on the stove though, while the sauce was cooking.  It saved time

[Thermaddicted]

Great recipe !! We loved it! #40 on my challenge list

[Jezza]

Made this tonight, so easy and very yummy.

[obbie]

Great, I can make this for the kids.
Thanks, Robyn

[dede]

Had this tonight minus the chicken (as we had lamb chops). I give this recipe 5/5. Really yummy
Will be making it again for sure.

[thermo18]

Really liked this, have done it twice, second time taken the chicken out and had it as a side dish with steak and steamed carrots and beans. Only because I didn't have any chicken, I would definitely make again, doing it either way as both was lovely