Chicken Bacon Ranch Mac n Cheese

After reading that title I bet you are dying to taste it! This dish was soooooooo deliciously yummy and a perfect comfort food the other night! I saw this posted on Courtney's blog over at Sweet Tooth Sweet Life a few days ago, and I knew I had to make it. 


Almost a year ago, Scott and I were sharing an apartment with his dad who was new to Austin. Almost every night, I would cook something, whether it was hamburger helper or pork chops, Chicken Parmesan or spaghetti. Now that he's had his own apartment for a while, every now and then I like to cook up a huge dish and take it over to him :-) He's seriously the sweetest man you'll ever meet! As soon as I saw the Chicken Bacon Ranch Mac and Cheese on her site - it was a done deal.

family outing at Oasis :-) Scott's dad and yours truly!

Chicken, Bacon, and Ranch Mac n Cheese

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces shell macaroni (a lot of people use elbow macaroni)
• 2 slices bacon
• 8 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups fat-free milk
• 1/3 cup condensed 98% fat-free cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 3/4 cup shredded six-cheese Italian blend
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp dried dill
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shredded Colby-Jack cheese

*These ingredients are mainly based off of Courtney's recipe, I made bigger portions due to making a banquet style dish for my bf's papa! :-)

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, drain.
2. Cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving drippings in pan. Finely chop bacon; set aside. Increase heat to medium-high. Add chicken to drippings in pan; sauté 6 minutes or until done.
3. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat; sprinkle flour evenly into pan. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk. Combine milk and soup, stirring with a whisk; gradually add milk mixture to saucepan, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes or until thick. Remove from heat; let stand 4 minutes or until sauce cools to 155°. Add Italian cheese blend, onion powder, garlic powder, dill, and salt, stirring until cheese melts. Stir in pasta and chicken.
4. Preheat broiler. Spoon mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with reserved bacon and colby-Jack cheese. Broil 3 minutes or until cheese melts. ENJOY!

A few pictures from all the action:

noooodles!

cooked bacon chicken with a tad of garlic and herb seasoning

dicin' up the chicken

i could eat a whole pack of bacon - so yummy

mixin' it up

fished product

Seriously, I probably made about 12 servings. Banquet style, fa sho. It was so delicious though!

and me, sneaking a bite or two... or ten :-) so delish

Any leftovers were eaten devoured within a few hours. I had a bad day this day, which turned a lot better which you can read about here, but this was definitely part of making me feel better - as it is an amaaaazing comfort food! As well as mint chocolate chip ice cream :-) hehe. 


PS- Today for the first time I was featured with my Pinterest Account! Was super excited and am so thankful! Met a lot of new awesome friends and bloggers! Check my pinterest out here!

Hope everyone's having a great night!! Tomorrow is Friday!! xo