Baked Macaroni and Cheese

I was feeling down today and after doing the dishes I realized it was high time there were some dirty dishes on my counter! Yesterday when my sister was trying to talk me into making her macaroni and cheese AND pizza I found a recipe on the Food Network website by Alton Brown (my most favorite chef ever! Good Eats :D) My sister got pizza only, but now I was equipped with a new and exciting recipe, that was burning a whole in the pocket of my mind, like a child with a quarter. (She said the pizza was amazing, mayhap I will blog about a repeat performance of the pizza recipe another time.)

So, obviously, you start with some al dente mac' when making a mac'n'cheese. So al dente I did, and then gave my pasta elbows a nice bath so they didn't stick together horribly. Now I had to multitask as I roux-ed and chicken-ed at the same time. (Chicken [cubed] + bruschetta flavored olive oil = yummy chicken!) To my roux I added green onions, ground mustard, paprika, one bay leaf and milk, simmer for 10 before removing the bay leaf and adding cheese (in that order, you don't want to try fishing a broken bay out of cheese). Alton wanted me to use cheddar, but I don't like cheddar and more importantly we didn't have any. I used Colby jack, mozzarella, Parmesan and provolone.

While that simmered (before the cheese was invited) I chopped broccoli and tended the chicken and procured an egg (different chicken). Again before the cheese, I tempered in one egg. I wasn't so sure about this at first, but Alton has never done me wrong before, so I trusted him on this. Finally the cheese! Now I combined all my ingredients: macaroni, chicken, broccoli and cheese sauce. Top with buttered breadcrumbs (I substituted half my breadcrumbs with chicken flavored stuffing, for funsies) and bake for 30 then rest for 5.

Taste test time! Beautiful, brilliant, amazing! Best macaroni and cheese I've ever made (<3 Alton). And right now, there are dirty dishes on my counter, mission complete.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baked-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe/index.html