Green Chili Chicken Mac and Cheese Muffins
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These Green Chili Chicken Mac and Cheese Muffins are perfect as an appetizer for any party, Super Bowl or not. Made in under 30 minutes or made ahead, these deliver big and who doesn’t love small, cheesy, crunchy hand held food?
Yes, this is a recipe post I did last year, but thought with party food on the rise for the big game day it needed your close attention.
I had the overwhelming desire for some comfort food. As in Mac and Cheese. As in naughty me for wanting that delicious gooey, cheesy concoction. Then the idea of green chili of some sort came into the picture and threw me off. Pork or chicken? Why not combine the Mac and Cheese idea with the green chili and make them into little bite size morsels of comfort food?
OK, so for these little gems of deliciousness you could attack it two different ways. Elevate them with homemade versions of the Mac & Cheese or go straight to the nice and easy with store bought from a box. Your choice.
I decided on making mine from scratch and bumped it up with extra sharp cheddar cheese. Ya know, because everything is better with cheddar!
Let’s keep it real simple too, and use some rotisserie chicken. With some chopped green chiles and an addition of a diced red bell pepper I was on my way!
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for 2 minutes.
Whisk in milk until thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the cheeses, chilies, peppers and 1 tsp Mexican oregano until smooth. Gently fold in macaroni and chopped chicken until well coated.
Of course one needs to test taste so I advise getting a spoon and dipping in for a delicious mouthful.
At this point lightly grease mini muffin cups with cooking spray and preheat your oven to 425°F.
In a small bowl mix the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and 1 tsp Mexican oregano. Toss to combine as you will divide half evenly inside the bottom of each muffin mold.
Sprinkle some of the breadcrumb and cheese mixture on the bottom of each muffin mold. This will do two things – soak up the grease and caramelize and get all sorts of crunchy on the bottom. A perfect base when you remove these guys later.
Using a medium cookie/ice cream scoop place pasta and chicken mixture into prepared muffin tins.
Sprinkle with remaining Panko/Parmesan topping. Bake until golden brown on top, about 14 minutes.
Cool for 5 minutes and remove from muffin pans. Serve warm or allow to cool and freeze for later use.
Look at how cute and crispy on the outside, warm and cheesy on the inside these guys are looking.
That wonderful crunchy topping as well as on the bottom of each adds so much.
The light green chili bite goes so well with the mac and cheese. The sweet nibble of red bell peppers, the crunchy outside and cheesy chicken goodness on the inside made me happy. So much so I had quite a few down the hatch before I even started taking photos.
Some of the best ones I ate before getting their images down for prosperity! Alas, such tribulations are never that bad as I made 36 of these and made sure to get a lot of pics for you to salivate over.
Now go make some of these and let me know what you think!
Green Chili Chicken Mac and Cheese Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup Panko bread crumbs
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp butter
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 cups shredded Sharp Cheddar cheese
- 1 cup shredded Pepper jack cheese
- 8 oz . chopped green chilies
- 2 tsp Mexican oregano
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 8- oz . pkg. elbow macaroni cooked
- 2 cups chopped rotisserie chicken
Instructions
- Lightly grease mini muffin cups with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 425°F.
- In a small bowl mix the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and 1 tsp oregano. Toss to combine and divide half evenly inside the bottom of each muffin mold.
- Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for 2 minutes.
- Whisk in milk until thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the cheeses, chilies, peppers and 1 tsp oregano until smooth. Gently fold in macaroni and chopped chicken until well coated.
- Using medium cookie/ice cream scoop place mixture into prepared muffin tins. Sprinkle with remaining Panko/Parmesan topping. Bake until golden brown on top, about 14 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and remove from muffin pans. Serve warm or allow to cool and freeze for later use.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
At what point in the recipe do you add chopped chicken? As a chili verde addict, i can’t WAIT to try these tasty gems! Thanks!
In Step 4: Gently fold in macaroni and chopped chicken until well coated. The edges get all cheesy toasted. Love these. 🙂
What a cool idea, Kevin! I totally love all these flavors going on (And you’re so right about extra cheese). Besides, these little bites don’t have as many calories as a whole plate of mac & cheese so you can eat more of them. Solid logic, eh?:)
I concur whole heartedly Ben! Little bites means you can have more… I think. 🙂
These are like a meal in muffin form! How brilliant! My daughter simply ADORES mac and cheese and if she saw these she’d be so bugging me to make them and then she’d try to finish the whole lot giving me some excuse about how being a teenager is exhausting!
LOL, that’s funny Shashi, and I think it’s actually pretty easy to keep eating these. What is it about small, tasty food? Makes one think “just one more!”
BTW, I keep getting errors when I comment on your site, do any ever come through?