Gourmet Mac n Cheese w. Woolmores Fine Foods Sticky Balsamic Vinegar and Parmesan Cheese Biscuits • Seriously delicious and easy, don’t waste your time with breadcrumbs. We add Woolmore’s Fine Foods Parmesan Cheese Biscuits as a topping for our bakes, it adds an amazing element to your bake and a lovely texture from the cheese crunch.
“All I want…. is Mac and Cheese.” Kurt Cobain
Serves: 6 | Prep + Cook: 1 hour 15m
Ingredients:
5 Chicken Thighs
Big bunch sage, chopped
3 Garlic Cloves, chopped
6 Mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 tbspn Woolmore’s Fine Foods Sticky Balsamic Vinegar
2 Vegetable stock cubes
Large macaroni 500g
Bechamel:
3 cups Milk
3 tbspn Butter
4 tbspn Flour
1 1/2 tspn Nutmeg
1 cup Thickened Cream
1/2 cup of stock you made
1 cup Mozarella
1 cup Shredded Cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan
Topping:
1/2 cup Shredded Cheese
1/2 cup Mozzarella
80g Woolmore’s Fine Foods Parmesan Cheese Biscuits, crumbled
2 tbspn Sage
Method:
Pre heat oven to 200c. Firstly start by poaching chicken, this will also make your stock. Boil kettle with about 1.2 litres of water enough to cover chicken. Pop kettle back on for pasta. Place 5 chicken thighs in a large saucepan and 1 big bunch of sage still attached to branch as you will need to remove this later. Season. Add garlic, mushrooms, 3 generous tbspn of Woolmore’s Fine Foods Sticky Balsamic Vinegar. Once stock is boiling reduce to simmer for 10 mins. Begin checking chicken after 10 minutes: it is done when opaque through the middle. Chicken will typically finish cooking in 10-14 minutes depending on the thickness of the meat and whether it has a bone.
While the chicken stock is simmering, pour boiled water into a large saucepan and once boiling add pasta. Make sure pasta is al dente as we will bake this, then place aside once cooked. When the chicken is ready, remove from stock and place on chopping board. Cut the chicken into 1 cm sizes. Remove sage from stock and keep this stock for later! The remainder can be frozen for an amazing homemade stock for soup.
In a saucepan heat up milk, stir until hot and place aside. To make bechamel use a large fry pan or the pan you’re wanting to bake the pasta in. Start by melting the butter, slowly add flour and whisk over the medium heat for about 5 minutes. Slowly add the hot milk as you whisk. This should become thicker, if not add a little more flour. Whisk for 10 minutes add nutmeg and season, taste if you need more. Stir in your chicken and mushrooms, slowly add cream, the three cheeses, cooked pasta and lastly your stock. Turn to low heat, stir generously to ensure the creamy sauce is covering the pasta.
If you’re planning on baking this in another dish, pour your pasta into that or remain in pan. Chop some of the leftover sage for topping. Top your dish with shredded cheese, mozzarella, drizzle of Woolmore’s Balsamic Vinegar. Depending on what you prefer you can just break up the Woomore’s Parmesan Cheese Biscuits in a mixer or your hand. We find it yummier broken up into sporadic sizes as the bigger pieces of biscuits are really delicious and crunchy after baking in oven. Lastly sprinkle the sage on top. Pop into oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. This is serious winter comfort food, Enjoy!
Serving Suggestion:
Pasta can be heavy and a bit rich on its own so we recommended serving this dish with a generous serving of tossed salad.
