Nacho Cheese Crusted Chicken and Salsa Macaroni

As promised, today's dinner comes to you under 30 minutes! As much as Mr. H loves cheese, I knew we had to come down this road sooner rather than later. Watching Chopped on the Food Network for the last few weeks has got me thinking about obscure things to pair - every time there's an obscure crunchy item to pair with the meat they're provided, they usually go with a crust on the meat. So I thought hey, why not follow in their footsteps and make the cheesiest dinner I can think of? So I went with Nacho Cheese Doritos crusted chicken strips and Salsa Mac 'n' Cheese! Trying to think of a perfect pairing for the chicken was proving to be difficult, and as it turns out, (as always) I was thinking about it too hard. The simplest thing to serve with cheesy chicken? More cheese! Mr. H asked for mac n cheese with a twist, so I made mac n cheese... with a twist ;) This dish is great because it satisfies the picky teenager in your house, and with defrosted chicken, it takes just about 30 minutes to prepare! Quick and easy, and super cheesy! Let's get started!

The first thing you want to do is start a pot of boiling water for your mac n cheese. Since I'm feeding about 4, I needed a big pot which takes a lot of time to get boiling. Prepping my chicken is the perfect time for me to get my water boiling so the chicken can cook in the same time that my macaroni is cooking. Next, crush your Doritos onto a plate, keeping in mind that you might need more crushed Doritos than you planned for in the beginning - you should keep the bag out and open just in case. Now it's simple, take your strips of chicken, dunk them in your eggs, and bread them in the crushed Doritos. It's okay if the pieces are bigger that cover the chicken, just make sure that once every slice has been coated, you crush some extra and cover every empty spot that you see.

Once you're done prepping your chicken, your water for the Macaroni should be boiling, so drop your noodles in the pot and pop your chicken in the oven for about 15 minutes and keep checking it after that to make sure you cook it enough. Make your mac n cheese as directed on the package, then add your salsa and shredded cheese. Your chicken may not be done in that time, so it's okay to cover the macaroni and put it on very low heat to keep it warm.

And voila! Dinner is served! Like I said, under 30 minutes for tonight's dinner, and quite delicious if I do say so myself :) I hope you enjoy these super simple recipes, and you keep this in your back pocket for those days where you just don't have the time or energy to make a huge meal. Enjoy!

Calories per serving of chicken strips: 214 Calories
Calories per serving of Mac n Cheese: 503

Ingredients: Chicken Strips
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into strips or chunks
3 cups nacho cheese doritos
2 eggs


1.) Preheat oven to 380 F
2.) Coat each piece of chicken in egg, then drop into plate of crushed Doritos. If you have larger chunks of        Doritos, press as many chunks as you can into the chicken, then place the chicken on a baking sheet.            Continue doing this until each piece is coated and on the baking sheet. Take the remaining crushed chips        and fill in the empty spaces on each piece of chicken.
3.) Bake chicken for 15 minutes, or until done in center.


Ingredients: Salsa Mac 'n' Cheese
2 packages macaroni and cheese, prepared
1 cup salsa of your choosing
1 cup shredded cheese of your choosing

1.) Prepare 2 boxes of mac n cheese together in one pot as directed on package
2.) Once prepared, add salsa and cheese