Buffalo Chicken Bacon Ranch Mac N Cheese

When I first started this blog and I named it Sweet 'n Sour Sassiness, for several reasons. Sometimes I am sweet. Sometimes I am sour. And sometimes I am sassy. (Well, to be perfectly honest, I am almost always sassy in my head.) Another thought was that I am bitter about the lack of REAL men in the world and this would be a place for me to rant. And still another thought was, I love food. May I say that again... I LOVE FOOD!!! Especially the unhealthy kind. I don't even try to be healthy people. And the name is reminiscent of Sweet 'n Sour Chicken. Sweet 'n Sour Chicken... Sweet 'n Sour Sassiness. I know it is a real hard leap to make between the two. My creative flow just astounds you, I know. But I knew I couldn't be just a book blog, because I liked movies too much, and I couldn't be just a movies blog, because I liked food too much... and I like music too much.... and yada, yada, yada.

So there is the long way of introducing my very first food post. In fact, I am still not quite done introducing this. Hold on to your horses, I am getting there.

Since I am currently staying with my parents, my mom assigned me dinner for a night. She also requested I try to use the buffalo sauce I brought home with me. Challenge accepted! And I did what every other ration woman would do in this situation, I looked on Pinterest. For hours. Trying to find the perfect lazy buffalo sauce recipe.

Well, either the recipes were too fancy, too much work, or contained things I did not have on hand. (And heaven forbid I go to the store!) So after looking at several recipes I thought, I got this!

And I did. I decided I was going to make Buffalo Chicken Bacon Ranch Mac 'n Cheese. (I think we need to come up with a different name, that one is forever long. Suggestions? Death in a Pan?) I was going to make my normal homemade mac 'n cheese, with a few modifications.

So here is my normal Mac n Cheese

1 lb. Elbow macaroni

1 lb. Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 package of bacon, cooked
¼ cup of butter
milk

Prepare macaroni as directed by package. Drain, and cool. Pre-heat oven to 350. In a 9x13 glass pan, layer macaroni, cheese, bacon, and macaroni, cheese, bacon again. I lightly salt and pepper the top. Cut the ¼ cup of butter into thin slabs and place strategically on top. Pour milk into the pan just until you barely see it coming up the side (about a centimeter of milk, I know that is not exact, but I was never told how much either, just until you start seeing it on the side). Put it in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until all the cheese is melted. Let it sit for 5 minutes and then devour... I mean enjoy.

This is a dish that is even better the second day.

Now for the Buffalo adjustments.

The above ingredients ( except I only did half a package of bacon), plus:
2-3 chicken breasts, boiled, cubed (this can be done ahead and frozen)
1/3 cup buffalo sauce (add more if you like the heat)
1 Tbs. Ranch

Once I've fried up my bacon and drained the grease, I put my chicken in there to warm it up. Add the buffalo sauce and the ranch. Layer the pan macaroni, chicken, cheese, macaroni, cheese, and lastly bacon. Then cook like above.

I chose to put this up here as my first food post because I got the best comment from my dad. He puts ketchup on everything! I mean everything! But he said to me, “It doesn't even need ketchup!” Praise indeed !!!

Since I was also making this for my grandparents, I was worried about the buffalo sauce being to hot for my G-ma, but the ranch seemed to tame it enough for her. Phew! But to be honest I would have liked more zip. So next time I will try it with ½ cup of buffalo sauce.

So try it out. Let me know how I did. This being my first food post, was it clear enough? Do I need more directions or clarification? Clear as mud? Thought so.