Chipotle Chicken Mac & Cheese

Back in August, I was inspired during a walk home from work to try something a little different with the classic American comfort food, Mac & Cheese, and devised Spicy Thai Curry Mac & Cheese featuring coconut milk, gruyere, curry, and Thai chilies. At the time, I thought it would be fun to do a variety of fusion mac & cheeses, or fusion American comfort foods, but didn't really follow up on that... until tonight.

This is my second variation on Mac & Cheese, this time using spicy cheeses, chipotle peppers, chicken, and some classic Mexican seasonings to take it in a different direction. The Chipotle peppers are very spicy, so you could definitely cut back, or switch to a milder salsa in place of the peppers. If you do use Chipotle peppers, be sure to have really good ventilation in the kitchen (read: open a window) before cooking the chicken, otherwise you may feel like you're breathing pepper spray fumes. I happened to use farfalle pasta (bowties), because it's what we had around, but you could use macaroni, radiatorre, or any other pasta with good texture to hold the cheese.

Chipotle Chicken Mac & Cheese
1 lb chicken breast
7 oz can Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce
3/4 cup tortilla chips
2 Tbspn butter
8 oz farfalle pasta
2 Tbspn butter
1 clove garlic, minced
Whites of 3 green onions, minced
1 Tbspn all purpose flour
1 tspn Mexican Spice Mix
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup jalapeno cheddar
1 cup cup 'salsa con queso' cheddar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2 qt casserole dish. Cut the chicken breast into 1/2 inch strips and place in a bowl. Chop the Chipotle peppers and put 3/4 of it in the bowl with the chicken, toss to combine, and return to refrigerator. Reserve the remaining peppers. Place the tortilla chips into a food processor and pulse until they break down to rough crumbs. Move the crumbs to a small bowl. Melt 2 Tbpsn of butter and pour over the tortilla crumbs, and set aside. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente. Drain well, shaking off as much residual water as possible, then place into prepared casserole dish. While pasta is cooking, melt 2 Tbspn butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic and onion and cook about 2 minutes, until onion is transluscent and garlic begins to borwn. Stir in flour, and spice mix until incorporated. Pour in milk and bring to a simmer. Simmer, stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened (about 10 minutes). Take the mixture off the heat and stir in the cheeses and reserved chipotle peppers until cheese is melted. Pour cheese sauce over the pasta, then sprinkle evenly with buttered tortilla crumbs. Bake (uncovered) until the top is golden and bubbly, about 20 minutes. About 10 minutes before the mac & cheese is ready to come out of the oven, cook them through in a skillet over medium heat, about 5-10 minutes. Serve chicken over mac & cheese.