This casserole was fantastic! A perfect comfort meal, just the kind that I love to have on cold nights, eating dinner in bed. This should have been a fairly easy meal to make however I ran into a few snafus but just keep swimming. It may have been way later than planned but damnit it was getting made!
Lets start with the original recipe. CHICKEN BACON RANCH PASTA BAKE by Inside Bru Crew Life.
For the chicken, I roasted a boneless, skinless breast on the Traeger a couple hours before. I seasoned the chicken with salt, pepper, Traeger Anything Rub, and Smoked Paprika on both sides. (I love Smoked Paprika on chicken! It gives it a wonderful smokey flavor.) Placed that in a small glass dish and put about half a cup of chicken stock in the dish. I used Better Than Bouillion Chicken Base and mixed about a TBSP into hot water. Topped with a TBSP of butter, in this instance I used Country Crock Plant Butter with Avocado Oil. I set the Midnight Meat Train at 425 degrees and roasted it for about 45 minutes, until the top is golden browned. I left the chicken in the stock and set it aside to cool. Once cooled, I shredded the whole thing. You could just chop it too but I prefer shredded. I poured the left over chicken stock in a storage container and put in the fridge for later use. Never let good stock go to waste!
While I was cooking the chicken on the Traeger, I threw a few pieces of bacon on there too. Cooked these about 8 minutes a side, until they were nice and crispy and almost all the fat was cooked off. I set these aside to cool as well. Once cooled, I roughly chopped into bits.
Once it was time to get cooking, I picked bionaturae Gluten Free Rice & Lentil Penne Rigate Pasta for this one. It says there is no soy, starch, or gums. I like these because the texture is good, they hold up to handling after cooked and dont fall apart, and they dont have any weird after taste. I cook these to al dente as the recipe directs.
For the vegetables, I did the purple/red onion, canned diced tomatoes and fresh spinach but I left out the green pepper. We both have a sensitivity to them, they cause hellacious heartburn, so unless they are a key ingredient to the dish, I either leave them out or I will substitute with a pablano. I’m also not suppose to eat chicken, but I dont listen to that one as much as I should because I love it so much.
Okay, so now on to the sauce and this is where I ran into my issues. I got my mozzarella cheese out and when I opened it up, I immediately noticed that it was bad, the smell hit me first. I think to myself, no worries, I have more in the freezer. I will just take enough for what I need and the warm milk will melt it, no biggy. So, I bang it on the counter a bit to break it up and then just dumpped what I needed into my milk. Well…. the top of that cheese was moldy too, which is now in my milk. I have frozen moldy cheese just glaring at me in my pan. Fuck. Thankfully, it was still frozen because I did not have any more evaporated milk on hand. I strained the milk and removed all the cheese, moldy pieces and all. Now, I need to figure out what to use, I grab the shredded Cheddar Jack cheese I had in the fridge. I figured it was pretty close, its a mix of mild cheddar and monterey jack cheese, so it has a mild, soft cheese flavor and texture to it. A solid substitute I felt.
I followed the recipe the rest of the way through, topping it all off with a little pepperjack cheese to add a nice bite to it. I did not add the cheddar to the top since I used the cheddar jack in the sauce. Even with all the malfunctions with the cheese sauce it still came out amazing! The Cheddar Jack was a great alternative, next time I will try it with the mozzarella and see which one I like like best.
Overall, very cheesy, with the tang from the ranch dressing and the bite from the pepperjack, the flavors were popping. So good! A perfect hearty cassole meal. It does take a bit of pre-planning unless you already have some cooked chicken you need to use up or if you pick up a rotisserie. It is definitely going in my favorite casserole dish list. Its even just as good reheated the next day!
