Baked Pasta with Chicken and Bacon

Original Posts Photo - how cute. 

UPDATED August 3rd 2016:

Apparently on a what I assume was a cold day in February 2013, I didn't know what to make for dinner. I opened my cupboard and saw macaroni and cheese... instead of making it, I decided to make my own version.

Well three years later, it was my inspiration to make my anniversary dinner. Now I thought it was good, how could I not with the ingredients in it? But Conor said he thinks its his new favourite meal that I've cooked for him. That could have been the wine talking... however, I do cook for him a lot so thats got to have some credibility!

Serves 4-5 people

Ingredients
4 strips of bacon, chopped into bite site pieces
1 small onion, diced
2 Chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
S&P
Olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic, diced
2 tbsp of fresh thyme, chopped (or 2 tsp dried)
2 cups dried macaroni (or any other pasta - original recipe done with rigatoni - may need to adjust based on type of pasta used)
2 cups milk
3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp butter
2 cups grated cheddar cheese (or however much of whatever combo you liked - I tossed in a handful of grated romano too because I had it).
Pinch of paprika (maybe 1/8 tsp)
Handful (maybe 1/2 cup) of panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease/spray a baking dish. Set aside.

Cut up the bacon into bite size pieces. In a large pot (you will be making the sauce in here later), fry the bacon until it just starts to crisp. Remove and place in a large bowl.

In the same pot, add the diced onions, half the garlic and half the thyme. Cook on medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until onions become translucent. If there is not enough bacon grease and the pan seems too dry, add a splash of olive oil.  Remove onions and put into the same bowl that the bacon is in.

Add a splash of olive oil and then add chicken (may need to do in two batches depending on size of pot). Let the chicken sit undisturbed for a minute or two to get some nice brown color on the chicken. Once cooked, approximately 7 minutes (depending on the size of the bites) remove from pot and add to the bowl with the bacon and onions.

In a new pot, boil water and cook pasta of your choice to al dente. You can start this process sooner, but the macaroni I had only took 3 minutes to cook to al dente.  

In the same pot used to make the onions/chicken/bacon, make a cheese sauce. At a low heat, melt butter and add the rest of the thyme/garlic. Slowly add flour and stir constantly. Here you are making a roux. You want the flour/butter to turn a nice light beige. Let cook for a minute, making sure to keep stirring so it doesn't burn. Slowly add milk, stirring the whole time. You will notice that the milk will make it thick at first, but once you add all of it will seem like it is just milk in a pot. After a few minutes on low/medium heat, this will begin to thicken. Once thickened, add cheddar cheese (as much as you want for taste). Add a pinch of paprika and a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.

Add the chicken/bacon/onions back to the cheese sauce when it is done. Spoon some of cheese sauce into baking dish to coat the bottom. Add half the pasta. Top with more sauce and stir within baking dish. Add the rest of the pasta and then the remaining sauce and stir so everything is coated. You could do this in the pot if your pot is big enough, but mine was not.

Lightly top with bread crumbs and any remaining cheese you may have. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until bubbling and then broil (to brown the top) for a few minutes.