Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese Recipe (High Protein)

Who doesn’t love buffalo chicken or mac and cheese? This Buffalo chicken mac and cheese recipe combines two of my favorite comfort foods into one ridiculously high protein meal prep that fits into my low calorie diet. This spicy buffalo chicken mac recipe is not a super creamy mac that’s oozing with cheese sauce but I promise it’ll get the job done!

This buffalo chicken mac is a spin off of one of my most popular recipes : High protein mac and cheese. This spin off adds the perfect amount of spice – just a little kick without too much heat. The best part? All the ingredients can be found at your grocery store and it’s such an easy recipe to make.

WHY MAKE BUFFALO CHICKEN MAC AND CHEESE

Ridiculously high protein – This recipe has so much protein in it and will keep you full for hours!

This has been declared my families favorite mac.

The portion size is massive for the amount of calories.

INGREDIENTS

Detailed instructions and ingredient list can be found on the recipe card below

Chicken Breasts ( You could also use chicken tenderloin or chicken thighs but I find that chicken breast works best. If you have rotisserie chicken or any leftover chicken you can use that too!)

Minced Garlic (You can use garlic powder if you don’t have fresh garlic on hand!)

Black Pepper

Buffalo wings sauce – I use HEB mild wing sauce but you can also sub in Franks Red Hot Wings sauce if it’s easier to find. Alternatively you can use your favorite buffalo sauce if you’d like! Just make sure it’s buffalo and not hot sauce!

Pasta: You can use macaroni elbows or any type of pasta you’d like but I just use Banza rotini because I’m lazy and Costco sells it in bulk, if you want to stay in the macaroni elbow family and want the higher protein you can use cavatappi banza.

Shredded Parmesan

Non-fat Greek Yogurt – This keeps everything moist, If you want to sub this out use blended cottage cheese instead

Laughing Cow Light – I don’t have a substitute for this, it’s the main cheese for this recipe.

Fat Free Pre-shredded Cheese: I use kraft fat free shredded cheddar. You can use a higher fat cheese if you hate fat free just don’t use sharp cheddar cheese. It’s too bitter of a cheese.

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

Dijon Mustard

HOW TO MAKE BUFFALO CHICKEN MAC AND CHEESE

In a large bowl add in cubed chicken breast, minced garlic, black pepper, and spicy buffalo sauce. Mix to combine. Cover and marinate for at least 1 hour or marinate in the fridge overnight.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add in pasta and cook for 8 minutes stirring occasionally. Strain cooked pasta (al dente) and place in a large mixing bowl.

In a frying pan over medium heat add in your marinated chicken. Cook for 5 minutes each side or until cooked through. Once cooked add chicken into the mixing bowl with the pasta.

Add in salt, pepper, paprika, dijon mustard, laughing cow cheese, shredded parmesan and greek yogurt, mix until combined.

Spread buffalo chicken macaroni mixture on a sheet pan or in a casserole dish then top with fat free shredded cheddar

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Move back into your mixing bowl and add additional buffalo sauce to the top of the mac. Mix in.

Split equally into 5 meal prep containers. Top with extra buffalo sauce or spicy hot sauce if you want to burn your mouth off. Kidding! but a little buffalo sauce goes a long way, this is spicy enough on it’s own without the additional topping.

CAN I MEAL PREP THIS RECIPE?

Yes! This recipe can be meal prepped.

Leave each portion uncovered until it cools then put the cover on your airtight container and move to the fridge. Jesse and I regularly double this recipe so we both have it meal prepped for the week.

WHAT ARE THE CALORIES / MACROS?

The calories / actual macros / nutrition information for this recipe is great!

This recipe makes 5 servings of 389 calories.

The macros of this recipe are: 47.5 g protein, 29 g carbs and 10 g fat.

Here’s how we got there:

Buffalo Sauce: Instead of making our own high calorie buffalo sauce with cream cheese, heavy cream or whole milk and a bunch of other ingredients that pack on the calories we opt for frank’s red hot buffalo sauce which is on the lower calorie side

Chicken: Instead of using thighs or the meat from chicken wings we’re using chicken breast which keeps this lean.

Cheese: We’re using a few kinds of cheese in this recipe. Classic mac calls for a ton of cheese which again add on the calories.

Greek Yogurt: I add greek yogurt to keep everything moist and add a little bit of protein.

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