Buffalo Chicken Bake

Ever wanted to enjoy some spicy Buffalo Wings with bleu cheese and all – without getting your hands dirty? Well problem solved! Buffalo Chicken Bake gives you all the flavors of Buffalo sauce, the creamy bleu cheese sauce all over chicken and pasta – oh and did I mention BACON! This is a kicked up casserole that will make a Monday night meal all the extra it needs!

I prefer Frank’s Buffalo Sauce for my wings, so that’s what I used for this casserole. If you have a favorite buffalo sauce, use that. Just be sure it’s buffalo and not just “hot sauce”. Buffalo sauce has the extra vinegar to give it the “tang” we associate with Hot Wings! You will want to adjust the amount of sauce you add to adjust the heat level. When you bake the sauce along with the cheeses, you lose some of the heat and heighten the flavor. I would suggest starting with the amount in the recipe and add more after. As they say – you can always add more, but you can’t take it away.

By combining the bleu cheese and cream cheese you get a creamy sauce to hold it all together. If you usually eat your wings with Ranch dressing instead of bleu cheese – you can swap out the cream cheese/bleu cheese combo for your favorite ranch dressing. I would suggest about 1 cup of dressing to start, maybe a bit more to drizzle over the top.

Now Let’s Get Cookin’!

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Buffalo Chicken Bake

The spicy tang of hot sauce and bleu cheese with chicken and pasta

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword bleu cheese, casseroles, Chicken, hot sauce, Pasta, pasta dishes

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 1½ lb Short Pasta rotini, penne, rigatoni, etc.
• 1½ lb Chicken Thigh boneless, skinless
• 1 qt Chicken Broth
• 3 Garlic Cloves
• ½ lb Bacon cut into ½-inch pieces
• 1½ cup Bleu Cheese crumbles, divided
• 1 cup Buffalo Sauce like Frank's, divided
• 8 oz Cream Cheese cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1½ cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese shredded
• 2 tbsp Fresh Chives chopped

Instructions

• Prepare all of the ingredients. Preheat oven to 400deg. Begin water boiling for pasta.
• Add chicken, garlic and chicken broth to sauce pan over medium heat. Cook for 10 minutes then remove chicken, reserving 1 cup of liquid. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces.
• In a frying pan over medium-high heat, add bacon. Cook until crispy then remove to paper towel covered plate.
• Add pasta to boiling water and cook for half the time listed on the package. Drain in colander and transfer to13x9 baking dish.
• Add chicken, cream cheese, reserved chicken broth, half of cheddar cheese, 1 cup of bleu cheese, and 3/4 cup of hot sauce to pasta and stir to combine. Sprinkle with bacon, chives, and remaining bleu cheese, cheddar cheese, and hot sauce. Place in oven for 30 minutes.