Need advice post haste. Just made King's Ranch Chicken Mac n Cheese for luncheon with neighbors.

M

marilynfl

Moderator
The recipe puts the ingredients together (using rotisserie chicken) and then bakes for 25 minutes until bubbly.

However...It's only 10:20 now and guests aren't arriving until 1:00. Can I leave this out so it stays at room temperature and start baking at 12:30?

Or do I need to refrigerate it and then adjust the length of baking time, because it's in a cast iron skillet and I assume that will be very cold when I start baking.

SEE! This is why I hate cooking with meat....worrying about stuff like this.

PS: I haven't calculated the calories in this yet because I don't want my head to explode with guests arriving.

https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/king-ranch-chicken-mac-and-cheese

 
IMO, you are fine leaving it out. Everything is already cooked. If you decide

to refrigerate, a longer cook time will really only make it more golden brown and lucious. I'd think 25 minutes in the recipe is even a little too little. And you can always turn it off and hold at worm for serving.

 
Thank you! Casserole was enjoyed by all. It makes an obscene amount...far more than 6 servings.

And that is only with half a pound of pasta.

I'll note here the adjustments I made:

Used 3.5 cups of chicken meat. I pulled off everything that could be cubed and threw the rest (legs, wings, thighs, back, skin) in a pot and made stock. When it was cold (I did this the night before), I bathed the cubed chicken in about 1/2 C of broth (rotisserie meat always taste dry to me after it's been off the spit for more than an hour) and sprinkled on 1 tsp of Penzy's Northwood seasoning.

The recipe implies a can of Rotel (" one 10-oz. can diced tomatoes and green chiles") and sometimes that is just too hot for me, plus the one neighbor doesn't like hot. Instead I took Hunt's canned tomatoes and Trader Joe's Hatch Green Chilies (mild) and made my own 10 oz.

Used Penzy's "Chicken Taco" seasoning rather than cumin and chili powder. It was a freebie from them and I'm glad I finally got to use it.

Used red bell pepper instead of green because green always tastes bitter to me.

I also sautéed two stalks of diced celery because anything to mitigate the calories mounting in this dish.

This made 10.5" cast iron skillet and an unbaked 5" cast iron skillet that I sent home with the neighbors.

I served it with Calabacita's (sautéed zucchini, yellow squash, onions, fresh corn, tomatoes, red pepper, green chilies, cheddar, chicken broth) and salad (romaine, tomatoes, celery, cucumbers, avocado, feta, homemade cheese croutons, vinegar/oil).

 
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