Creamy Mac and Cheese with Crispy Chicken Tenders (Chicken Mac Daddy at Home)

Chicken Mac Daddy is £9 on our menu and it is the newest thing we have put on it. Smooth, creamy macaroni, our spicy house sauce, crispy onions and spring onions, then crispy chicken tenders on top and more sauce over everything. This is the home version, and it makes four proper portions in about 45 minutes.

Two things make it worth the effort. The cheese sauce is built as a proper roux-based béchamel rather than cream and cheese thrown together, which is why it stays smooth and does not turn oily. And the chicken is buttermilk-brined and double-dredged, which gives you the craggy, shattering coating that stays crisp even sitting on top of a hot sauce.

The spicy sauce drizzled over the top is a simple sriracha, mayonnaise and honey mix. It takes two minutes and it is the thing that stops a bowl of macaroni cheese being one flat note.

Why this recipe works

• A cooked roux, not a shortcut. Cooking the flour in butter for two minutes before the milk goes in removes the raw flour taste and gives you a sauce that will not split when it sits.
• Three cheeses, each doing a job. Mature cheddar for flavour, red Leicester for colour and easy melting, and a spoonful of cream cheese for gloss and body.
• The pasta is cooked one minute under. Macaroni keeps absorbing liquid once it is in the sauce. Under-cooking slightly is what keeps the texture right rather than soft.
• Buttermilk brine on the chicken. Thirty minutes is enough. The acidity tenderises the surface of the meat and the thickness helps the flour coating grip.
• The coating is dredged twice with a splash of buttermilk in the flour. Those damp lumps in the flour become the crunchy craggy bits, which is the whole point of a good tender.
• Sauce on top, not stirred through. Drizzling the spicy sauce over the finished bowl gives you heat in some mouthfuls and creamy cheese in others.

Ingredient notes

Macaroni. Elbow macaroni is traditional and holds sauce well in its hollow. Conchiglie (small shells) is arguably better because sauce collects inside them. Avoid long pasta entirely.

Mature cheddar. Grate it yourself from a block. Pre-grated cheddar is dusted with potato starch or cellulose to stop it clumping, and that coating makes cheese sauce grainy. Extra mature gives you more flavour for the same weight.

Red Leicester. Mostly there for the orange colour that makes mac and cheese look like mac and cheese, but it also melts more easily than cheddar. Double Gloucester does the same job.

Whole milk. Semi-skimmed works but the sauce will be thinner and less rich. Do not use skimmed.

Buttermilk. Sold in small cartons in the dairy aisle of most UK supermarkets. If you cannot find it, stir a tablespoon of lemon juice into 250ml of whole milk and leave it for ten minutes.

Chicken. Breast cut into finger-width strips, or chicken mini fillets, which are already the right shape and often cheaper. Thigh works too and is more forgiving, though the shape is less tidy.

Sriracha. For the drizzle. It is hot but not brutal, and the vinegar in it is what cuts the cheese sauce. Any medium hot sauce works.

Crispy fried onions. The shop-bought ones sold for hot dogs. They keep for months and they are the finishing touch we use in the restaurant.

Substitutions and variations

Air fry the chicken. Spray the dredged tenders generously with oil and air fry at 200°C for 14 to 16 minutes, turning once. Less crunch than deep frying, and much less oil to deal with.

The Ring Leader version. Swap the chicken for crispy onion rings and add sautéed potatoes on the side. That is a different bowl on our menu and it is very good.

Rise and Mac version. Skip the chicken, top the mac with a fried egg and two sliced sausages instead. Breakfast for dinner, essentially.

Vegetarian. Leave the chicken off and top with crispy onion rings, or breadcrumb the mac and bake it. Check your cheese labels, as most standard cheddar in the UK uses microbial rennet but not all of it does.

Bake it. Tip the sauced macaroni into a dish, scatter over 50g of cheddar mixed with 30g of panko and grill for four to five minutes until browned and bubbling. Then add the chicken.

Milder. Replace the sriracha in the drizzle with tomato ketchup and a pinch of smoked paprika. Children will eat it happily.

Step-by-step guidance

The full method is in the recipe card below. Four things are worth doing carefully.

The roux. Melt the butter, add the flour and stir it over a medium heat for a full two minutes. It should smell faintly biscuity and look like wet sand. Then add the milk a third at a time, whisking each addition until completely smooth before the next goes in. Adding all the milk at once is how lumps happen.

Adding the cheese. Take the pan off the heat first. Cheese added to boiling béchamel splits and goes stringy and oily. Off the heat, add it in three handfuls, stirring until each has melted. Then the cream cheese, mustard powder and a good grating of nutmeg.

The chicken coating. Season the flour properly — plain flour with paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Drizzle two tablespoons of the buttermilk into the flour and rub it through with your fingertips so it goes lumpy. Lift each strip out of the buttermilk, let the excess drip off, then press it firmly into the flour, turn it and press again. Set the coated strips on a rack for five minutes before frying so the coating hydrates and sticks.

Frying. Sunflower or vegetable oil at 175°C, in a deep pan no more than a third full. Fry in batches of three or four for five to six minutes, until deep golden and the coating looks rocky rather than smooth. A thermometer is genuinely worth using here: too cool and the coating goes greasy, too hot and it colours before the chicken cooks. Check the thickest strip has reached 75°C in the centre. Drain on a wire rack and salt immediately.

Professional tips

• Warm the milk before it goes into the roux. It thickens more evenly and takes less whisking.
• Save a mugful of the pasta cooking water. A splash loosens the sauce perfectly if it tightens while you fry the chicken.
• Season the cheese sauce at the end, after the cheese. Cheddar brings a lot of salt with it.
• Never let the coated chicken sit in the flour for more than about ten minutes or the coating turns pasty.
• Fry the chicken last and assemble immediately. Crispy chicken on hot sauce has a life of about five minutes.
• A grating of nutmeg in a cheese sauce is not optional in a professional kitchen. It is what makes people ask what is in it.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Likely cause	Solution	Prevention
Cheese sauce is grainy	Pre-grated cheese, or cheese added over heat	Whisk in a spoonful of cream cheese off the heat	Grate block cheese yourself and add it off the heat
Sauce split and looks oily	Boiled after the cheese went in	Off the heat, whisk in a splash of cold milk	Never boil a cheese sauce once the cheese is in
Sauce is lumpy	Milk added too fast	Whisk hard, or pass through a sieve	Add the milk a third at a time, whisking smooth each time
Coating fell off the chicken	Chicken too wet, or coating not pressed on firmly	Re-dredge the bare patches and fry again briefly	Let excess buttermilk drip off, press the flour on hard, rest for five minutes
Chicken is greasy	Oil was below temperature	Nothing to do once fried	Keep the oil at 175°C and fry in small batches
Chicken burnt outside, raw inside	Oil too hot, or strips too thick	Finish in a 190°C oven for five minutes	Cut even, finger-width strips and hold the oil at 175°C
Mac and cheese is stodgy	Pasta overcooked, or it sat too long	Loosen with a splash of milk or pasta water over a low heat	Cook the pasta one minute under and serve straight away

What to serve with it

Something sharp. A rocket and tomato salad with a lemony dressing, or plain gherkins on the side, both work better than you would expect against all that cheese. Buttered greens are the other option.

If you are making a spread of it, crispy naga chilli sliced potatoes and chicken bao buns both sit happily alongside. For something on the same comfort-food wavelength, try our creamy chicken cheesy mash bowl.

To drink, something cold and fizzy. A strawberry or mango bubble shake is what most people order with this in the restaurant.

Storage and reheating

Cool everything quickly and refrigerate within two hours, in line with standard UK food safety guidance.

The macaroni cheese keeps in a covered container in the fridge for up to two days. Reheat it in a pan over a low heat with a generous splash of milk, stirring until piping hot and loose again. The oven works too: cover with foil, 180°C for 20 minutes.

Cooked chicken tenders keep for up to two days and should be reheated in an oven or air fryer at 190°C for six to eight minutes, never in a microwave, which turns the coating soft and chewy.

Freezing: the macaroni cheese freezes for up to two months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat with extra milk. Uncooked coated tenders can be open-frozen on a tray, bagged and cooked from frozen, adding two or three minutes to the frying time. Do not refreeze chicken that was previously frozen.

Frequently asked questions

Can I make the cheese sauce ahead?

Yes, up to a day ahead. Keep it covered in the fridge with a piece of baking paper pressed onto the surface so it does not form a skin. Reheat gently with a splash of milk and whisk it smooth before the pasta goes in.

Do I have to deep fry the chicken?

No. Air frying at 200°C for 14 to 16 minutes with a generous spray of oil gives a good result. Oven baking at 210°C on a wire rack for 20 to 22 minutes also works, though the coating will be drier.

What oil should I use for frying?

Sunflower, vegetable or rapeseed. All have a high enough smoke point and a neutral flavour. Olive oil is wrong for this and expensive.

Can I use a different pasta shape?

Small shells, rigatoni or penne all work. Anything with a hollow or a ridge holds the sauce. Spaghetti and other long shapes do not.

How spicy is it?

Mild unless you want otherwise. The mac itself is not spicy at all. All the heat is in the drizzle, so you can serve it on the side and let people add their own.

Can I make it gluten free?

You can adapt it — gluten-free pasta, a cornflour-slaked sauce instead of a roux, and gluten-free flour in the dredge. We have not tested this version, so treat the timings as a starting point and check every label yourself.

How do I keep the chicken crisp while I finish the mac?

Keep it on a wire rack in a low oven, around 90°C, with the door slightly ajar. Never cover it or stack it on a plate.

Print

Or let us build the Mac Daddy

Deep frying chicken and making a béchamel on the same evening is a proper cooking session. Chicken Mac Daddy is on our menu at 172 Biscot Road in Luton for £9, and there are two more in the range — Rise and Mac, and The Ring Leader. Order for collection or delivery, or look at the full menu.

If you make it at home, rate the recipe below and tell us whether you fried or air fried.

Newer From Our Kitchen

Serve this with a pile of crispy sliced potatoes and a bubble shake and you have essentially recreated a Cozy Bowl table at home. For another cheesy comfort dish, try the Ultimate Hug Stack.