Creamy Macaroni Cheese mixed with chunks of chicken apple sausage and sliced fennel. Just when you thought mac and cheese couldn't get any better, it totally did!
I'm always looking for new ways to make Macaroni Cheese. It's one of those dishes that can take almost any ingredient and you know you'll still be able to eat it. Even if the mac and cheese is stuffed inside little balls of pretzel dough with bacon or combined with jalapeños and topped with Cheetos to make some ridiculous poppers! I can proudly add this version to my ever growing list of macaroni cheese recipes, and as well as the chunks of chicken apple sausage and fennel, it still has an obnoxious amount of cheese in it. Because cheese is the money.
For me the cheese is what signals the perfect mac and cheese. You can't skimp on it and you need a lot of it! Once the creamy cheese sauce hits the pasta, it ends up being soaked up like a sponge. I used three different kinds of cheese for this dish. Manchego, soft cheddar and an extra sharp vintage cheddar. They all melt really well and the flavors are the meat part comes from a couple of uncooked chicken and apple sausages. Chop them up and sauté with the sliced fennel and a diced Granny Smith apple. Sweet, savory, crunchy, creamy. So many taste bud bombs going off right now.
Mix some panko breadcrumbs with butter and scatter all over the surface.35 minutes later and prepare to pick up your jaw from the floor, because you just made Macaroni Cheese for the win. If making macaroni cheese was an Olympic event, you'd be on the podium, for real!Have a great weekend friends!
