This chicken broccoli cottage cheese mac and cheese packs 28g of protein per serving and makes for the ultimate easy weeknight meal. It’s the perfect way to use leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken to make things even easier. I hope you love this recipe as much as me and my toddlers do!
- Protein-packed: 28g of protein per serving to be exact!
- Super creamy sauce: Blended cottage cheese not only packs protein, but it’s super creamy and sticks to the noodles really well.
- Great way to use up leftover chicken: I love making this pasta when I have leftover chicken, or if I am short on time, I’ll just grab a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store to use. Either way, it makes things super easy!
Ingredients You Need
Cottage cheese: you’re gonna whip the cottage cheese til smooth in a food processor or high-speed blender. Make sure you’re using full-fat cottage cheese for the creamiest mac. Lower fat cottage cheese has higher water content, and will result in a runnier mac. No one wants that!
Shredded cheddar: freshly shredded cheddar is best!
Pasta: choose your own adventure here! I like using fusilli or another twirly pasta that can hold all that delicious mac and cheese sauce.
Broccoli: You’ll blanch the broccoli in the pasta water for the last minute of boiling pasta. No need to dirty another dish!
Top Tips
- Do NOT mix the pasta and the cheese sauce together in the hot pot: The sauce will melt into soup and become too thin. I recommend mixing the sauce and pasta together in a separate bowl — mix it in the serving bowl to save on dishes!
- Use high-fat cottage cheese: I’m talking full fat or at least 2%. Lower fat cottage cheese has a higher water content, and nobody wants watery mac and cheese.
More Mac and Cheese Recipes
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Preheat the oven to broil and line a 9×9-inch glass baking dish with parchment paper.
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Boil the noodles according to package instructions. Add the broccoli to the boiling water when there is about 1 minute left of boiling time to blanch the broccoli. Reserve ¼ cup of pasta water, then strain and set aside.
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Add the cottage cheese, 2 cups of cheddar cheese, 1 tablespoon reserved pasta water and sea salt to the blender and blend until completely smooth. If the sauce is not smooth, add more water 1 teaspoon at a time.
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Add the pasta, broccoli, and cooked chicken to a separate dish (not the hot saucepan), and fold in the cottage cheese sauce.*
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Transfer to the prepared baking dish. Top with more cheddar cheese and broil for 3 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
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Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
- *If you add all the ingredients back into the hot sauce pan, it will thin your cheese sauce out too much. Don’t do this.
- I used 2% cottage cheese, but any type will work.
- I used shredded cheddar cheese, but any melty cheese could work. For example, gruyere, gouda, Monterey Jack, or even American cheese would be great substitutions.
Calories: 374 kcal, Carbohydrates: 25 g, Protein: 28 g, Fat: 18 g, Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 2 g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
