Michael Symon's Chicken, Goat Cheese, and Rosemary Mac n Cheese

As the title implies this is 100% not my recipe, idea, or creation. However it is now 100% my favorite "mac n cheese" dish out there. There are two features of this dish that make it completely and mind-blowing awesome: 1) Deeeeeeeelicious! 2) Eeeeeeeeeeasy! Does anyone notice a theme to the recipes I post? They are all easy. Good food is easy. Cook more!
There are only five ingredients to this culinary marvel. 5. Cinco for you Spanish speaking followers. Hmm, if you follow this blog and only speak Spanish then that is the only word you have understood so far... I commend your persistence. Alright, enough foreign speculation, back to the five ingredients. For ease of use I am actually going to make it into a list for you instead of my usual ramble/prose style:

16 oz box of pasta
8 oz goat cheese
1 tbs chopped rosemary
2 chicken breasts or 4 chicken thighs
32 oz heavy cream

Yup, that is the whole kit-n-kaboodle you need in your culinary toolbelt for this one! As mentioned, this is a complete copy of Michael Symon's from his book "Live To Cook". You should buy it. The man loves pig even more than I do. His instructions for this dish leave out a small point: you need to reduce the heavy cream by half and it doesn't mention how long this will take. Perhaps I am sub-par in my cream reducing abilities, but this step takes me about 40 minutes. I bring it to a simmer and then reduce the heat to medium. I try to keep the temp as high as possible without the cream boiling over.

Originally this dish was to use up left over roast chicken, but I make it with fresh bird each time. I poach the chicken in the heavy cream while it is reducing to add some chicken goodness to the sauce. After it has cooked 10 minutes or so, depending on what cut of bird, I let it cool and then shred it will forks. I like how the chicken comes out, but to be honest I don't enjoy actually doing it. So I go as fast as possible. To visualize this imagine me trying to frantically dig a hole in sand using just the forks.



After twenty minutes or so, or whenever you feel like it, add in the chopped rosemary to the heavy cream. You want the oils and flavors to leech (not bloodsucker-style) out and perfume the cream. Now is a good time to get your pasta going as well.



When your cream has reduced by half and has nice thick bubbles in it instead of the little wimpy ones it started with, it is time to cut the heat and add the goat cheese.



Crumble the goat cheese up and whip it until it is all nice and smooth. Combine your chicken, sauce, and pasta in one big bowl and go to town! As another little hint: this dish does not reheat. Take no prisoners on this one. Chow!