Living the grain-free life leaves me dreaming of comfort foods like mac n’ cheese sometimes so I found an awesome (and frankly maybe more scrumptious) alternative to the traditional version!
This grain-free take on mac n’ cheese has all the gooey cheesy goodness of the regular stuff but without the gluten and other grains and adds a protein punch with chicken breast and bacon!
You can either dig right in with a fork or use it as a dip! Your delicious choice!
Ingredients
- 1 16 oz bag of pre-riced cauliflower
- Olive oil spray
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground mustard
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbs minced garlic
- Pepper to taste
- 2 cups hand-grated Cheddar (so you can avoid the anti-caking agent in pre-shredded cheese), plus 1/2 cup for topping the casserole
- 6 strips or bacon
- 1 pound chicken breast
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions
- Fry the bacon and set aside.
- Pour off some of the bacon fat and cook the diced and seasoned (s/p) chicken breasts in the remaining fat.
- Set aside.
- Sauté onions until translucent and stir in minced garlic until both are soft and fragrant.
- While onions are sautéing, boil or microwave the pre-riced cauliflower.
- Once the cauliflower is soft, rinse with cool water and squeeze excess water out with cheesecloth. (Do NOT skip this step or you will have runny, watery mac!)
- Melt the cream cheese, sour cream and shredded cheddar in a separate saucepan.
- Fold the sauce in with the cauliflower, chicken, bacon and onions.
- Stir in one egg.
- Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- After 30 minutes, kick up the heat to 450 and bake for another 10 minutes until the top is golden brown.
Notes
Feel free to keep it vegetarian or swap out the chicken with ground beef, turkey or pork with the chicken.
This is another one I tripled the recipe for – go big or go home…and eat leftovers…because you made enough food to feed your fam and then take for lunch the next day. Good job.
Hi there! My name is Gina Grad and I’m a Los Angeles-based broadcaster and longtime comfort food appreciator. I’ve been on the radio here in SoCal since 2006 but since I’m originally from Kansas City, I’ve been eating the best casseroles, stews and one-pot meals the Midwest has to offer over the course of my entire life.
This is fantastic! I made a few adjustments:
Skipped the sour cream (I don’t like it)
Used fresh cauliflower. Started by roasting it at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Take it out when it gets about 10 to 20% browned on top.
I made enough for me and my two teens for dinner, and enough so that I could have some for lunch the next few days. It was fantastic. Thanks Gina!
I’m so glad you liked it and it’s fun making your own little tweaks! Thanks for sharing, Ben!
I made this, but I forgot to put the mustard in. But I made up for that by putting some of your ranch dressing recipe on it. It turned out great!
HAHA oh man that sounds SO GOOD!! XOXO,GG
This turned out moist and delicious! I’ve never made a meatloaf in my life and this sets the bar super high. Great additions too, Gina. We LOVED the sugar free ketchup too.
That’s awesome!! I’m so happy to hear that you loved the meatloaf!! xoxo
If I rice my own cauliflower do I need to worry about extra water in the cauliflower?
Thank you.
In my opinion…yes! the cauliflower contains water no matter what. And when it’s heated, the water is released. Some people don’t mind it as much as I do, so play around with it (like roasting it when it’s raw) and see what works best for you!
This was easy to prepare and tasted great. My wife loved it as well. It will be put into our regular dinner rotation. I do not cook regularly and dinner is always the meal I struggle with to stay NSNG and these recipes help keep me on track. Great job Gina ????
I’m thrilled to hear it!! xoxo
Yum. Just a couple of tweaks needed to your published recipe…there is no onion in the ingredients, but instructions include them.Garlic powder, ground mustard and heavy cream is the opposite – included in ingredients, but not in instructions. I faked it and it tastes amazing, just thought you’d want to know…thanks, Gina!!
Yes I’m revising now – thank you for letting me know and I’m glad you liked it, Rebecca! xoxo, GG
I keep coming back to this recipe! I’ve made it many times now
Really? Awesome, Casey!! xoxo,gg
Me and the gf just started ngns last week been craving Mac and cheese so made this on my smoker turned out amazing! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes! Thanks Gina!!
Yay, Bryan!! xoxo, GG
Made it for the wife tonight! We are practically cooking one per day at this rate. Really, really good! You may want to update the procedure to use all of the ingredients (Cream, mustard were in the list, but not in the procedure, but we figured it out)… Keep it up! Cannot wait to see what we are going to try tomorrow.
Ah! I will revise and I’m so glad you like it, Larry!! xoxok, GG
It’s a hit!!! So cheesy and filled with bacon-y goodness, you don’t miss the mac! Still a few missing ingredients in the list and the procedure, but easy to figure out 🙂 Thanks Gina!!
Haha yay, Angie! Thank you!! Xo, GG