Chicken & Broccoli Mac N Cheese

4 cup, cubes Butternut Squash
4 oz Goat Cheese, Soft
227 gram Cheese, Cheddar, NY or Vermont Extra Sharp, Cabot (by DLROSE51)
.5 package (2 lb) Broccoli, frozen
8 ounces Chicken Breast (cooked), no skin, roasted
8 oz Barilla Elbow Macaroni
2 serving Bacon - Farmland Thick Sliced Bacon
4 tbsp flour, Wondra (by JAYECAT)
4 tbsp Butter, salted
1 cup Milk, SO Delicious Coconut Milk, unsweetened, 1 cup serving
8 tbsp French Fried Onions
32 fl oz Chicken Broth
4 tsp Lea & Perrin's Worchestershire Sauce (by CALEKU)
.5 serving Ass Kickin® Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce serving size 1 tsp (5g) (by RURABE)
1 cup (8 fl oz) Water, tap
2 cup (8 fl oz) Water, tap
1 tsp Pepper, black
2 serving Egg Grade A Extra Large 1 egg = 1 serving (56 Grams)
1 cup, chopped Scallions, raw

Total prep time is about 1 hour. Cooking time includes the time cooking the sauce on the stove, approximately 15 minutes.

I used very little salt in this recipe, but you could add more if you like. Consider that the butter had salt, the broth had salt, both the cheeses had salt and the french fried onion have a good amount of salt. If you really want to add salt, wait until the the sauce is finished and taste it. If you still really want more salt, add a small amount and mix it in. You can always add more, but once its' in there, you can't take it out.

1-Finely chop greens of one small bunch of scallions and set aside.
2-In saucepan cook butternut squash in chicken broth until tender. Pour through a strainer, saving the broth. Set aside the squash to cool slightly. Run through a potato ricer, or mash well so that there are no chunks. Set aside for the cheese sauce.
3-Pour the broth back into the pan and cook broccoli in the same liquid. Pour through strainer saving the broth. Move broccoli to a large mixing bowl and set aside.
4-Reheat chicken in the same broth, just to get the chill out if it had been refrigerated. Pour through the strainer, again saving the broth. Once strained, place in the bowl with the broccoli. I used about 2 cups of pulled chicken from a leftover roaster.
5-In the same broth that is left from cooking the veggies and reheating the meat, add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Add the 1/2 lb of pasta and cook to al dente. Strain saving the remaining liquid. Add the pasta to the same bowl with the broccoli and chicken. Mix loosely and set aside.
6-finely chop the cooked crispy bacon and place in the bowl with the pasta, chicken & broccoli.
7-place remaining liquid in a 4 cup measuring cup. You should have about 1 cup of liquid remaining. To this add an additional 2 cups of water or other flavored water you may have saved in your fridge, i.e. hot dog water (yes, I save that and it works wonderfully in recipes such as this). Also add 1 cup of unsweetened, unflavored coconut milk. Set the liquid mixture aside as this will be the liquid you need for your cheese sauce.
8-Set the oven to 375 degrees to preheat it.

Cheese sauce:
1-Shred the cheddar cheese and set aside.
2-melt the butter in the same saucepan. Add the flour and mix well. Toast your roux lightly, about 2-3 minutes (this is a cheese sauce and not a gumbo).
3-Once the roux is lightly cooked, whisk in about one cup of the liquid mixture. Once thoroughly combined, slowly add 2 more cups of the liquid mixture. Stir well and allow to come to a low boil. If you are happy with the thickness, then do not add any more liquid.
4-Once the roux is at the desired thickness, add the mashed butternut squash and bring back to a low boil.
5-Add the goat cheese in 1/2 inch slices and mix well until thoroughly melted and combined.
6-Add the shredded cheddar and turn off the heat. Whisk the cheese until completely melted and combined with the entire mixture.
7-Add the seasonings, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce and black pepper and blend well.
*Optional*
8-At this point, you can choose to add the eggs or not. I did so because I felt the cheese mixture was a little thin and I didn't want to thicken it further with added flour. I whisk the 2 eggs in the 1 cup of liquid I had remaining from the 4 cups of liquid. I then took approximately 1 cup of the cheese sauce and slowly added that to the eggs while whisking the eggs, to temper the eggs. Once they were tempered, I then whisked the egg mixture into the pot with the cheese sauce.

Assembly:
1-Add the chopped green parts of the scallions t the macaroni, chicken & broccoli mixture and gently stir just enough to blend them through.
2-Place this mixture into a 10x13 casserole pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
3-Pour the cheese mixture over the macaroni, chicken & broccoli mixture. Lightly stir it in to be sure that all of the ingredients are well coated with cheese sauce.
4-Sprinkle the french fried onions evenly over the top.

Place into the preheated 375 degree oven and cook for about 25-30 minutes, until it is bubbly around the sides and the onions are golden brown.
Allow to cool about 15 minutes and serve. This is good as a main for 9 servings.

Serving Size: 9 servings