If you love Applebee’s 4 cheese mac and cheese with honey pepper chicken, you absolutely have to try this homemade version that tastes even better!
Ultra creamy and savory homemade 4 cheese mac and cheese is topped with incredibly crunchy buttermilk fried chicken tenders, glazed with a lip-smacking honey pepper sauce. A mouthful to say, but once you try one bite, you’ll be too busy chowing down to worry about the name!
Have you ever had the 4 cheese mac and cheese with honey pepper chicken from Applebee’s? If you have, you know how INSANELY delicious it is!
Every single time we go to Applebee’s, I order it… with no shame lol. And ever since that first bite, I’ve been meaning to come up with a great copycat version… because let’s face it, I can’t eat out all the time, but I still crave that dish like no other!
I freely admit that this is a recipe that is pretty time consuming, with a lot of ingredients and steps… don’t let that fool you though. Trust me, after the first bite, it’ll ALL be worth it! But if you wanted to save some time and work, here are some time savers:
Ways to Make 4 Cheese Mac and Cheese with Honey Pepper Chicken Easier:
- Boil your pasta ahead of time – just toss it with a little olive oil to keep it from sticking together and keep it in a resealable plastic bag in the refrigerator.
- Make your cheese sauce ahead of time – keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to reheat.
- Mix up your seasoned flour ahead to time – keep it in an airtight container on the counter.
- Use pre-made frozen chicken tenders instead of homemade – it won’t be quite as flavorful, but will save you a few steps.
- Cook your bacon ahead of time
- Use pre-made seasoned flour instead of homemade
If you’ve followed some of the other copycat versions of this recipe, there’s one way that mine deviates… I use an Anaheim pepper in my cheese sauce. The reason for that, is that whenever I’ve had this dish at Applebee’s, it always has diced pepper in it.
Although I wonder if that’s a regional thing, or maybe just certain cooks put it in, because I’ve never seen anyone else mention the pepper. So feel free to omit that completely if it’s not what you’re used to.
I really hope you give this copycat 4 cheese mac and cheese with honey pepper chicken a try! It’s long and involved… certainly not a weeknight meal… but SO worth it!
The creamy sauce contrasted with the crunchy chicken works so beautifully with the savory cheese sauce and sweet glazed chicken!
