One-Pot Barbecue Chicken Mac and Cheese
This One-Pot Barbecue Chicken Mac and Cheese is so rich and creamy, you’ll never believe it’s lightened up! With a decadent cheese sauce that’s jazzed up with sweet, spicy and tangy barbecue flavor, this is a great meal to serve the whole family. My little one loved it as much as my husband and I did! The idea to make this came to me because my husband started putting barbecue sauce on his mac and cheese whenever we made it, and we all started eating it that way. I figured adding chicken would make it even better and turn it into a heartier meal, and I’m loving the results!
I absolutely love one-pot meals, because they’re easy for weeknights and I hate washing dishes. The pasta in this One-Pot Barbecue Chicken Mac and Cheese cooks right in the pot. No need to boil separate water or wash a colander! You can throw together a quick salad on the side and dinner is served. Not only is this dish flavorful, and easy, it’s lightened up at just 347 calories or 8 WW Points per serving! To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
Looking for more lightened up pasta options? Check out the pasta section of my recipe index for favorites like Chicken Pot Pasta, Pasta with Chickpeas, Butternut Squash Pasta with Bacon, Beef Enchilada Pasta Skillet, Turkey Sloppy Joe Pasta, Italian Wedding Pasta Skillet, Pizza Lasagna Roll-Ups, Sausage Ricotta Pasta, Lemon Chicken Orzo, Chicken Pesto Parmesan Pasta Skillet, Beef Stroganoff, Beefy American Goulash, Slow Cooker Kickin’ Chicken Pasta, Beef and Sausage Manicotti, Pumpkin Alfredo Tortellini Skillet, Spinach and Artichoke Lasagna Roll Ups, Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta Bake, Tomato Soup Mac & Cheese, Spaghetti Pie, Sausage Tortellini Skillet, Buffalo Chicken Lasagna Roll Ups, Chicken Parmesan Stuffed Shells, Spicy Sausage Pasta and many more!
One-Pot Barbecue Chicken Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs uncooked boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 6 tablespoons barbecue sauce, I use/recommend Stubb’s Original, if you use another brand, look for one low in sugar/carbs
- 4 tablespoons light butter, I use Land O’Lakes
- ¼ cup flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 ½ cups skim milk
- 2 ½ cups water
- 10 oz uncooked elbow macaroni, use whole wheat pasta if following the myWW Purple plan
- 6 oz 50% reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (I use Cabot)
Instructions
- *Place the chicken breasts in a Dutch oven or other large pot and cover with water to about 2 inches over the chicken. Bring the water to a boil over high heat and then reduce the heat to medium. Cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes (depending on the thickness of your chicken breasts – mine are generally done at 15, so check one then) until chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken breasts to a cutting board. Discard the water from the pot and rinse and wipe out the pot to use again. Chop the chicken into small, bite-size pieces and move to a mixing bowl. Add the barbecue sauce and stir to coat. Set aside.
- Melt the butter in the pot over medium heat. Whisk in the flour, salt, black pepper and cayenne until combined with the butter and continue to stir for a minute. Slowly whisk in the milk until combined and smooth. Add the water and whisk in to combine.
- Increase the heat to med-high and stir occasionally until boiling. Reduce the heat to med-low and add the macaroni. Cook for 8 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent sticking.
- Reduce the heat to low and stir in the shredded cheese until well combined. Add the chopped chicken with barbecue sauce and stir until thoroughly combined. Cook for another few minutes until all ingredients are heated through and serve.
- *If you already have cooked chicken breasts on hand you can skip this step and use a pound of cooked, chopped chicken. Place it in a bowl and mix it with the barbecue sauce.
Notes
347 calories, 34 g carbs, 4 g sugars, 9 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 32 g protein, 2 g fiber (from myfitnesspal.com) MyWW SmartPoints per (1 cup) serving:(SP calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com) Green: 9 SmartPoints/ Blue: 8 SmartPoints/ Purple: 4 SmartPoints (if using wheat pasta, if not then use the Blue points) Weight Watchers Points Plus:
9 per (1 cup) serving (PP calculated using a WW PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition info below)
OMG it’s like this recipe was made just for me!! I cannot wait to try it. Thank you so much!! 🙂
Awesome! I tried this tonight for the first time. I don’t keep FF milk around because it always goes bad, but I always have FF half-n-half for coffee. I used that instead and it came out great!
Made this last night for the family…it was soooo good! Flavorful with a little kick.
Thanks for another great recipe!
This looks so good. I did a quick lunch based on this. I used Velveeta 2% shells and cheese in the single serve container. I cooked it as instructed then added a drained heated can of chicken breast and topped it with the Stubbs Original. It comes to 5 freestyle points. I am going to try the recipe as is for my family. I would never have though of putting bbq sauce on mac and cheese, but it totally works. Thank you for the awesome recipe.
7 Freestyle points…
This was delicious! I had all the ingredients so I decided tonight was a good night to try it. I was a little skeptical of the bbq sauce, but it added the perfect “something extra”. Hubby loved it too. A hit for us!
Made this tonight with Quorn meatless filets instead of chicken. Was amazing!!
I’m so glad you loved it!
Emily, are you having any difficulty buying reduced fat Sharp Cheddar cheese? The store I shop at stopped carrying their brand, but I also can not find it made by Kraft or Sargento. I’m perplexed!!
This was a quick and delicious find! Will definitely be in the rotation!
Super easy dinner; made with ingredients that are Staples in our kitchen. I didn’t really like that the chicken was boiled but I’m assuming it’s an easy fix for next time. I loved the creamy cheese sauce and BBQ sauce mixed together. It was super yum! Definitely will make this recipe again!
I was Hesitant to try this because other low fat Mac and cheese dishes have not worked out well for me but this one was great. It was very creamy and my family really liked it!! I used Cabot 75% reduced fat cheese.
I made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious! Everyone loved it
Can this be made with unsweetened almond milk?
Definitely!
This was amazing, delicious, so easy to make and will be a repeat meal!! However – I made it directly as described and measured it and meal prepped in containers, it only made 6 one cup servings, which made Weight watchers 14 points, not 8 pts for Blue 🙁
How many total servings is this?
Delicious and Easy! Had leftover grilled chicken I chopped up and mixed with BBQ Sauce. And couldn’t find reduced fat cheese so used regular. DELICIOUS!! Its a keeper for sure. Whole family loved it
What an outstanding recipe! We love love this recipe. I love using Kraft original bbq and it was worth the extra points. This is definitely on rotation in our house.
You are my favorite WW food blogger and I’ve made so many of your wonderful recipes. I don’t think there was one that I didn’t like. This one was so delicious. It was beyond yummy. This will go on my weekly rotation! Thank you so much for this blog!
One of my family’s favorite recipes! Only modification is I seasoned the chicken with bbq rib as it’s cooking