Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

We ended up having a last-minute dinner guest and because I haven't been cooking large meals with my better eating habits, he is a meat and potatoes sort of fellow, so I looked through my pantry to see what I had on hand and headed to the market for a couple more ingredients.  What I came up with was Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese, from scratch!  I did not have a moment to take a photo, but it was a looker!

Here's what you'll need:

1 lb pasta (I had macaroni)
4 oz grated cheddar cheese (I used sharp, reduced fat)
4 oz grated Gruyere cheese
1 stick butter
milk (I used skim)
heavy cream (or just use more milk!)
salt and pepper
1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken of your choice (I used tenders)
flour
hot sauce
brown sugar
honey
1 scallion
breadcrumbs (I used half seasoned and half panko)
1 large broccoli head

Season chicken with salt and pepper and grill it.  While it's grilling, make your buffalo sauce:
1/4 cup hot sauce, 1 tbs melted butter, 1 tbs brown sugar, 1 tbs honey.  Once chicken is cooked, dice or shred and toss in buffalo sauce.  Set aside.

Cook pasta to box directions for al dente. (You will be baking it later, so al dente is perfect). Chop broccoli to small florets and add to cooking pasta 1 minute before pasta is done.  Once pasta is finished, drain and put back in cooking pot.

For the sauce, here's what you'll need.  Grate your cheeses ahead of time and have them set aside.  In a medium saucepan, melt the remaining 7 tbs of butter.  Sprinkle in flour, enough to soak up all the butter (1/4 cup is my guess, but it may have been more), and whisk.  You're making a bechemel sauce.  Cook out the flour and add milk, a half cup at first, whisking to work out any lumps.  Continue to add milk (I had heavy cream so I used it as well) in increments until the flour seems to not seize everything up again. Add 1 tsp salt and 3/4 tsp pepper, and your cheeses.  Whisk until cheese melts into the sauce (this should be over low heat), and add milk if you need to thin out the mixture.  It should be fairly thick.  Pour over macaroni and broccoli and fold in chicken with all the remaining sauce and chopped scallions.

Load macaroni into a baking dish, top with breadcrumbs (I sprayed my breadcrumbs with butter spray), and set into a preheated 375 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, uncovered, until the breadcrumbs are browned and sauce is bubbly. Serve with hot sauce bottle on hand for those who need a little extra punch!

*Alterations.  I planned to use cream cheese in here as well, but I grated too much hard cheeses and omitted it. Feel free to use whatever nice melting cheese you like.  Gruyere is expensive but I only used about $4 worth for this recipe.  Crumbles of your favorite bleu cheese would be great in this too.
If your family prefers another veggie instead of broccoli, change it up!  Broccolini would be nice here, asparagus, spinach, bitter greens... go nuts!
I did not have nutmeg, but if you do, grate a bit into the bechemel!