Fifteen ingredients and fifty minutes, with three things made in parallel: pasta, fried chicken and a cheese sauce.
The chicken sits on top rather than being stirred through. It is fried and crisp when it lands, and stirring it into the sauce would undo the only crisp thing in the bowl.
Why This Recipe Works
- A short buttermilk soak wets the surface so the seasoned flour clings to it.
- Shallow-frying browns bite-size pieces in less time than a deep fry needs.
- A butter-and-flour roux with whole milk carries two cups of cheese without splitting.
- Warming the honey with chilli flakes for a minute makes a glaze that pours rather than sets.
- Assembling at the last moment keeps the fried coating crisp against the sauce.
Ingredient Notes
- Two cheeses
- A cup and a half of cheddar with half a cup of Monterey Jack. The Jack melts smoother than cheddar alone and keeps the sauce from turning grainy.
- Flour, in two places
- Three quarters of a cup for the dredge and two tablespoons for the roux. Different jobs, measured separately.
- Red pepper flakes
- Half a teaspoon warmed into the honey, and more scattered at the end. They are the pepper the dish is named for.
- Cavatappi
- Twelve ounces. The corkscrew holds a thick cheese sauce where a smooth shape would shed it.
How to Make It
Cook the cavatappi
Cook cavatappi until al dente and drain.
Buttermilk, dredge, shallow-fry to 165F
Soak chicken in buttermilk 10 minutes. Mix flour with salt and pepper, dredge chicken, and shallow-fry until browned, crisp, and 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Drain on a rack.
Warm the honey-pepper glaze
Warm honey with red pepper flakes for 1 minute to make the honey-pepper glaze.
Roux, milk, two cheeses
Melt butter in a saucepan, whisk in flour, then gradually whisk in milk. Simmer until thick and melt in cheddar and Monterey Jack.
Fold, top, drizzle
Fold cavatappi into the cheese sauce. Spoon into bowls, top with fried chicken, drizzle with honey-pepper glaze, and finish with parsley and extra chilli flakes.
Four Layers, and Only One Is Crisp
What makes this dish is entirely underneath the chicken: a bowl of macaroni cheese. Read it from the bowl upward.
Parsley and MORE chilli flakes
2 tbsp of parsley and extra flakes scattered last. The chilli appears twice in this recipe, in the glaze and on top, and it is what the pepper in the name actually refers to.
The honey-pepper glaze
2 tbsp honey warmed with 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes for 1 minute, drizzled over. Warmed only until it flows, so it stays a pale drizzle rather than setting on the crust.
The fried chicken - on top, never stirred
1 1/4 lb of bite-size breast soaked 10 minutes in 1/2 cup buttermilk, dredged in 3/4 cup seasoned flour, shallow-fried to browned, crisp and 165F, and drained on a RACK. It goes on top at the last moment: folded through the sauce it would soften within a minute, and the crisp coating is the only textural contrast in the bowl.
The cavatappi, folded in
12 oz cooked al dente and FOLDED into the sauce rather than sauced on the plate. Cavatappi's corkscrew and ridges hold a thick sauce; you want pasta visibly coated, not pasta sitting in a pool.
The cheese sauce
2 tbsp butter with 2 tbsp flour whisked to a roux, then 2 cups of whole milk added GRADUALLY and simmered thick, with 1 1/2 cups cheddar and 1/2 cup Monterey Jack melted in. Two cheeses on purpose: the Jack melts smoother than cheddar alone, and the roux is what carries two cups of cheese without the sauce turning grainy.
Success Tips
- Drain the fried chicken on a rack rather than paper so the underside stays crisp.
- Whisk the milk into the roux gradually; poured in at once it lumps.
- Assemble at the last moment — fried chicken on cheese sauce softens quickly.
Serving Ideas
Four white bowls of the creamy yellow cavatappi, each topped with the browned fried chicken pieces, drizzled with the pale honey-pepper glaze and scattered with red chilli flakes and chopped parsley.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I stir the chicken through the pasta?
It would lose its crispness. The chicken is fried and goes on top, which is how the finished bowl looks.
Where is the pepper in honey pepper?
Red chilli flakes — half a teaspoon warmed into the honey and more scattered over at the end. They are visible in the finished bowl.
My cheese sauce went grainy. Why?
Usually too much heat once the cheese went in. Simmer the roux and milk until thick first, then melt the cheese in off the boil.
