These popcorn chicken bits prepared in an air fryer instead of a deep fryer are healthier. Serve these with the dipping sauces of your choice.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Total Time: | 55 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower, broken into florets
- cooking spray
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 2 cups half-and-half
- 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
- 2 tablespoons cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon unsalted butter, or as needed
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
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- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Spray cauliflower florets with cooking spray and season with salt and pepper; place on a baking sheet.
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- Roast in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat half-and-half in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add Mexican, Cheddar, and cream cheeses slowly, stirring to combine, until melted.
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- Butter an 8×10-inch baking dish. Mix roasted cauliflower with cheese sauce. Transfer to the prepared dish.
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- Bake in the preheated oven until bubbly, about 15 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 625 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 16 g |
| Cholesterol | 156 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 31 g |
| Saturated Fat | 33 g |
| Sodium | 846 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 51 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Changing my review! After sitting for a day, I decided to cook and shred a chicken breast and mix all together. Took it over the top. Not a fan of it by itself but add some chicken and bam!
Did not change a thing, VERY good
This was tasty and quite easy. Half way through roasting the vegetables (I also roasted a 12 oz bag of green beans) I realized my cream was off. Substituted coconut cream from the pantry, added a healthy dab of Dijon mustard and plenty of ground pepper. The sauce melted beautifully. Whatever survives tonight will be yummy for lunch tomorrow! In future I will add a bread crumb topping to make it pretty and do the last baking step, but tonight we were hungry. Started slurping it up as soon as the sauce was melted.
I made this recipe but added a few vegan substitutes. I used soy milk, vegan cheeses, and vegan cream cheese. It tasted absolutely amazing! Highly recommended trying it out!
This was really good! The only variation I made was to swap provolone for the Mexican cheese. The cheese sauce was nice and creamy. The family liked it, and it gave me a Mac n cheese fix since I recently found out I have a gluten allergy.
Delicious vegetable alternative to pure Mac and Cheese. Very cheesy
First, husband has been doing Keto for almost three years and he really missed Mac and cheese, especially the home made stuff. And since there’s just the two of us, I cut the recipe in half. And I added some garlic powder, a dash of Cayenne pepper, two dashes of Worcestershire sauce, a dash of hot sauce and one half tablespoon of coconut flour. The sauce set up fairly well. I will probably add a tad more the next time. It was pretty good.
OK, I really should not rate this as I have not made it, but the recipe causes some concern. I mean, 2 cups of half and half. Good gosh! I do make something really similar to this but I just make a white sauce, throw in a cup of shredded cheddar cheese and then bake the roasted cauliflower same as in this recipe. All that half and half would make this too watery.
1.9.21 This really didn’t cook up like baked mac & cheese, the consistency is way too soupy. I made the cheese sauce exactly as written, but with no thickening agent, the sauce was creamy, but just runny. I added considerably more cheese (adding more fat and calories), but ended up adding a cornstarch slurry to thicken it a bit. I found the Mexican cheese just too mellow, so in the future, I’d change the cheese to 2 cups x-sharp Cheddar and 1 cup Mexican cheese, but that’s personal taste. If I were to make this again, I’d start by making a butter-flour roux, next add the half-and-half (but less of it) stirring until thickened, and then add the cheese. The sauce definitely needs some salt and pepper, and I think a buttered breadcrumb topping might give it some nice eye appeal, as well as making it more like baked mac & cheese. It tasted OK, but the texture is just wrong, I know I’m the first reviewer and I don’t want to discourage others from trying, but this just didn’t work for me.