Fan of your favorite restaurant recipes but want to make them at home? This Copycat Applebee’s Honey Pepper Mac and Cheese is the perfect copycat recipe. Filled with mac and cheese, chicken and bacon it is completely addicting!
Honey Pepper Mac and Cheese is one of my favorite copycat restaurant meals around. With so many different flavors combined into one makes it seriously flavorful.
Now you can make it at home with this delicious recipe, bringing your favorite copycat meal right to your table. Some of my other favorite copycat recipes include Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup, Wahlburgers Sloppy Joe and Texas Roadhouse Rattlesnake Bites.
There are so many different recipes from your favorite sit down or take-out places that you can easily recreate at home and this Honey Pepper Chicken Mac and Cheese is one of my favorites and most popular on my site. Want to find out how you can easily make it at home? Keep reading.
HOW TO MAKE APPLEBEE’S HONEY PEPPER CHICKEN MAC AND CHEESE:
- Bake or deep fry chicken strips until done (you can also make your own), set aside.
- Cook pasta according to package directions.
- Meanwhile in medium saucepan mix all your Honey Pepper sauce ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes or until thickened, stirring often..
- To make your cheese sauce melt your butter and cream together in medium sauce pan.
- Once melted add your cheese and garlic and stir until combined and reduce heat until all cheeses are blended in.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add pasta to large bowl and pour sauce and crumbled bacon over top, stir to combine.
- Dip each of your chicken strips into the honey pepper sauce until coated. Set aside.
- When ready to serve, dish up your pasta and top with chicken strips and sprinkle with basil.
There are so many different elements to this Honey Pepper Chicken Mac and Cheese, you have the chicken, sauce and the cheese sauce. I know all of them together sound daunting, but in the end it is worth it. It really is super creamy and delicious.
HOW TO MAKE A CHEESE SAUCE:
Traditionally making a cheese sauce you would create a rue, I decided against it for this recipe as the creamier sauce without the flour added to it helps the noodles soak up the sauce without becoming dried out and pretty much diminishing. We first start with melting butter and cream together.
Add your cheeses one at a time making sure that each are melted in before adding the next one, this ensures that the cheese are melted evenly. Then you add in salt and pepper to taste, this is always a personal preference, I’m a salt person so I love extra salt on my food, but use your judgement. You then stir in the pasta to this sauce along with your bacon.
TIPS ON MAKING HONEY PEPPER SAUCE:
- I’ve had comments on peoples sauce not thickening, this will thicken once it is cooled slightly, do not wait for it to thicken while simmering, you will waste your time, let it cool for a few minute and it will thicken right up.
- You need to keep your eye on the sauce and make sure it is on a low enough simmer where it won’t boil over.
- Whisk the honey pepper sauce often, this will also help it not boil over and get those flavors blended in perfectly.
Copycat Applebee’s Honey Pepper Chicken Mac and Cheese will 100% become one of your favorite recipes out there. It is simple as all the ingredients are pretty much just dump and go and it is PACKED full of all the flavors.
Hands down this recipe is one of the ones most requested at our house more than any. It makes a large enough batch to feed the whole family and it costs less to make this than it does to actually go to the restaurant and purchase a single plate.
If you want the perfect copycat recipe that you can make at home then you need to add this Honey Pepper Chicken Mac and Cheese to your menu fast!
Honey Pepper Chicken Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 16 oz box spiral noodles
- 1 25 oz. bag breaded chicken strips
- 5 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
- Salt and Pepper
- Basil
Honey Pepper Sauce:
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 3 Tbs soy sauce, low sodium
- 1/4 cup pineapple juice
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 Tbs vinegar
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Cheese Sauce:
- 1 stick butter
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, freshly shredded
- 3/4 cup colby jack cheese, freshly shredded
- 2-3 cloves minced garlic
- Chopped fresh basil
Instructions
- Bake or deep fry chicken strips according to package directions (you can also make your own), set aside.
- Cook pasta according to package directions.
- Meanwhile mix all your Honey Pepper sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and let cool slightly to thicken.
- To make your cheese sauce melt your butter and cream together in a large pan.
- Once melted add in your cheese one at a time, stirring after each addition then and garlic and stir until incorporated and everything in melted.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add pasta to pan with sauce and stir to combine, add in your bacon and stir until incorporated.
- Dip each of your chicken strips into the honey pepper sauce until coated and set aside.
- When ready to serve, dish up your pasta and top with chicken strips and sprinkle with basil and additional bacon if desired.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Victoria
this recipe is awesome and now a staple in our house as that is my significant others favorite meal at applebees, thanks for sharing!
Tornadough Alli
So happy you like it! We make it as often as we can since it’s one of my husbands favorites!
Morgan
This recipe is amazing! My sauce thickened nicely and I had no issues with it. My fiancé loved it as well. We both crave it quite frequently! 🙂
Loretta
eondering if i could make it and put in crockpot for a carry in? ive made it several times and its great!
Tornadough Alli
I’ve never tried it in the crock pot unfortunately so I’m unable to give you a definite answer on that one Loretta, I’m sorry.
Jenny
I am so excited to try this tonight! I am going to attempt to half the recipe because it’s just two of us. How well does the cheese sauce coat for the full recipe? I’m debating whether I should half this as well or leave as is.
Rachael
No matter what I did I couldn’t get the sauce to thicken even using cornstarch. Was still tasty though!
Tornadough Alli
Hi Rachael! I that’s so weird that it didn’t thicken up at all for you! But I’m still happy you enjoyed the flavor!
Meghann
This recipe looks amazing. I wanted to just try out the sauce for dinner idea sometime. About how much sauce does this make (serving size)? I was thinking of inviting some friends over to try it and wanted to know how much I might need. Thank you!
Tornadough Alli
Hi Meghann, the sauce probably makes around 3/4-1 I guess I’ve never actually measured since it’s more or less for a coating in this recipe. But looking at all the ingredients volumes I’m thinking after it thickens it will result in about that 🙂
Sally
Hi, I have been dying to make this, but i only have 1 problem…how would I make my own breaded chicken?
Tornadough Alli
Hi Sally! To make your own you take a few thawed chicken breasts and cut them into strips. In a bowl you can add about 1 1/2 cup flour mixed with salt, pepper and some paprika, another bowl you can mix about 1 cup milk and 1 beaten egg. Dip your chicken into your flour to coat, then into your milk then back into flour. You then deep fry them until golden. Hope that helps!
Sarah
I have made this twice now for my roommates and myself! We love it! However, biting the honey pepper sauce is one hell of a challenge! I have boiled the sauce over the pan both times I did it! The moment I turn my eye away from it I hear the burning of sauce on the burner! Turned into a mess! Always ends up with two roommates running with kitchen towels trying to cover the smoke detectors as fast as possible so we don’t set the entire apartment building fire alarms off! This recipe is building memories!!! I also featured this recipe in my September favorites on my blog!
Tornadough Alli
Hi Sarah! I’m so happy you love this recipe. Yeah sometimes sauces can be a pain, I’ve done the exact same thing and had my sauce boil over because I didn’t keep my eye on it and it’s not fun to clean! I’ll definitely add that to my notes in the recipe to carefully watch the sauce because it likes to boil over. But I’m extremely happy that memories are being built from this!! ❤❤
Allison
I made this last night and it was delicious! Thank you!
Jess
Tried this and my sauce never thickened 🙁 what’s your secret?!
Tornadough Alli
Hi Jess, I’m so sorry your sauce never thickened. If it doesn’t thicken naturally what I like to do is in a small bowl mix together 1 Tbs cornstarch and 1 Tbs water and stir until combined. Pour that into your sauce and heat, it should thicken it right up.
Valerie
Wow! That looks so very delicious! This will for sure be going on my must try list.
melanaenae
Hi!!! Absolutely so excited to make this recipe for my family!!! Just a quick question though…..where did you buy your breaded chicken strips/what brand of chicken strips are they? ???? Thanks!
Tornadough Alli
I’m so happy you’re excited for this. We just got our breaded chicken straps at Walmart in the frozen section by the meats. You can use tyson, banquet and off brand. Any will do really!
Tiffany
Do you use shredded or block mozzeralla/colby jack cheese in this recipe? Can’t wait to try it!
Tornadough Alli
Hi Tiffany, thanks for stopping by!! I use all shredded or grated cheese in my recipe, you can use block but I’d just shred it up first.
Kara
When I came across this on pinterest last week, I knew I had to try it right away! I just got back from the store and picked up the ingredients I needed and I’m making it tonight! This is my favorite item on Applebee’s menu!
Tornadough Alli
That’s awesome Kara! I really hope you enjoy it. My husband almost begs me to make it for him!
Katie
So you’ve got two of my boys favorites in this recipe, so clearly I must pin and try this some evening. Nothing like some good ole’ comfort food! Thanks for sharing Alli!
Tornadough Alli
Seriously awesome. Best Mac and cheese in my book!
Carla McDonald
Oh my goodness, this looks absolutely delicious! I cannot wait to cook this for my family. It’s so wonderful to see pictures of what the dish looks like complete that aren’t crazy intimidating. Sometimes I see the pictures in recipe books and it puts me off making it because I don’t think I could ever recreate it. Your pictures are lovely, vibrant and real. Again, I absolutely cannot wait to make this!!
Tornadough Alli
How sweet. Your comment literally made my day. I agree with you on trying to recreate some of those cookbook or even blog photos. Unless you are an amazing food stylist my food won’t look like that!
Christine | Mid-Life Croissant
I don’t even care about the mac and cheese just give me that chicken right now!!! So good. Thanks for linking up at #SaucySaturdays.
Debra @ Bowl Me Over
Oh my this definitely looks drool-worthy, YUM! Thanks for sharing with us at #TryaBiteTuesday – pinning & tweeted this amazing recipe! Please stop by again this week – love to have you!
Tornadough Alli
Thank you and thanks for hosting 🙂
Erin @ Thanks for Cookin'!
Oh my goodness my mouth dropped open when I read that PINEAPPLE JUICE is an ingredient in the sauce! I never would have guessed after eating this at Applebees…now I gotta try it myself
Tornadough Alli
Yes ma’am! Such an easy copy cat!
Tricia @ The Adventure List
Looks delicious especially the chicken sauce