A great spin for a Happy Taco Tuesday! This dish combines all of the flavors you love about Mac and Cheese with the added bonus of the best fajita ingredients. Fajita Mac and Cheese is super creamy, plus packed with protein and veggies to keep you full for longer.
How many WW points is this now?! Click on the link below and it will take you to the recipe I made within your own WW app. Your specific points will be calculated, and you can track that.
This dish makes for an amazing leftover lunch the next day. It warms up great in the microwave.
This dish does not require any fancy tools, no Instant Pot or Air Fryer needed. Although I absolutely love working with those two. Just a pot to cook your pasta and a large pan for everything else. I like to have a pan with tall sides, to keep everything inside.
Next, be sure to grab all of your ingredients
- Elbow pasta
- Minced garlic
- Bell pepper
- Red Onion
- Ground chicken breast
- Lime juice
- Taco Bell sauce
- ⅓ less fat cream cheese
- Salsa con queso
- Lite shredded mexican cheese
- Seasonings
- Cooking spray
I get a ton of questions about how to measure pasta. I always measure it dry, it is way easier this way, plus, I almost always add more ingredients to the pasta, making it nearly impossible to measure the pasta cooked. A typical box contains one pound, or 16 ounces of pasta. A serving size is 2 ounces, which means a box of pasta has 8 servings. In almost all of my recipes, including this one, I use 6 ounces of pasta, which is really 3 servings. I then split up the entire dish into four servings, which really just means, I split up three servings of pasta into a four serving dish. This is a great way to still enjoy real pasta while staying on track.
Anyways, let's get back to measuring the pasta. As I said, a box of pasta has 16 ounces, 8 servings. When I get my box of pasta, I split it up into 3 portions- 3 ounces, 3 ounces and 2 ounces. I bag all of these up separately and label them. This recipe will call for a 3 ounce bag.
You will also need some Taco Bell sauce. I am obsessed with this stuff. It is zero points and bring so much flavor to a dish. I like the mild but the hot isn't too much of a difference.
This recipe also calls for salsa con queso. I use the Tostitos brand. Definitely my favorite. It has the smallest amount of spice to it, but it is mostly just there for cheese and creaminess.
I get my lite shredded Mexican cheese from Trader Joe's. I have driven 15 minutes to Trader Joe's just for this cheese, it is that good and I recommend you get some.
Finally, seasonings. You should have all of these in your cabinet already, they are just your typical seasonings, nothing special.
- Salt
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Ground cumin
- Paprika
- Oregano
- Black pepper
The first thing I do is cook the pasta. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, drain well and set it aside. I put the pot of water on the stove, set it to high and get going with the next steps while that starts to boil.
While we wait for the water to boil, slice up the bell pepper and onion. I use about half of a bell pepper and a quarter of a red onion. This is usually more than enough but slice all of that up and then when it comes time, just add as much as you want. Here is what it looks like sliced up. You can order my knife set here, these are the best knives!
Heat the pan over medium/high heat and grease it with cooking spray. I love using the butter flavor, of course. Add the sliced peppers and onions and cook until desired wellness, about 5 minutes. Set them aside on a clean plate when finished. They should look something like this.
Next, grease the pan again and add in the minces garlic. Cook the garlic until fragrant, about a minute.
Add the ground chicken, whole, and brown for about 1-2 minutes. Start breaking up the chicken then add in the seasonings. Continue to break up and cook the chicken.
Once the chicken is almost cooked, almost all the pink is gone, add in the lime juice and Taco Bell sauce. Bring the mixture to a slight simmer and simmer until the chicken is fully cooked.
It should look something like this before you add in the liquids.
Reduce the heat to medium then add the cream cheese and shredded cheese. Mix that together until fully melted. Pour the salsa con queso into the mixture and stir together.
Finally, add back in the pasta and as many cooked onions and peppers as desired and mix that all together.
Taste to see if anymore salt or pepper is desired then divide evenly into four servings. Each serving is one heaping cup.
Fajita Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 6 ounces elbow pasta dry
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- ½ bell pepper
- ¼ red onion
- 16 ounces ground chicken breast
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 1 pinch oregano
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 tablespoon Taco Bell Sauce
- 1 ounce ⅓ less fat cream cheese
- ¼ cup shredded lite Mexican cheese
- ⅓ cup salsa con queso
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, drain well and set it aside.
- Slice the half bell pepper and quarter red onion into thin slices.
- Heat a medium/large pan over medium/high heat and grease it with cooking spray. Add the sliced peppers and onions and cook until desired wellness, about 5 minutes. Set them aside on a clean plate when finished.
- Next, grease the pan again and add in the minces garlic. Cook the garlic until fragrant, about a minute.
- Add the ground chicken, whole, and brown for about 1-2 minutes. Start breaking up the chicken then add in the seasonings. Continue to break up and cook the chicken.
- Once the chicken is almost cooked, almost all the pink is gone, add in the lime juice and Taco Bell sauce. Bring the mixture to a slight simmer and simmer until the chicken is fully cooked.
- Reduce the heat to medium then add the cream cheese and shredded cheese. Mix that together until fully melted. Pour the salsa con queso into the mixture and stir together.
- Finally, add back in the pasta and as many cooked onions and peppers as desired and mix that all together.
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