Our Favorite Homemade Mac & Cheese
Apr 7th, 2014 by Sarah
Ok, so I know it’s April now, but someone should really tell that to Mother Nature. It has been cold, windy, and rainy here. So, I figured why not heat up the oven (and the house a bit) and enjoy some of our favorite comfort food. At our house, that means macaroni and cheese. I will admit that, out of laziness, it typically comes in the form of a blue and yellow box that is prepared in less than 10 minutes, but my favorite is actually to make it myself.
Macaroni and cheese is really a super simple dish to make and it tastes so much better when it doesn’t come from a box. There are a lot of macaroni and cheese recipes out there … and we’ve tried a bunch of them. This one is a pretty basic one, but it is, hands down, the winner as far as we are concerned.
To make it, you’ll just need a few simple ingredients: margarine, flour, salt, milk, cheese, macaroni, and bread crumbs.
One of my favorite things about this recipe is that we almost always have all of the ingredients in the house, so I never have to make a panicked trip to the grocery store when I figure out at 4:00 that we have nothing for dinner. Yet another reason this is one of our go-to meals.
I start by preheating the oven and boiling a pan of water for the macaroni. Then, I measure out all of the ingredients for the cheese sauce. There aren’t that many, but I find the sauce turns out better if I have everything ready to add as soon as it’s needed rather than hunting for a clean measuring cup when it’s time to add milk.
Then, I melt the butter in a large sauce pan. Once the butter is melted, I stir in the flour and salt and continue heating it until it’s bubbly. I usually let it bubble for a minute or two before adding the next ingredients – I feel like this helps the sauce to have a smoother texture when it’s all done.
Next, I add the milk, just a little (probably about 1/2 cup) at a time, making sure to mix it in with the flour really thoroughly each time. I also usually wind up increasing the heat a little to medium-high at this point. I have an electric stove that doesn’t seem to run super hot, though, so I’m thinking the temperature might not need to be increased in all cases. Basically, I just raise it a little so it doesn’t take forever and a day for the milk to warm up and reach a boil.
Once all of the milk has been added and thoroughly mixed in, I heat it to a boil and then reduce heat a little so it can simmer and thicken. It seems like this usually takes a few minutes (less than 5), but I just go based on the thickness of the sauce rather than time.
Then, I add in the shredded cheddar cheese and stir until it’s both melted and thoroughly mixed in.
By this point, the macaroni is usually done cooking, so I drain off the water and then add it to the cheese sauce, stirring to make sure the macaroni gets well coated.
Next, I transfer the macaroni and cheese to a casserole dish that I’ve sprayed with a non-stick spray and top it with the remaining cheese (and usually a little more since we really like cheese) and bread crumbs.
Then it goes in the oven to cook for 20-25 minutes until the cheese is melted and it’s heated through. I’ve also made this recipe ahead of time and refrigerated it until dinner. In that case, I just don’t add the breadcrumbs on the top before it goes in the refrigerator and I cook it for a little longer (maybe about 40 minutes), adding the bread crumbs when there are about 15-20 minutes remaining.
Mmm … macaroni and cheese. We seriously love this dish, especially paired with green beans and fruit. Haley thinks this is just about the perfect toddler food – and Chad and I gobble it up too. Can you tell we aren’t fancy eaters around here?
Our Favorite Homemade Mac & Cheese
Ingredients
- 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
- 3 tbsp butter or margarine
- 2 tbsp flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 cups milk
- 8 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
- bread crumbs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*.
- Cook macaroni according to package directions.
- While macaroni is cooking, melt butter or margarine in a large sauce pan over medium heat.
- Stir in flour and salt and continue cooking/stirring until the mixture is bubbly.
- Slowly add milk (about 1/2 cup at a time), stirring and heating to nearly a boil after each addition.
- Simmer and stir the sauce until it thickens a bit (usually less than 5 minutes).
- Add 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese, stirring until the cheese is melted.
- Add cooked macaroni to cheese sauce, stirring until the macaroni is evenly coated.
- Transfer to a 1 1/2 qt. baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray.
- Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and bread crumbs.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and macaroni is heated through.
Notes
- We like the Barilla Protein Plus pasta for when the macaroni won’t be eaten right away – it stays slightly firmer for a longer period of time.
- If you need to make a bigger batch, just double the recipe and bake in a 9×13 pan.
- If you need to use a slow cooker to keep it warm for a while, make the following changes to the basic recipe above:
- Cook the pasta for only 5 minutes (rather than whatever time is specified on the box.)
- Add all of the cheese to the cheese sauce (rather than reserving some to put on top). Omit the bread crumbs.
- Rather than baking in the oven, transfer the macaroni & cheese to a slow cooker that has been sprayed with non-stick spray and set to “Warm”. A double-recipe fits in a 5 qt slow cooker.
- Check and stir the macaroni every 30-45 minutes to make sure it is heating evenly and the edges are not turning brown.
Filed Under: Recipes