thecookful.com
Easy Baked Mac and Cheese Recipe
Classic creamy baked mac and cheese, with a shortcut you’ll use over and over again! The base is just 5 ingredients and there’s no roux or separate sauce.
Prep
5 min
Cook
25 min
Total
30 min
Serves
4
Instructions
- 01
Preheat oven to 450°F.
- 02
Cook macaroni according to package directions and drain. Return macaroni to the pot it was cooked in.
- 03
While macaroni is cooking, measure milk and flour into a jar or container with a tight fitting lid. Shake until well mixed.
- 04
Give milk mixture one more good shake then pour it into the pot with the drained macaroni.
- 05
Set the pot over medium heat and cook, stirring continuously until sauce thickens and just comes to a simmer, then immediately remove from heat.
- 06
Stir in the butter and 2 cups of shredded cheese. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste, if desired.
- 07
Pour macaroni and cheese into a 2-quart baking dish** and top evenly with remaining cup of cheese. Sprinkle the panko over the top. A few pinches of my Cajun seasoning is amazing added to the panko here. Spray crumbs with cooking spray.
- 08
Bake until cheese is melted and breadcrumbs are lightly browned, about 7-10 minutes.
Nutrition
per serving
- Calories
- 854
- Protein
- 32.9g
- Carbs
- 61.9g
- Fat
- 52.7g
- Fiber
- 2.3g
- Sugar
- 8.6g
- Sat. fat
- 30.6g
- Sodium
- 661mg
- Cholesterol
- 147.4mg
Variations & swaps
Ingredients and Substitutions
- For the pasta, I use classic macaroni noodles which are also called elbow pasta. Other small pasta shapes will work as well if you prefer shells or bowties.
- For the cheese sauce, you need milk, butter, and cheese. For the milk, I’ve tested this with both whole milk and with non-fat milk. Why? Because lower fat milks have a higher chance of curdling and I wanted to make sure that this recipe will work with whatever milk you have on hand. Note that evaporated milk also works in this recipe.
- The cheese not only goes in the macaroni sauce, but also gets sprinkled on top for some of that classic cheese pull action. I use an extra-sharp Cheddar here. But a mixture of cheeses is also great for different flavors. Options to mix in with the Cheddar are gouda, Gruyere, mozzarella, or Swiss cheeses. Just make sure you’re using cheeses that melt well. Mixing in a little Parmesan cheese with…
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