This is an update to a recipe I published nearly 10 years ago… Egad, that’s a while! The original recipe was great, but the new one is better. What’s the difference? Onion. I doubled the onion (from 1 to 2) and caramelized them. It truly made all the difference.
Better jump on this recipe soon. Once the weather heats-up, it’s not socially acceptable to eat casseroles.
Mac & cheese on a plate. So good.
Badass Baked Mac & Cheese
As a main dish: serves ~4 large adults, probably 6 regular-sized adults
As a side dish: serves more
INGREDIENTS
- 1 lb Elbow Noodles
- 1 lb Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated
- 2 Onion, diced
- 3 Cups Milk
- 1/3 Cup Flour
- 6 Tbs Butter
- 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- Salt & Black Pepper
- 8 oz Bacon, cut into 1/2” pieces
- 1/3 Cup Bread Crumbs
SUMMARY
There are four (4) things to cook for this dish: the bacon, the onions, the noodles, and the cheese sauce. Combine them all together, pour into a casserole dish, top with buttered bread crumbs, and bake.
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook the bacon until “almost crispy.”
Cook bacon until leathery
You don’t want to overcook the bacon. Evacuate the bacon to a paper towel lined plate or bowl and save for later.
- Pour-out all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease from the pan, and add onions. Cook in bacon fat until dark golden in color. This should take about 15 minutes – or more. You really want to develop that caramelized bacon flavor. After about 10 minutes, there will be little to no liquid/fat left, and the onions may burn a little. That’s ok. Just add some water to deglaze and continue until the onions are the right color. When complete, you can leave the onions in the pan until later or remove to a bowl.
Cook onions until dark golden
- Cook the noodles in salted boiling water until done. Try to time the noodle cooking to coincide with the cheese sauce cooking. Elbow noodles take about 7-8 minutes to cook. Once cooked, drain the noodles and set-aside.
- In a large saucepan, melt 4 Tbs of butter. Add flour and stir-together into a roux. Cook the flour/butter for about 3 minutes then add milk. Whisk the milk into the roux. When the milk heats, the sauce will thicken like magic. Add grated cheese and stir until the cheese melts (1-2 minutes).
- Taste the cheese sauce, and add seasoning: cayenne, salt, and pepper to taste. Stir-into the cheese sauce. Done.
- Combine the cheese sauce, noodles, bacon, and onion into a vessel (hopefully, your cheese sauce saucepan is big enough – mine is) and stir to combine.
Ready for the oven
- Pour the mixture into a greased 9/13″ baking dish. Don’t forget to grease that pan!
- Melt 2 Tbs of butter in the microwave, add bread crumbs, and stir. The product should look like wet sand.
- Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the casserole and bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.
- Done. You might want to let this sit for ~10 minutes, otherwise you’ll visit the burn unit later. It’s rocket hot!
FAQs
-
Grate the cheese over a piece of wax paper. Easy clean-up.
Should I buy pre-grated cheese? >> No. Buy a block of cheese, and grate it yourself. You can buy higher quality cheese.
- Greased baking dish – WTF? >> For this you can use cooking spray, or be like me and use butter. Just take a little hunk of butter and smear it all over the place with your fingers. It’s messy and fun. Extra bonus: butter tastes good!
Look who did a piss-poor job of greasing the pan. I’ll do better next time.
Cook Like a Badass 