If there’s one recipe that all cooks need to have under their belt, it’s a classic homemade mac and cheese recipe. Straight-up creamy, comforting, cheesy goodness! This classic stovetop macaroni and cheese recipe is made with a simple but creamy roux-based cheese sauce that will satisfy all of your cheesy pasta cravings. It’s amazingly delicious on its own straight off the stovetop, but we also have instructions for baked mac and cheese and a list of fun add-ins and other ways you can make it your own.
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How to Make Mac and Cheese Extra Creamy
For this extra cheesy homemade mac and cheese recipe, I used slightly more roux and added about 30% more cheese than I generally do to my simple stovetop mac and cheese recipes. The thicker sauce and extra cheese made this macaroni and cheese so lusciously creamy and cheesy that I couldn’t stop sneaking forkfuls between photographs. AND the best part is that it even stays smooth and creamy when reheated in the microwave. Mac and cheese heaven! 🙌
Ingredients for Mac and Cheese
Here’s what you’ll need to make this super creamy and cheesy homemade mac and cheese recipe:
- Macaroni: Of course! But you can actually use any pasta shape you like or have on hand and it will still be an amazing vehicle for this cheesy sauce.
- Butter & Flour: Butter and flour make a “roux” which thickens the sauce and helps the cheese melt into the sauce smoothly. Without a roux, the water in the milk will repel the fat in the cheese and you’ll get a lumpy sauce.
- Cheddar Cheese: I used sharp cheddar because it gives the most flavor punch, but you can use a medium or mild cheddar if you prefer. Always buy cheese in block form and shred it yourself for the smoothest sauce. Pre-shredded cheese is coated in starch and doesn’t always melt properly.
- Seasoning: Because we want the flavor of the cheese to be the star of the show, the sauce is seasoned simply with a little onion powder, hot sauce, and salt. That’s it! But we have plenty of ideas for more flavor add-ins below.
What Kind of Cheese is Best for Mac and Cheese?
Cheddar is probably the most popular cheese for macaroni and cheese and sharp cheddar provides the most pronounced flavor. But if you want to experiment outside of the confines of cheddar, there are a ton of other cheeses that are great in macaroni and cheese! You can use one or a combination of cheeses to make your mac and cheese your own.
Here are some other cheeses that work great with macaroni and cheese:
- Parmesan
- Gruyere
- Smoked Gouda
- Parmesan
- Chevre
- Cream Cheese
- Brie
- Monterey jack or pepper jack
Tips for The Best Macaroni and Cheese
To get the smoothest, creamiest cheese sauce for your mac and cheese, follow these tips:
- Do not use pre-shredded cheese, which is coated in starch and doesn’t melt smoothly.
- Use whole milk for the richest mac and cheese.
- Make sure the milk has come to a simmer and fully thickened before beginning to add the cheese. If the starches in the roux have not plumped and thickened the sauce yet, the cheese will not melt in smoothly.
- Do not let the cheese sauce boil. Overheating the cheese sauce can cause it to separate and become grainy, so after the milk has thickened, turn off the heat before adding the cheese.
What is a Roux?
This classic stovetop mac and cheese recipe starts with a roux, which is a cooked mixture of flour and fat (in this case, butter). The roux thickens the sauce and helps the cheese melt smoothly into the sauce instead of clumping up as it melts. While there are ways to make a cheese sauce without a roux, taking this extra step definitely creates the creamiest, dreamiest cheese sauce for your mac and cheese.
Mac and Cheese Variations
Here’s where mac and cheese can get really fun. In addition to changing the cheeses, you can switch up the herbs and spices, add in some veggies, or your favorite protein to make your own homemade mac and cheese creation. Here are some other fun ingredients to add to your mac and cheese:
- Proteins: Cooked chicken, Bacon, Sausage, Tuna, Ham
- Vegetables: Broccoli, Spinach, Peas, Pickled jalapeños, Rotel
- Sauces & Condiments: Kimchi, Pesto, Sriracha, Salsa, Buffalo sauce
Homemade Mac and Cheese
Servings 4 about 1.25 cups eachIngredients
- 8 oz. macaroni ($0.67)
- 3 Tbsp butter ($0.30)
- 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour ($0.03)
- 1/2 tsp onion powder ($0.05)
- 2 cups whole milk ($0.84)
- 1/2 tsp hot sauce* ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.03)
- 8 oz. block sharp cheddar, shredded ($2.25)
Instructions
- Cook the macaroni according to the package directions (boil for 7-8 minutes, or until tender). Drain the macaroni in a colander.
- Place the butter, flour, and onion powder in a medium pot. Whisk and heat over medium until the butter is melted and the mixture begins to bubble. Once bubbling, continue to whisk and cook for one minute.
- After cooking the butter and flour roux, whisk in the milk. Continue to cook and whisk over medium heat until the milk begins to gently simmer, at which point it will thicken to the consistency of heavy cream or gravy.
- Turn the burner off. Season the white sauce with the salt and hot sauce.
- Begin to add the shredded cheddar, one handful at a time, whisking it in until completely melted before adding more. Continue until all of the cheese has been melted into the sauce. If the sauce becomes too cold to melt the cheese, place it back over low heat only briefly to continue melting the cheese. Overheating the sauce can cause it to break and become grainy.
- Add the cooked and drained pasta to the pot with the cheese sauce and stir to combine. Serve the mac and cheese hot and enjoy!
Baked Mac and Cheese
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF
- After combining the drained pasta and cheese sauce, transfer it to a casserole dish.
- Top the macaroni and cheese with more shredded cheese, then bake for 15 minutes.
- To achieve a golden brown crispy cheese crust, turn on the oven's broiler for just a few short minutes, watching it closely to prevent burning.
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Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Homemade Mac and Cheese
Start by shredding an 8oz. block of sharp cheddar. It’s very important to shred the cheese yourself instead of using pre-shredded cheese. For more information on that, see the section above the recipe titled “Avoid Pre-Shredded Cheese.”
Next, boil 8oz. of macaroni according to the box directions (boil for 7-8 minutes, or just until tender). Drain the macaroni in a colander. (This is the Barilla elbow macaroni, which has a slightly unconventional elbow shape and texture.)
You can start the cheese sauce either while the macaroni is boiling, or wait until it’s draining and just make it in the same pot to save on dishes. Add 3 Tbsp butter, 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour, and ½ tsp onion powder to the pot.
Place the pot over medium heat and allow the butter to melt. Whisk the butter, flour, and onion powder together as the mixture begins to get bubbly and frothy. Cook and whisk for about one minute after it becomes bubbly.
Whisk 2 cups of milk into the butter and flour roux. Continue whisking as the milk begins to heat (keep the pot over medium heat).
Allow the milk to come up to a gentle simmer, at which point it will thicken to the consistency of heavy cream or gravy. Turn the burner off at this point.
Season the sauce with ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp hot sauce, or the seasonings of your choice (other great options are dry mustard, pepper, smoked paprika, pesto, etc.).
Begin adding 8oz. shredded cheddar to the pot, one handful at a time, whisking until it is completely melted before adding more. If the sauce cools down too much to continue melting the cheese, you can put it over low heat briefly, but avoid allowing the sauce to simmer again. Overheating cheese sauces will cause them to break and become grainy and oily.
When all of the cheese is melted into the sauce, the cheese sauce is complete. You can give it a taste at this point and adjust the seasonings if you’d like. Remember, you want the sauce to be seasoned well because the flavor intensity will be diluted a bit once the macaroni is added.
Add the cooked and drained macaroni back to the pot and stir to combine with the cheese sauce.
And that’s it! Your homemade mac and cheese is done. Don’t tell me you don’t want to dive right into that pot of mac and cheese and swim around a bit. 😂
More Mac and Cheese Recipes
Here are some other Macaroni and Cheese Recipes with other flavors that you might enjoy:
Great recipe to use as a base! I followed it faithfully the first time and made a few minor changes based on user comments the second time. I didn’t cut the milk, but I did double the cheese and the amount of pasta, which gave me a great thick coating. I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but my preference is for something closer to a dip than a true sauce.
IT’S THE BESSSSTTTTTTT. Literally my favorite food.
Very nice – just needs more cheese. That was our primary change when we made this last night – we added about 6 oz. more cheese when making the sauce. It turned out perfect. The reason I’ve left 4 stars is due to the fact that we did have to add more cheese. The result was lovely and creamy!
This is really a great recipe nice and creamy not dried out. I did take it up a notch and diced up half a small block of Velveeta and yum yum
This was disgusting. I tried this recipe and it turned out horrible. Do not make this for your kids if they ask for Mac n’ cheese.
This is my go-to recipe and it never fails for me.
This is the worst Mac n cheese I’ve ever had :( I’m sad I wasted ingredients on this.
I think the measurements must be off. I did the 2x version of this and it turned out as milky cheese water.
Hi there my is Steve Moore from Newark, Delaware saying that the homemade Mac and cheese was so awesome and I made it in my home kitchen and I joy it very much. Very excellent wonderful taste of the homemade Mac and cheese recipe so lovely to have at the dinner table for family and friends to come over and joy to eat. Outstanding I’m telling you so joyful. Amazing Amen. Thank you Steve L. Moore .
This is honestly the best Mac n cheese recipe I’ve ever made! Huge hit for my family and my go to when I bring a meal to someone!
Bland added extra cheese and still no cheese flavor
This was amazing, and took barely any time or ingredients to end up so freaking good. I made this to tempt my sister into eating after surgery, she had no appetite until she smelled this and ended up eating two bowls with a little chili crisp on top. Thank you, I will never buy boxed Mac and cheese again!
amazing also i found that if you wash pre sheared cheese it works just as well
Wow. This came out amazing! Most recipes are never as creamy in consistency as I would like…and this one is spot on. I’ll be the hit of the bbq! Thanks!
Hey Beth! I adore this recipe! Can I make ahead and freeze it? If so, should I thaw before reheating in the oven? Thanks!
I really don’t think I would freeze this one! It would likely be pretty difficult to get it to come back together and not be too grainy or separated.
Can evaporated milk be use ?
You could but the result would be a lot thicker! If you see that its a little thick for your liking you can thin it out with a bit of regular milk.
I made this recipe with a couple modifications and it turned out great! I was craving homemade mac and cheese and it was perfect. I used 1% milk instead of whole milk, and it turned out just as creamy. I also left out the hot sauce (not a fan of hot foods!) and instead added some black pepper and paprika. Will make again!
Very creamy and delicious Mac and cheese!
I like macaroni cheesey.
I made this recipe with protein pasta for my meal prep and it’s incredible! It reheats beautifully. Not grainy AT ALL if you are a real A student and follow the recipe:)
Best thing ever
Great basic mac n cheese recipe! I took a lot of license with it, and it still came out delicious! I subbed corn starch for flour, mustard powder for hot sauce, and pre-shredded Mexican cheese for a block of cheddar. I also sprinkled some black pepper onto my bowl. Yummy!
Umm yum!
10 out of 10. Easy to make and delicious!
Don’t think 2 cups of milk is called for. Maybe 1/2 or 1 cup but not 2. not with only 8 Oz of Mac.
It was April 12th and I was in fcs. We got to make our own food and we decided to make Mac and Cheese. We used this recipe and did everything perfectly. We didn’t make a single error. But while finishing the the Mac and Cheese we saw that the texture was very odd. It grainy and didn’t taste right. We even had out engineering teacher try the Mac and Cheese. He said “The taste is good but the texture it though me off. I would give it a 3/10”. 3 of 10 is NOT good enough. I want perfection and want a 10/10. This meal was graded and now I have an F because of this recipe. I don’t recommend this at all, unless you want to get an F. Please don’t make unless you want horrible Mac and cheese and a waste of time and money making the Mac and Cheese. This was so horrible and was a waste of food.
I agree this recipe was not smooth at all and chunky.
Is it possible that you did something wrong? Nah,couldn’t be.
Actually John. I am a very good chief and I didn’t make a single error. I am a straight A student and I never make any mistakes. This was the recipes fault not mine.
If you put the cheese in while the pot is still on the heat you will get a grainy texture. You remove the pan from the heat source. You must stir the cheese in quickly enough that you do not need to keep it on the heat. If the sauce becomes too cool to melt the cheese, you couldn’t reheated briefly, but if it comes to a simmer again, The sauce will become grainy and oily. That sounds like exactly what you did wrong.
Not good enough to know how to spell Chef properly … or a good enough “chef” to not need to look up Mac and Cheese… you’re learning to cook, you are not a chef. The recipe is great turned out well you just did it wrong get over it.
“I never make any mistakes” said no “chef” ever.
This is the best Mac and cheese I’ve ever had! It is so smooth, creamy, and delicious! The onion powder gives it an amazing flavor!
Absolutely KILLER! An immediate all-time favorite! The only edits I made were to dice the carrots like others suggested so that they cooked/softened more quickly, did a little extra garlic, and added a little cayenne. Absolutely phenomenal!!
Thanks for this delicious recipe!
This was very easy and tasty I didn’t have some of the spices but improvised it was delicious. My grandson even liked it.
it was so good! was so happy this was successful!!
Yum! I love this Mac and cheese. This is the best Mac and cheese in the whole wide world!
This is a solid base recipe for a mild mac and cheese, and easy to follow for making a homemade cheese sauce. No, it won’t be the salt bomb like what comes in the blue box — thankfully! It’s important to use cheese(s) that have good flavor or the finished product won’t have good flavor, imo. I like to use a combination of sharp cheddar and a flavorful swiss, like gruyere, or a smoky gouda. I also add a bit of garlic powder, black pepper and smoked paprika. Chopped sun-dried tomatoes also give it a good flavor boost. I’ve mixed in frozen peas and broccoli (heated and well-drained) to round it out, and also topped it with a little crumbled cooked bacon. Taste the cheese sauce and make modifications before you add the cooked pasta. If the sauce doesn’t taste appealing on its own, adding cooked macaroni isn’t going to magically improve the flavor.
4/5 stars because I prefer stronger flavors and make modifications. Thank you for the solid base recipe!
Have made this multiple times as is or with chicken, bacon and/or broccoli added. Very cheesy and yunmy. Super super easy. I’d never been comfortable making my own cheese sauce and now I feel like a pro. Another awesome, simple recipe from you guys.
Made in in a microwave! Perfect!!
Very tasty recipe. We’ve made many mac and cheese casseroles but don’t like that the leftovers are dry. This was nice and saucy, and we are hoping the leftovers are too.
This made THE BEST mac & cheese!! Thank you! The roux and fresh shredded cheese made all the difference. Looking forward to trying all the different variations like you mentioned. Bon appétit!
Very good! Very simple! What mac n cheese is supposed to taste like. My family devoured it.
This tasted great but it didn’t reheat well at all. The leftovers were useless and went to waste! :-(
The most disgusting Mac and cheese ever. DO NOT waste ur time or money. So disappointed with is it was actually disgusting and we followed every direction perfectly.
For my family, this recipe lacked flavor.
It was good. I was expecting something more elevated. I would have seasoned the sauce more.
This is my go-to recipe. I add a little dried mustard powder, but otherwise I stick right to the recipe. Thanks for keeping it easy and delicious!
i love this recipe so much i’ve made it a thousand times
So glad to hear that! :)
Very tasty! I ended up adding quite a bit more salt to get it to taste more like the box stuff I am apparently addicted to. I loved it but it’s too rich and it made me have a stomach ache the rest of the day. I’ll have to figure out a lighter version of this recipe.
Easy recipe to follow but lacks flavour, my fault cause I should’ve seasoned to my liking.
That pretty blue box is banned in Europe anyway. Homemade is so much better. Thank you.
one of the best I had
This is an awesome no fail mac and cheese recipe! I doubled it to use a full pound of pasta and it was amazing! Helloooo leftovers!
I made it to go with a brisket that my husband smoked and it was the perfect side dish.
Don’t listen to the naysayers. This is THE best mac and cheese you will ever have. I follow the recipe exactly as stated except I usually half it since it’s just me and my husband. It turns out amazing every single time.
Holy Heck Y’all ! Best quick mac ever! So easy and DELISH to extreme! Much thx for this amazing recipe💝🫶🏻👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼. Hugs from Oregon
My toddler licked the bowl. Give the author of the recipe a Nobel Prize.
Beth is GENIUS! Glad to hear the kiddo loved it. xoxo
So easy and the kids loved it! What more could you ask for?
This is a good recipe. I followed it as written with the following modifications:
– Added 1/4 tsp black pepper.
– Added 1/2 tsp garlic powder.
– Ignored the warning about using pre-shredded cheese.
I used pre-shredded “Seriously Sharp” cheddar from Cabot, and the texture of the final dish was fine. I also think using the sharpest cheddar I could find helped elevate the flavor. Overall I’m happy with how it turned out.
This is a simple but tasty recipe. I cannot eat any hard foods right now due to a recent mouth surgery, but I was so hungry for something other than smoothies. I didn’t have any regular milk so made this with oatmilk. I also used a Mexican blend cheese, and it came out really well. I’m not a huge mac’n’cheese fan, but this might have to go into my regular side rotation.
My family loved the Mac and cheese. Should have used the sharp cheese. But didn’t have any. It was a great dish.
I agree with the other comments that the onion powder left a very strong flavor and that the béchamel was very rich; I would omit the onion and double the pasta if I were to make it again but you did warn us this recipe was rich (it also totally doesn’t help that I only had heavy cream instead of milk 💀) My first time both making mac and cheese from scratch and shredding cheese using my food processor! Very fun. Will never shred a block of cheese by hand again.
This is my go-to mac and cheese recipe. I never change anything and it always turns out great.
Easy, cheap, and tasty! I make mine with equal parts gouda and mild cheddar. Be careful with the onion powder, because it can get overwhelming (or replace it with garlic powder, which I keep doing because I ran out of onion powder and never remembered to get more).
Step 1: mess up so horribly because you didn’t read the recipe and now you have this greasy seasoned cheese blob
Step 2: read the recipe and pray
It turned out fine i just kept adding milk and cheddar to the roux until it looked edible haha
Absolutely no flavor. Followed the recipe to a T and it looked great but tasted bad. The onion powder took over and these cheese wasn’t strong enough.
My mom has been wanting homemade macaroni and cheese so this was the first time I made it and it turned out good and she liked it and she is a picky eater I guess I’ll be making this again for her
Works in a pinch, barely.
This was quite good. We didn’t mind the onion powder. I liked that it used more milk than cheese since I had a bunch of extra milk. I broke Beth’s rule of shredding my own cheese because I also had an extra bag of shredded cheese. Now I’m wondering how it will freeze since it’s just the two of us.
I did not mean to reply to someone else’s comment. Not sure how that happened.
It won’t freeze or reheat. Unfortunately. That’s why I had to rate it 2/5 stars.
A classic! If your sauce is too runny, you aren’t simmering it long enough. It takes a few minutes, but Bechamel sauce is like magic, you’ll know when it’s ready.
I made mine with lots of garlic powder, some mustard powder, and Swiss and parmeasean cheese.
After reviewing the comments, I decided to make this as written with the exception of halving the milk and I’m very happy I did! This turned out perfect and has a wonderful flavor, but I can only imagine how soupy it would’ve been with the full amount of milk that the recipe called for!
Yummy!! I decreased the onion powder and hot sauce and added dry mustard and cracked pepper. Thank you for the recipe. :)
Geat recipe! of course I made some adjustments, more salt, included fresh ground pepper, few slices of american cheese and some sour cream let it simmer till thick. Next time ill trow in some celery a can of tuna and some cream of chicken.
Can I shred the cheese ahead of time?
Yes.
Can this be made the night before and reheated the next day? Any recommendations?
Yes. COol thoroughtly before covering woth plastic directly on the surface to prevent condensation. XOXO -Monti
Way to milky, couldn’t taste the cheese or seasoning. Nothing could save it.
I have tried so many Mac and cheese recipes and my kids haven’t liked a single one. I gave this one a try tonight and they all came back for seconds. We will definitely be adding it to our recipe book.
It was gross. Too much milk. Came out soupy. Onion powder was way too strong and weird… I had to add more cheese and seasonings to make it ok.
Made this last night! Fabulous and so decadent!
Awesome ….. Thank you !!!
Awesome! Only thing I would change would be to add 1lbs of pasta vs the 8oz. Super saucy
As a foundational recipe, this is amazing. It was incredibly rich. The richest mac and cheese I’ve ever eaten. My husband liked it as is (he put veggie hotdogs in his lol), but I would have loved some broccoli or peas added in. I personally wanted something to cut the richness. But truly the recipe is great. I used about 4 oz smoked Gouda and 1 oz Gruyère and a few less noodles since I didn’t have all the cheese asked for in the recipe. Next time I will add more noodles, less cheese (the cheese I used was super strong; would probably be lighter with the cheddar), and a veg. 😁
Wayyy too rich, not enough seasoning, had to add several spices to get any flavor whatsoever.
Thought it was disgusting, took one bite and spit it out but my family said it was edible.
Made it. Deeelicious. Added a can of drained sweet peas and viola! Reliving my childhood. Thanks for a great recipe! Your directions are spot on.
This turned out great! I used Colby jack cheese (because that’s what I had in the house) and I added some ham (because I needed to use it up). I doubled the pasta and there was more than enough sauce. This was a great Mac and cheese recipe.
The cheese sauce was great. There was just sooooo much of it! I’ll make this again because I like the flavor and how simple it is, but I’ll probably cut the sauce in half (or double the pasta).
Really easy, and the biggest definition of a comfort food recipe I’ve encountered! I used up some “special” cheddar after a wine and cheese party and confess I did want to lick the bowl clean after!!
I’ve made this recipe a dozen times! Super easy, flavourful and a hit here at my house. Thanks so much!
I e made this several times for myself, with gf macaroni and gf flour/cornstarch combo and it’s a great recipe. My husband is fighting cancer and is nauseated 24/7. He doesn’t usually like pasta or Mac n cheese but he was craving it, so I made it for him with regular gluten pasta and wheat flour for the roux. And I know you advise against it, but I used half pre shredded cheese, because that’s what I had. Combined sharp cheddar, gruyere and Swiss. Thanks again for your recipes.
I’ve made this for my husband a couple of times. He loves it. No more boxed mac and cheese in our house. He requests this at least twice a month now. Thanks for this easy recipe
Great recipe and perfect instructions! It was so pretty! Lol! The only problem for me was the onion powder. It kind of ruined the dish for me and my family, but I can tell this will be a winner next time we make it without. I used De Cecco elbows, which are a little small so I’m gonna add 2 extra ounces of pasta next time. Also added a few extra dashes of hot sauce because I looooove it! :)
I sautéed mushrooms in the butter, added the flour, and went from there. Near the end I added two cans of tuna and a can of Rotel tomatoes and chilis. Oh, my God, it was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten! I LOVE your recipes. They’re so easy and have so much flavor.
This recipe was AWESOME! Super easy and everyone loved it. I did add some twisted Panko on top. Delicious!
This looks so great, I just found your blog and have found many amazing recipes that I can’t wait to try. This looks super simple and able to make just as quickly as Kraft. I will be trying it out as soon as possible. Thank you Beth for your amazing blog!
This has been my go-to Macaroni and Cheese recipe!! The only thing I changed is that I use the white cheddar instead of yellow, it’s just preference is all! And sometimes I add a smidgen of spicy brown mustard at the end. Everything else I follow exactly the same. There are never leftovers because my family eats seconds and sometimes thirds! Amazing recipe and so super easy!
So simple and tasty! I shredded the block cheese while the pasta water heated up and the white sauce cooked up perfectly. The onion powder adds an extra hit of flavor. I used a combo of sharp cheddar, Monterey Jack, and a little bit of a specialty fontina I got at Aldi.
Hand shredding the cheese and getting the white sauce the right consistency are the only things that makes this more work than the boxed stuff, but the directions are so easy to follow and it takes about the same amount of time as Velveeta mac. I’m excited to try new cheese combos in the future
Easy recipe that was well written. The onion and hot sauce give the macaroni and cheese a bit of complexity that makes it very good. Everyone had seconds, so I was glad that I doubled the recipe.
Made this recipe for my 5 year old. He is a Mac and cheese snob.
He gave it to thumbs up so it is kid tested and approved.
I used a mix of cheddar and Italian blend shredded cheese. He loved it
It turned out so much better the. The boxed crap you can buy and make and almost the same time commitment,
Will keep this recipe on hand for future Mac and cheese cravings.
Thank you for sharing this.
Hi Beth! I never knew there was a difference between pre-shredded and block cheese other than pure convenience. I tried your recipe and shredded a block of sharp cheddar and a block of cheddar jack. It came out amazing. Thanks for the tip and recipe!
I’ve made this twice now and will not use any other recipe ever again. It’s perfect and delicious just the way it’s written. Thank you for coming up with it!
Did you weigh your elbows or use a measuring cup? I thought dry measures were in cups rather than ounces..
There are two types of ounces, fluid ounces and weight ounces. Liquid ingredients are measured in fluid ounces and solid ingredients are measured in weight ounces (if not measured in volume). For this, I had a one pound (16 weight ounces) package and I used half. I hope that makes sense! :)
Soo good! I used half pepperjack and half cheddar. I also added broccoli. Thanks for another great recipe!
It looks So yummy and Creamy!
Made this last minute with Gruyer cheese!! Had guests over and they loved it! Keeping this recipe handy.
Love how fast, easy and yummy this was! The onion powder added a lot of flavor.
Delicious. I used half sharp cheddar and half smoked gruyere.
This is what, in my opinion, macaroni and cheese should always be like. Savoury, juicy, slippery elbows. Thanks for a great recipe!
Looks delicious! Can you make this on the stove and then transfer it to a crock pot to keep it warm, or will that overcook the sauce?
Hmm, cheese sauces can be kind of delicate, so I’m really not sure about that one. Slow cookers tend to vary a bit in how they heat, too, so it could be risky.
Can I freeze it?
Cheese sauces don’t usually freeze very well, unfortunately.
A terrific reliable recipe, and so much better than anything that comes in a box–and almost as fast. But you left out one of my fave ingredients–a dusting of nutmeg. I buy whole ones at a store that has bulk prices–it’s about $30 a lb, but 3-5 nutmegs will cost about $1.50 and last a year or two depending on how much you like nutmeg. I also like to use a combo of cheese instead of a single variety, and we really like a little bit of blue cheese in ours.