Homemade Baked Macaroni & Cheese Recipe ~ Easy, Creamy & Crowd-Pleasing~
Homemade Baked Macaroni & Cheese
Looking for a more southern soul food style baked macaroni and cheese? Click here to try out my sister’s recipe.
Looking for a more southern soul food style baked macaroni and cheese? Click here to try out my sister’s recipe.
Homemade baked macaroni & cheese….ahhhh…just the thought of those bubbling cheeses & pasta baking to perfection in the oven makes me smile! Is this really the ultimate comfort food ????
I’ve been baking a crap load of homemade macaroni and cheese recipes since last week. Just trying to figure out which one is worthy enough to sit proudly on my Thanksgiving table.
I try to go with a different baked macaroni and cheese recipe every year, but this year after trying so many and being disappointed, I decided to go with my old tried & true recipe. Those “testing” ingredients were getting pretty darn expensive! My purse & waistline simply can not afford to test out any more recipes!
Ok yall, so this is the cheesy beauty that I will be serving up again this year. I’ve already received phone calls asking, no THREATENING, me that “I better be making this macaroni and cheese on Thanksgiving! “
This baked macaroni & cheese recipe is what I call a true crowd-pleaser. It’s creamy & cheesy which satisfies the kids (because yall know how kids are with mac n cheese) yet rich, comforting & complex enough to please those adults wanting that good ol’ southern style baked macaroni & cheese. Don’t let the chicken stock scare you in this recipe. It just adds a lil flavor and kicks up the cheese taste (it doesn’t taste chicken-ish)
Homemade Baked Macaroni & Cheese Recipe ~ Easy, Creamy & Crowd-Pleasing~
Recipe Type: side dish
Author:
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- Equal parts water & chicken broth to boil macaroni in
- 3 cups of macaroni (uncooked)
- 2 Tablespoons of butter
- 2 Tablespoons flour
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 cup half n half
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
- 4 cups of finely grated cheese (I buy the bag of Kraft mixed cheese(It’s the one with the picture of the macaroni on the front. I think it’s called classic melts. It is about 3 cups worth per bag and then I add a cup of Gouda cheese)
- Additional cheese to go on top (I like to use all sharp cheddar on top)
- Black pepper
- Paprika
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a large pot, add equal parts water & chicken broth. (Just enough to cook your macaroni in) Bring to a boil.
- Add macaroni and cook until al dente. About 7-8 minutes (look on the back of the box for the cooking time and set your timer so that you don’t overcook it) When macaroni is done, drain and set aside.
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter & whisk in the flour. Cook for about 2 minutes. Whisking the entire time.
- Slowly whisk in 1 cup chicken broth, half n half, & milk. Whisk until combined. You want the mixture to steam but NOT boil. Adjust your heat accordingly
- Add in the cream cheese & stir until completely dissolved and smooth. Whisk & stir like crazy to get it smooth. I used a spoon to mash the cream cheese up a bit.
- Remove from heat & add in 4 cups of cheese & stir until smooth.
- Pour cheese mixture over cooked macaroni and stir to combine. Add some black pepper if you’d like.
- Grease a 9 X 9-inch pan with butter & pour the mac n cheese into it.
- Top with sharp cheddar cheese and paprika.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes. Do not over-bake to prevent it from being dried out. You want the macaroni and cheese to be somewhat jiggly when you take it out. It will set as it cool and just be the creamiest, cheesiest thing ever.
- Let cool for about 15-20 minutes before digging in so that it can set completely. I never can wait that long but hopefully, you have stronger willpower than me when it comes to macaroni & cheese.
When I tell you this was a hit, THE WAS A HIT. I have been looking for macaroni and cheese recipes but everything was so dry, boring, or weird. This was amazing and I will be making it over and over again. Thank you !!!
Hi! Thanks for posting. I am loving this site and I plan to make this version of Mac n cheese for thanksgiving. I know it’s a few years old so maybe that’s why I couldn’t find the Kraft blends variety in the store so I went ahead and bought the sargento chef blends 4 state cheddar (Vermont, New York, California, Wisconsin) which was buy 1 get 1 free at the grocery store. After rereading the recipe I noticed you included gouda cheese which I forgot so I need to go back and get that but my question is on the portion size. It says it serves 6 and we are having 14 people this year so do you think it would be enough if I doubled the measurements or should I triple it to be safe? Also is it ok to double / triple or do I need to scale back on any of their ingredients if I do?
Does anyone know how to convert this if I am using a traditional lasagna pan? Thanks!
OMG I made this last night and it was (as Tamar Braxton would say) the bomb-dot-com!!!! I wanted to try this one to see if I liked it better than the other mac and cheese on the site. And let me tell you this one is really trying to beat out the other recipe. I am seriously thinking of making both for Thanksgiving and have people vote on which they like better! Either way they are both fantastic and you have really helped come to love cooking.
I have all your cookbooks and they are my go to when I really want to cook!
Whats the recipe for this mac n cheese for a large gathering of 20ppl
Hey I’m a little confused on what is equal parts water before making this dish