HOW TO MAKE BAKED MAC AND CHEESE FROM SCRATCH - No Velveeta!

It's 2020 .

What we're not gonna do , we're not gonna keep disrespecting big macaroni and cheese like that .

We're not gonna keep putting processed cheese and macaroni and cheese .

We're gonna put grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese .

Hey , what's up , you guys ?

My name is Crystal and today I'm gonna be showing you how to make my fire baked macaroni and cheese .

I'm a private chef here in New York City and I tend to make this baked macaroni and cheese for my clients .

I have two other uh variations of macaroni and cheese that I tend to go for , but I usually only make those for my clients who are trying to spend a little bit more money .

Not gonna hold you .

But today we're gonna be making this version of my macaroni and cheese .

Another reason why I don't want to post the two other variations of macaroni and cheese that I have is because I want to someday put those in cookbooks .

But today we're gonna be making this macaroni and cheese .

I think it's super easy .

I mean , I could be biased because I'm Michelle and it's real big macaroni cheese pie .

Hate hate I hate when I go to someone's barbecue or somebody's cookout or somebody's house and ask them .

Oh , how did you make the macaroni cheese ?

They're like , oh , I made it with uh Velveeta cheese .

It's 2020 .

What we're not gonna do .

We're not gonna keep disrespecting big macaroni and cheese like that .

We're not gonna keep putting processed cheese and macaroni and cheese .

We're gonna put grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese .

That's what we're gonna do .

You got to use cheddar cheddar is what you use .

My mama told me that .

So without further ado , let's get started .

So the first thing you want to do is preheat your oven to 350 degrees .

And then you wanna put on a pot of boiling water , well , not boiling , but you wanna put on a pot of water and then it's gonna boil Yeah .

To speed this process up , just cover the pot with a litter and help the water boil faster .

And then while that's going , you wanna get your plots together .

So get your cheeses , your flour , your milks and your seasoning .

So when it's time to throw the sauce together , you'd be ready to go for this recipe .

I'm just using Sharp Cheddar Planina and go and please shred your own cheese .

Do not buy that stuff in a bag that's already shredded the cheese that's already shredded .

Your mac and cheese is not gonna melt nicely .

If you do that .

I'm telling you just grade your own cheese .

I know it's a little bit more , more , um , more work and more dishes , but it's really worth it .

And don't ask me why I got this thick ass sweater on in this hot kitchen .

I don't know , but I know that it was hot and I know I should have never had that sweater on .

So don't come for me .

Now , this is what I wanna see .

I wanna see the cheese that you shredded and not the cheese at the store shredded .

Well , that's a tongue twister .

Not the cheese that the store shredded .

Now that the water is boiled , what you wanna do is salt your water so your pots can have some flavor .

So that's what I'm doing right here .

Salt in my water and then you wanna go ahead and add your pasta and make sure when you add your pasta , you stir it a little bit after because the pasta tends to stick together .

If you just put it in the , in the , in the water , you're gonna have like clumps of like macaroni .

So make sure , make sure you stir it so that it doesn't stick together and cook the pasta till it al dente , which means it'll have like a slight bite to it .

And then once it's finished cooking , you want to take it off the heat , strain it and rinse it with cold water .

So it stops the cooking process .

So now we're gonna make the ro , ro is pretty much equal parts fat and equal parts flour .

I have this on a medium heat .

So we're just gonna melt the butter and then we're gonna add in the flour and make sure you whisk this in so that no lumps form .

Go ahead and whisk this for three minutes so that the flower can cook out .

So start off by adding a little bit of half and half to the root so that you don't get any lumps , just keep listening until it gets to what's coming up .

So it gets to like this texture .

Then you can go ahead and add in the rest of your half and half .

Then I just keep on whisking that whisking that and then I go ahead and add the evaporated milk .

Yes .

The proper way to make macaroni and cheese is that heat up your milk and then add it to the root .

But I do what I want and I'm grown .

So this is what I'm doing after stirring this mixture on and off for about 10 minutes .

It should start to look something like this .

I'm like whisking it slowly so you guys can see it .

So , yeah , it should look something like this .

So for this step , you wanna make sure that the heat is on low and what we're gonna do is we're gonna add most of the cheese , but we're gonna save like three tablespoons of go and 18 ounce block of cheddar and just add all of the cheese in .

We're gonna save those two cheeses to top the macaroni and cheese with mine's kind of stiffened up on me because I was trying to record cook and make sure the angle was good at the same time .

So bear with me .

It's gonna come out watch .

So just keep whisking the sauce .

I know it's a lot of whisking in here , but it's worth it .

Hey , look at the flick of the wrist , look at the flick of the wrist .

I'm working right now like I was really putting muscle into this .

So this is what your sauce should start to look like .

This one was a little bit too thick for my liking .

So I added a little bit more half and half .

You can do whatever you want .

If , if you want it like super thin , like um like kraft macaroni and cheese like the box , you can do that .

But I like mine like semi craft but still holds its shape together at the same time .

Now .

We're finally at Black People's favorite part which is seasoning .

We're gonna season this cheese sauce .

It's actually called the sauce if you wanna be technical , but we're gonna season the cheese sauce .

Get your assault pepper and make sure when you do this step , you turn the heat off , add in some garlic powder kind of heavy handed with the garlic powder .

I mean , who isn't if you don't love garlic , I don't know what to tell you .

Add in your onion powder .

And my favorite thing .

Well , my favorite spice to cook with , which is paprika .

Add that in .

And then again , stir stir stir .

There's a lot of stirring going on here .

But yeah , just stir until your arm pulls off your cheese sauce .

It looks something like this .

Ok .

OK .

OK .

Yes .

Look at that .

Yes .

Now it's time to assemble .

So what you wanna do is add in all of your macaroni noodles into a deep dish pan .

Go ahead and put that up , girl .

Hurry up .

Hello .

OK .

Now watch this but don't eat the screen .

Hey , we look at that so good .

Yes .

Look at it dripping .

Oh my God .

Oh my God .

Right .

I gotta get the other side too .

Go ahead and mix that bad boy up .

You see what I'm working with over here .

You see me , we out here right now you definitely gotta bring this to the cookout and show the lady who make her macaroni and cheese with Velveeta that you know how to do it better because everybody gonna love this a little bit of cheese sauce left over .

So we're just gonna pour that over the top because we're not wasting food , especially on mac and cheese .

We're not wasting mac and cheese .

What you talking about then after that , go ahead and flatten it out .

Now go ahead and top the macaroni and cheese with the extra cheese that I told you to say from earlier we're gonna put some and some cheddar on there and it's gonna be fire , ok ?

It's gonna be fire .

So now we oven ready .

Yes , look at this .

Oh my God and yes , this is my oven .

Welcome to New York City where everything is super small .

Everything is super expensive .

Don't live here unless you have 3000 or $4000 a month for rent or this is what you're gonna get .

Go ahead and bake that for 45 minutes to an hour and it should come out looking something like this .

Ok ?

Look at that .

Dang .

You see the crispy edges too .

Oh my God , there's another one so good .

So , so so good .

I forgot to film the part where I cut into the macaroni and cheese .

I only got the picture so I have a picture coming up right now .

Yeah , tell me you can't taste that through the screen because I could definitely taste that .

So what we're gonna do is sit here and savor this moment of this beautiful Mac and cheese because it is gorgeous and also because I don't have a video but it's all good because Mac and cheese is still hitting , it's still popping .

Let me know if you guys try this recipe out and thank you so much for watching .

Bye .

How was my macaroni and cheese ?

It's fucked up , bitch .