Pro Chefs Improve Boxed Macaroni & Cheese (8 Methods) _ Test Kitchen Talks @ Home _ Bon Appétit

Let's some box mac and cheese .

That's what the world needs .

Right ?

Action .

You're gonna love this .

This is a great way to kind of judge up a box of mac and cheese and like take it to a different planet .

It's so good .

Maybe I will eat this .

Tell me what you think .

Oh , it's really good .

Right .

Qui qui on set boys .

Oh , peg .

Oh , son .

Oh , so we personally , I like the classic but it's gotta be ripping hot as soon as it starts to get a little cool .

No good .

Oh , and I might add a little bit .

I got this little fantastic .

There's actually a video to teach you how to make it a little show called It's Alive .

But it's a little fermented garlic and um , garlic and ginger paste .

Ok .

The ginger might be a little weird but maybe just a little , maybe just a little dab .

I got my water already ripping hot because that's the kind of guy I am .

Yeah , I get it Corey .

I feel like I might be out of the frame .

We're back .

Unlike Morocco , my time , you probably can't see it .

My time is dialed in All right I'm telling you .

Oh she's done she's done .

Alright beautiful .

Ok put that on low .

Ok get a little bit of a little bit of butter going right .

Use it as much as you want .

I'm gonna do a little dab of this garlic and then I'm gonna hit it with a little collab and um there it goes getting some to the kids huh ?

Then you add the pasta I'm gonna hit it with a little bit of water and then we hit it with the , with the little milk .

I'm gonna get that going .

Yeah , get that going .

I'm gonna start putting in this packet , you know , I guess .

Do you have to use the packet ?

Ok .

Um , confirm the packet must be used .

Part of my plan is that Adam's gonna seed it with some grated sharp cheddar .

Come my holy fool .

Little black pep .

Get out of town the collab chili in there and that's it up your pantry pasta , use whatever you want .

I like a little spice but I like to kind of keep it classic ripping hot out of my kitchen box .

Mac and cheese .

One of those things I feel like I never had in my household growing up , my parents were kind of like health food fanatics .

So I'm kind of gonna try to make up for it all in like one day .

So basically I took the box mac and cheese .

I made it as is as per the instructions on the box .

Then I added a good amount of , of whole milk mozzarella .

Um , big handful of sharp cheddar cheese and then also another handful of grated parm .

I then let the mac and cheese cool overnight so I can get really good scoops of it .

Ok .

I mean , they're not gonna be perfect but nothing is , you know , we're then gonna dredge them in flour , got egg and I've got panko , I just wanna make sure flour is completely coating the mac and cheese .

The egg completely coats the flour and the panko completely coats the egg .

Boom .

All right .

Not a perfect sphere , right ?

But hey , clas are now synchronized here , here , here , here .

So I heard you , I changed the clocks .

They're synchronized .

OK .

It's fine .

So let's do a tester .

I'm trying to keep this oil at about 3 50 any hotter than that .

And it might just fry a little bit too quickly , any cooler .

And you're going to have a situation where , you know , you could get some oil kind of like getting into , you know , past that dredge and into the kind of mac and cheese mixture itself , which I definitely don't want .

So if you don't have a thermometer , it's really not a big deal .

You're just going to have to go somewhere in the neighborhood of like three minutes or so is probably a reasonable amount of time that is starting to look really good .

Just saying , OK .

Attempt at a cheese pole .

Take one .

Uh We didn't quite get a poll .

It breaks my heart a little bit that it's so cheesy and yet we didn't get like a big strand .

It tastes very good and we'll try a few more .

Maybe we'll get one , I think in , in a little bit .

Maybe we'll get the kids in here and see what they think about all this .

Right .

Fucking cheese .

They off so bad .

Uh I think because you're holding it upside down .

All right .

So here I'm gonna cut up some of these Calabrian chili peppers .

Put a little high quality olive oil in with our Calabrian chilies .

OK .

Wait , that was awesome .

Careful dear God .

That thing's pointy .

OK .

Here .

Do you wanna try this ?

It's mac and cheese .

It's mac and cheese .

Oh All right .

Try this .

See that stretch .

All right .

And I'm gonna do a little condiment .

Careful .

Oh Dear God .

Did you stab that thing ?

Calabrian chili .

Calabrian chili .

It like brings like a little funk .

You need some balance to this thing and heat definitely delivers .

There is cheese stretching from this child to this , this nog of fried mac and cheese just pointing that out .

So we nailed it in the end .

What do you think ?

Hey , uh welcome back to my kitchen here in the East Village .

And um today I'm gonna show you how to make mac and cheese pancakes .

How's that ?

What are the actual directions boy , we're gonna follow that one .

So these pancakes are actually an ode to Kenny shop in his restaurant was really important to us when we first came to New York because we were working in all these fancy , fancy restaurants .

And his philosophy is like the total , total opposite .

He would use things like a Jemima pancake mix mix .

So I feel like using craft for .

This is very Kenny .

This is bas best buttermilk pancakes .

Um So in here I have flour baking powder , baking soda , sugar and salt .

That's getting really foamy .

This thing is too powerful .

All right here , I've got a couple eggs buttermilk and I'm gonna whisk in my melted butter that exploded .

Oh , great , man .

You know what this happens a lot .

Oh , too far .

No , I lost a tablespoon or so .

But who cares ?

So , I'm gonna whisk my wet and dry separately and then bring them together and we have pancake mix .

Nice and fluffy already .

It's been about five minutes .

I think it's ready to go .

I'm gonna train .

OK .

I'm gonna prepare my cheese packet while my pan preheats and I'm gonna dunk it in this little sifter .

I'm gonna add a little key because why not ?

So we'll do just a little guy to see how it cooks up .

All right , test pancake came out great .

Nice and fluffy .

Now before the batter sets , I'm gonna Sprinkle macaroni .

Uh It's a symphony of textures , Sprinkle on my cheese packet and I have no idea how that's gonna cook up .

So these guys have cooked to the point where there's little bubbles on the top and that's how , you know it's ready to flip .

Ok , we got there .

All right .

Come in time .

You want a pancake ?

Ok .

Clementine .

Tell me what you think .

Oh , she likes it right .

Let's see how these are doing this cheese packet did get some good color .

Some of the macaroni got a little bit of crispy , which I think is cool .

And look at how fluffy the pancakes are a little honey .

A little hot sauce .

Oh , the dogs are just staring at me since I gave them a taste .

They know what's up here .

One of these days .

They're gonna kill me in my sleep .

I think this is a winner .

You're gonna love this .

This is a great way to take it to a different planet .

Kitty .

Come here .

If you guys can tell I'm trying to make a star out of this cat , so I don't have to work anymore .

But now go away .

It has been quite a while since I've made a box of kraft mac and cheese .

But I have to say what's not to like about mac and cheese from a box .

It tastes so good .

I went actually kind of fancy and decided to do caramelized onions , which I have under this upside down pint container because I didn't want it to dry out you hold it closer to the camera so you can see .

So I sliced thinly sliced six or seven small or medium onions .

And then I pretty much constantly stirred them for like a good 35 to 40 minutes .

It's just like a delicious , delicious ingredient tat , which is why I make a lot and save some .

So I'm going to put these in the fridge .

Felix .

Don't be such a bad kitty .

I'll just ah , ok .

What is it ?

Four tablespoons of butter ?

I'm gonna put that in the skillet .

Generous pinch of red pepper flakes .

I'm going to strip a couple sprigs of fresh time leaves .

So you don't need a lot though .

So I'm adding the milk to the skillet , that orange color man .

Real Kraft mac and cheese .

Ok .

So now I'm gonna grate some of this parm .

God , it really is like the mushiest pasta .

All right .

So let me give this a taste .

The onions make it pretty sweet to balance it out a little bit .

I'm gonna add more parm and maybe a pinch of garlic powder .

Let's see if I can do this without spilling so far .

It's not going well .

Ok .

Now I'm gonna rinse this out .

I'm gonna throw in a knob of butter a little bit more fresh time and now I have the biggest thing of pan going on to man and they crisp extremely well .

Gonna add a pinch of garlic powder , a little bit of salt and a little even layer , kind of spread it around .

A little more parm on top and then that goes into the oven .

They're both over here .

I'm not gonna feed you .

Oh , it's hot in here .

The boiler is hot and it's really close to the broiler .

So .

00 my God .

Well , it's done .

That went real fast .

Come here .

Ok .

So here's my mac and cheese .

It got golden oop .

It got golden brown and delicious in the oven .

It happened very fast because the boiler was very hot .

Smells delicious .

Mm , this is for me , the most sophisticated box of mac and cheese I ever tasted .

It's delicious .

Perhaps the caramelized onions are a little bit of a labor intensive step but it makes everything delicious .

So why not kitty bad kitty kitty .

Oh That's so annoying .

So cute .

All right .

Today I'm gonna make macaroni .

These are spirals , cheesy spirals .

I'm gonna make macaroni and cheese , carbonara or pepe y vibe without the bacon .

And I'm gonna top it with um a bunch of crispy crunchy garlicky panco bread crumbs because that's something that I also have in my pantry .

So I'm gonna add this to this water and I'm gonna take a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and just sort of generously coat the bottom of the pan .

I'm going to add this PICO we're looking for even golden brown color all over .

Ok .

So I'm grating in two garlic cloves and season it with salt first and now taking parsley and I'm just snipping .

So I don't have to dirty a cutting board right now .

Kitchen sheers for the win .

So , here's our parsley PICO bread crumbs .

In the meantime , I'll get my butter .

Now , I'm gonna add a big handful of these frozen pes .

I'm not gonna measure it .

It doesn't matter .

I'm gonna scoop out and reserve some of that pasta water to help emulsify our sauce and I'm gonna go drain this .

So now everything's going into the skillet with the butter and the cheese .

Oh Wow , that's kind of fucked up .

It's literally Day Glow Orange .

OK .

So I'm adding some of this reserved liquid to help incorporate the cheese into the sauce .

Black pepper and peas is a delicious combination .

And then we'll plate a little up .

How many people does this serve ?

Two servings , two servings per container ?

I could definitely see someone eating this whole thing and now I'm topping it with my crispy crunchy garlicky panco bread crumbs .

It smells so good .

Absolutely delicious .

Honestly , you would not know that this came out of a box except for the fact that it's orange .

Hey guys , it's Carla , I'm here in my home kitchen today and I'm gonna show you how to kind of judge up a box of prepared mac and cheese .

What I think about when I think about this delicious cheesy powder is I think about my other favorite food popcorn I'm actually gonna pop it in , um , regular vegetable oil .

I think this is peanut oil .

After many years of experimentation , I have discovered that a third of a cup of popcorn , which is probably four times as much as what they tell you is the perfect amount of popcorn for one person slowing down a little bit .

Ah , guys , guys , guys , guys leave .

No , colonel unpopped .

You know what I mean ?

So , I know it seems crazy .

I'm gonna add a little bit of olive oil .

This is Kosher salt .

See ?

And because it's like all spread out , you don't really need to toss it that much .

OK .

Cheese powder .

00 God , it's gorgeous .

It's just transforming little cayenne garlic powder .

Aleppo .

This is black pepper .

Oh And I almost forgot , don't ever forget the nutritional yeast .

It's so good on popcorn .

I bring nutritional yeast with me to the movie theater .

I'm that person .

This is really the best use of that cheese packet .

I swear to God cause yeah , come here .

It tastes like that Mexican Street Corn night .

Oh Tastes like a lot .

Now we gotta figure out about the noodle .

Let me just try one of these very crunchy .

Very crunchy .

My neck hurts a lot .

Your neck hurts .

Yeah .

Tell me why .

Oh That's better .

Obviously if you actually want to cook these noodles and uh butter them up and put some any kind of cheese on them , do that .

But kind of can't get enough of this joke .

Yeah .

Mhm .

Dad .

Have you ever filmed the video before ?

So my version of a sort of juiced up version of , uh , box mac and cheese involves stirring in a bunch of pesto .

When I was leading these camping trips in college , I usually just buy a jar of pesto because they didn't have access to a kitchen to make my own .

But today we are going to make our own .

We've got the basil which is a little less than ideal .

It was left out the garage by someone who will remain nameless .

Put a little bit of garlic and to kind of spruce up the green flavor .

I'm gonna add like a little bit of frozen spinach that I've thought a little parm pine nuts .

You can use walnuts if you don't have pine nuts .

I mean , you can use almonds and then we're gonna add some olive oil .

I think that's probably good , good light on the salt and if it's a little less salty , that's ok .

All right , cool .

So we're gonna blend this up .

It's not quite as verdant as I want , but it's still gonna taste really good shells , better than tubes , in my opinion .

So , our mac and cheese has been cooking .

I'm gonna reserve a teen bit of the water .

Got the milk .

I'm gonna play fast and loose and not measure .

Uh All right , we're gonna add like half of this packet .

This is white cheddar shells .

Hey mom , would you mind cutting a little piece of butter ?

She's using a butcher's knife to cut butter .

OK .

That's a lot of butter fish .

So I'm gonna put in maybe two spoonfuls of this pesto like that .

It has combined to make this really verdant color .

Man .

This turned out great .

I guess it's all the butter .

All right .

So I'm just gonna put a few bread crumbs in here until they start to get golden brown .

Cool .

As you can see , the sauce is nicely incorporated .

We've got those beautiful flecks of basil .

Our crunchy bread crumbs .

Huge upgrade from your boxed stuff .

Mm It's really good .

It's really good .

Right .

Yeah , you can have another bite down .

Hey , this is Andy .

I'm out on Long Island .

Uh I am supposed to be making some kind of mac and cheese .

I'm gonna go a little bit differently with this and a little bit more .

My style , more greens a little brighter , a little lighter .

I'm gonna kind of get my situation with the flavor components for the sauce .

Uh I'm gonna pour some milk into the blender .

I'm gonna add this ball of grains .

I just blanch it in hot water and then uh put on ice water to stop the cooking .

But it really could be any grains .

You like a tablespoon of miso ?

How did Marry ?

Oh That's some crazy ass cheddar looking .

It smells like cheddar .

Oh , hi , Goldie .

She's perfect .

She's beautiful .

She looks like evangelista .

She's a model .

She gets like 40 kisses a day .

All right , we'll work with that .

Oh , I'm gonna scoop up some of the pasta water .

Oh my God .

It's , it's cooked already .

Six minutes .

My ass .

I'm kind of treating this like pesto .

I'm gonna pour that over some butter , some lemon zest , some salt smelted of vine and then Sprinkle on the cheese powder .

Parmesan and sesame seeds and uh a little pepper .

Not bad .

Right .

Brady calls me the master player .

I challenge you Sola .

Let's do .

It .

Smells good .

It tastes pretty good .

You get a little bit of the and the black pepper .

I'm pretty happy with this .

I would eat this for lunch .

Maybe less cheese powder .

But still , I hope that was fun .

Hope it was usable .

I probably sound like I'm on cocaine .