The Only Mac And Cheese Recipe You Need This Thanksgiving

Today , we're gonna make baked macaroni and cheese .

This is a really simple one , really easy .

You got all the ingredients right here .

Let's prep them right now .

This is a nine by 13 baking dish .

We're gonna use a lot of butter for this recipe and I'm gonna get it all around the sides .

I kind of just grease in the dish .

It's like that .

And right here , I have one cup panco bread crumbs gonna mix in about two tablespoons of melted butter and do about a half a teaspoon of smoked paprika .

And then we're gonna grade in about a quarter cup of Parmesan Regian cheese , mix them together .

Well , if you think you don't have enough butter in here , just put a little bit more .

And the three cheeses we're going to use are Fontina cheddar and Parmesan Reggiano .

Again , this is Danish .

Fontina , Italian .

Fontina will be more expensive .

You can use either one you want .

Italian tends to be a little stronger taste .

This is a good melty cheese .

We want two cups of this , then we want 3.5 cups of shark cheddar and then a quarter cup of Parmesan Reggiano .

All right guys .

So I always like to show you all the ingredients .

You have £1 of pasta .

I'm using elbow macaroni .

Use any type of pasta you like ri to uh there's , what is it I think is the name of it ?

That's a cute little one for baked mac and cheese .

We did 3.5 cups of cheddar did two cups of fontina .

I took a half a cup of each of these and I put it in a bowl here .

This is gonna go on the top of our baked mac and cheese .

In addition to those two cheeses that are gonna be inside our cheese sauce .

We also have a half a cup or a quarter cup of Parmesan Regian .

But that looks like a half a cup to me .

And yeah , that , you know , this is for people who will say like you , you didn't do a quarter cup .

I know you didn't do a quarter cup .

You lied to me .

Well , I'm letting you know now we have a half a cup of flour and we have a stick of butter or seven tablespoons of butter that's gonna make a roux .

And then into that , we're going to put three cups of milk and two cups , a half and half .

I have a little bit more butter that's gonna be the toss with the pasta .

As far as the breadcrumbs .

You don't have to do these , but it makes it so much better and just add a little bit of butter about a tablespoon , mix it in there .

That'll prevent them from getting too stuck together .

Uh , you know , if they do get stuck together , it'll be all right .

You can , normally they'll loosen up when it goes into the sauce , but this is just an easy way to do it .

The pasta will be good .

We set that off to the side and then we'll make the roux turn your heat to about medium or to a little bit less than medium .

You don't want to burn your butter here and then seven tablespoons of butter .

Alright , guys , once your butter's pretty much melted , just put the flour in and just whisk it in .

I'm just using a nylon whisk here because I have a nonstick pan .

Like you need a couple of these non stick pan tools if you're going to use non stick and there will be times when you use non stick , it's easier just to use it for this and you just don't need to do anything more than that .

It's like 35 40 seconds .

I have cold milk here .

You can do warm milk .

You'll see recipes that say warm milk .

You don't have to worry about that .

You can go with cold right away and just a little bit at a time .

Kind of .

I like I dumped a cup in there and now I'm just gonna get it to loosen up .

Get it to all absorb and then I'll just keep going with the milk .

Yeah .

And I'm gonna raise my heat to a little bit more about , about medium heat , about a solid five out of 10 .

And then we're just gonna add the half and half .

It's completely smooth .

Now , there's no lumps in here .

You can just kind of get it all in there because we started with cold .

It's probably gonna take about 7 to 10 minutes to warm up enough to , to thicken .

All right .

So just keep stirring it as it does it .

We'll be back in about seven minutes .

You could take a spoon and then you wanna kind of see the thickness level , see on that , it's almost coating .

So I'm gonna give it like maybe a minute more .

This recipe with all this here is gonna need a , a good amount of salt .

Now , I already know because I made this the other day and I'm always making things twice .

I'm gonna do 2.5 teaspoons of salt .

OK ?

So that's exactly 2.5 teaspoons .

I have a beautiful pepper grinder .

Now , guys , Steve Stob on Instagram .

He made this for me .

The guy's work is amazing and yeah , just sent it to me and that is a beautiful pepper grinder , putting out lots of pepper and you know what you want a lot of pepper in this .

You really do .

OK ?

We'll start like this for now .

But we'll probably build it up more .

OK ?

And I'm thick enough right now .

I'm gonna show you all right .

There's the thickness one more time for you guys to see .

It doesn't have to be the exact consistency I'm getting , you're still gonna get good results .

I'm gonna put the cheese in and you can really just put it all in .

You don't have to do a little bit at a time .

The heat of the hot milk and cream is gonna melt everything .

OK ?

And that's the Parmesan Reggiano cheese too .

All right .

So we have everything in here and now when we mix this up , we're gonna taste it again .

We wanna make sure that it has enough salt and pepper .

I can tell already by looking at it , it's gonna need more pepper and just keep mixing it .

You know , guys , if you wanna put sodium citrate in here , just do a little bit .

You only need a couple of teaspoons of it .

You don't need much .

You could just put Velveeta in here to get more of that too .

You can also uh add American cheese .

Those are both really good like melty cheeses .

They stay melted , they stretch well , but we're good like this so good , but it does need a little bit more salt , OK ?

That I put another teaspoon in there and it absolutely needs more pepper , get the pasta in there , mix that around and then we're gonna just get this right in our oven , our 350 °F oven .

I don't know if I didn't tell you in the beginning .

I'm sorry , if I did that .

I try to make these like real time guys that we're cooking together like we're doing the whole thing together .

And that's what I said , what the Patreon is gonna become over there when I start doing it , it's gonna be full meals that we cook together , the whole entire thing .

All right .

And then we're just gonna get it all in there .

Now , look , if you have too much , you can just use another little dish .

OK ?

And then here are our bread crumbs .

Just wanna get it all on top .

Oh , there I go forgetting something again .

First get your cheese on top your remaining cheese and then your bread crumbs .

You know , just cook your pasta all the way if you just wanna eat it straight like that .

And while we're baking it , we're gonna toast these bread crumbs on top .

I have parchment paper guys .

Now , you know what ?

Now , I don't need it if you were too high right here .

So you went to the top of your pan and you worry about that cheese sticking .

Then you put parchment paper down , it won't stick at all , but we'll be OK .

Now , I'm gonna cook it .

I'm gonna bake this in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes covered first .

All right .

That's gonna prevent it a little bit from drying out .

We'll pull it off , pull the foil off .

So about five or seven minutes more just till it gets a little bubbly and then just hit the broiler , do four inches from the top .

Just broil it for the last 60 seconds , maybe 90 seconds just to get it , get it brown .

So we're only gonna be in the oven for about 17 minutes .

Thanks for being here .

You want more bread crumbs on it , buddy .

Oh , yes , thank you .

I made extra today .

Do you remember how we liked them last time ?

And I didn't do that .

Hm .

Now , listen , I know you like the stove top mac and cheese better , right ?

You do .

I mean , I do , I really do like they're very different .

The two of them , that's the thing .

Can I have a bite once you think about what you're gonna rate it ?

Mm .

You know what ?

I think that personally without the bread crumbs and the smoked paprika , it wouldn't be nearly as good .

What do you think ?

I don't know .

I like them both ways .

Um , yeah , I think this will get like solid 8.5 .

Yeah .

Once he said solid I knew I wasn't getting a high rating but an 8.5 is pretty good .

You mean that really ?

An 8.5 ?

Yeah .

Ok .

Well , hm , here's the thing , like , so good for back and cheese .

The bread crumbs are amazing .

Special thanks to Patreon producers , Chris Whale and Steve Winky , Paul Walter Houser , Elizabeth Shaw , Joe Age John Andino Kenneth Parker , Matt Fisher , Richard C Tom braca , Mike Tamarin Matthew , Amora Richard P Bovanne Matt Grampy , Alex Eckelberry , Andrew UAs , Paul Batman , Patrick Lang John Kelly , Jonathan Papini , Ronnie Mask , Trevor JB Monica Tore , Josh Aven , Ed Kalima Darryl Crone Pedro Basso and Patricia Sein .