Baked One Pot Mac and Cheese – yep, all made in the one pot (no separate pot for pasta cooking)! If you hate washing up and like your Mac and Cheese with plenty of cheesy, creamy sauce then this is the recipe for you. Oh, did I mention there’s not a drop of cream in this??!!
“A great Mac and Cheese comes down to personal taste. I like mine extra saucy, creamy and cheesy. And it just so happens that it’s made one pot – WITHOUT cream!”
There are so many Mac and Cheese recipes “out there” that it’s mind boggling. I have made it various ways. I particularly like to try “chef” versions.
When I came to choose one that I wanted to share with you, I didn’t know which to go with. I don’t think there is such thing as the “perfect” or “best” Mac and Cheese. Restaurants around the world have put their own spin on it, with everything from making it with truffles, six types of cheese and goats milk, to name a few.
A great Mac and Cheese comes down to personal taste. For me, extra saucy and creamy is what does it for me. Cheesy goes without saying. 🙂
Don’t you just want to do a face plant in this? Look how creamy and sauce it looks!
To make a Mac and Cheese as saucy as this with cream would require several cartons of cream. My arteries clog up just at the thought. 🙂 Happy thoughts, but realistically, it would be so insanely rich that you wouldn’t be able to eat very much of it!
So instead, I make my creamy sauce using a simple roux of butter and flour. Don’t let that fancy word “roux” deter you, it is really simple and takes minutes to make.
The trick to making this in one pot is making the cooking liquid thin enough for the pasta to absorb and rehydrate WITHOUT going mushy but reduces down enough in the time it takes for the pasta to cook so you end up with the perfect amount of rich, creamy sauce. And that sauce needs to have the right seasoning and flavour which is always tricky when making sauces that reduce alot as it is hard to guess how intense the flavour will be once reduced.
One thing about any creamy pastas is that you really need to eat it straight away. Even after 30 minutes, the sauce continues to get absorbed into the pasta and thickens quite a bit so you lose the sauciness. Plus the pasta gets soft. So when it’s ready, holler for your family to get to the dinner table so they can have their grub while it’s fresh out of the oven when it’s at its absolute peak. 🙂
Anyway, I’d be disappointed if you have any leftover. Whether you’re making this for 2 or 6!
– Nagi
THE MAC & CHEESE COLLECTION
- Baked Mac and Cheese – huge reader favourite!
-
Shrimp Mac and Cheese – outrageously delicious!
-
Stovetop Mac and Cheese – one pot, 20 minutes
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Baked One Pot Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 6 tbsp flour
- 3 cups of milk (full or low fat - I used low fat)
- 2 cups of water
- 1 tsp salt (Note 1)
- Black pepper
- 1/2 lb / 250g dried macaroni (elbow pasta) (Note 2)
- 2 cups (150g / 5oz) grated tasty or cheddar cheese (or any sharp, flavoured cheese that melts well)
- 1 cup (75g / 2.5 oz) grated provolone dolce cheese (or mozzarella or other mild flavoured good melting cheese) (Note 3)
Topping
- 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs (or ordinary breadcrumbs)
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese , grated
- 1/2 tbsp fresh parsley , finely chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
- Melt the butter in a deep fry pan or skillet (Note 4) over medium heat. (Note 5)
- Add the flour and stir until combined so a thick paste forms ("roux"). Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
- Add half the milk and use a whisk to dissolve the roux into the milk. It will thicken quickly, then add the remaining milk. Whisk in small circles, rotating around the pan, to dissolve all the roux into the milk.
- Add the water, salt and 5 grinds of pepper, then turn the heat up to medium high. Whisk leisurely so the bottom doesn't stick to the pan. When the white sauce starts to steam and thickens such that you can see it coating the edges of the pan (around 2 to 3 minutes), add the macaroni.
- Turn the heat down to medium and stir gently with a wooden spoon to mix the macaroni through and ensure the bottom doesn't stick. Cook it for 1 minute. Be sure not to cook it for longer than this after adding the macaroni - this really impacts the "sauciness" of the dish and ensuring the macaroni isn't overcooked.
- Cover the fry pan (Note 6), then transfer it immediately to the oven on the middle shelf.
- Bake for 12 minutes, then remove from the oven. It will seem like there is too much sauce but it reduces and thickens in the next steps. The pasta should be just cooked (al dente). It will continue cooking from the residual heat.
- Turn the oven off and turn the grill/broiler on high.
- Stir through the cheese, just enough to disperse it through the macaroni. As you stir, this will melt the cheese and thicken the sauce. Don't stir too much because otherwise the sauce will thicken too much due to the evaporation.
- Sprinkle over the panko and parmesan cheese, then place under the grill/broiler for a few minutes to brown.
- Remove from the grill/broiler and let it rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Notes for Food Nerds (like myself!) – Why this recipe works without ending up with mushy pasta and curdled sauce:
* Pasta takes a LONG time to cook in a thick sauce and turns very mushy. Thinning the sauce alot at the beginning allows the pasta to cook in almost the same time as it would in boiling water.
* The key to this recipe is getting the amount of liquid right so that the sauce is initially thin enough for the pasta to cook but then by the end of the cooking time for the pasta, the sauce reduces down to be a thick, creamy sauce. That’s why you can’t simply sub the macaroni with any other pasta you want without adjusting the quantity of liquid required – because different pastas cook in different times.
* The cheese is stirred through at the end because if it is added before the pasta it cooked, it thickens the sauce and it takes much longer for the pasta to cook. Plus the sauce has a tendency to curdle so you need to stir it a few times.
* When you stir the cheese through at the end, the residual heat melts it very quickly. Also, as you stir it, the sauce thickens even more.
* The panko topping is added at the very end because otherwise it will sink in the liquid.
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Can I make this gluten free by using corn pasta?
This is my favourite mac and cheese recipe. I use mozzarella instead of provolone most of the time. I’ve also used half and half cream a couple times, makes it SUPER rich. Always good! Can’t go wrong with this one.
Delicious! Do you know if it can be successfully doubled?
Took a chance and successfully doubled!
I have been making this Mac and cheese for the last 7 years and everyone calls it my “famous Mac and cheese” it’s amazing and tastes better than restaurants!!! You have to try this and please read all the notes before you make it. I make it for special occasions and it’s the best side or main dish of the night every time
This is the best macaroni I’ve ever had!
Thanks so much Amy, What a great compliment! N x
Nagi, I just wanted to make sure this recipe needs dried macaroni which is not boiled. Is it correct? I am concerned if the pasta will taste uncooked and hard after all the process because it is not boiled before.
Hi, yes dried pasta. It is cooking long enough for the pasta to completely cook ☺️
Hi there! This looks so amazing and has rave reviews. I can’t wait to make it tomorrow for my friends.
Quick question. Do you think I can he the olive oil Becel margarine in place of butter? Or would that change the taste/consistency a lot? If I can avoid buying a whole block of butter and just using the margarine j always have in the fridge that would be preferable! Thanks!
Just following up as I made the recipe today. It turned out AMAZING! I did a couple things slightly differently but it still worked perfectly.
1. I used cavatappi instead of macaroni as I like the ridges and the texture. It cooked perfectly following these instructions!
2. I made two versions: one with bacon and one without. For the bacon one I rendered the bacon then set it aside and used the bacon grease as the fat for my roux instead of butter. For the plain one I used olive oil Becel margarine instead of butter and it turned out perfectly! I aslo used a bit of Cashew milk in the plain one because I ran out of milk, and the texture was still perfect.
I’m so impressed with this recipe! Will definitely be making it again. Thank you for this!!
this is by far the best mac and cheese i’ve ever tried!! so good!
This is absolutely my favorite mac and cheese recipe!! So creamy…
Since it is my favorite, I really want to make it in a crock-pot for a pot luck – do you have any suggestions on how to modify it for that?
Why 2 cups of water?
I have a convection oven so it doesn’t have broiler function. Can I put it a stove top instead?
I have never made a mac and cheese recipe before but want to try this one. Yours has gotten the best reviews – however, I am making it for 15 people. Would you just triple the original recipe?
I have not had much success with homemade mac and cheese until now. Thank you so much for this amazing recipe! My kids were thrilled (and so was I!). They request it all the time.
Oh. My. Goodness. This Mac n cheese was so delicious!! My mom requested lobster Mac n cheese for mother’s day so I followed this recipe and threw in some chunks of lobster. I would say the lobster was hardly even necessary! Even the bites without it were to die for! I’m usually picky about my Mac n cheese because some recipes are so greasy but this one was perfect and creamy without the cheese giving off that oiliness. I used cheddar with Gouda and will definitely be making this again and again and again!
I made this recipe for the first time and I only had sharp cheddar and Parmesan so I decided this time to do 3 cups of sargento sharp cheddar and toped it with sartori Parmesan. Even with that change, the recipe turned out beautifully. Hands down this is the BEST mac’n’cheese recipe.
Thank you so much!!
That’s so great to hear Andrea! So glad you enjoyed it! N x ❤️
This is my first time visiting this site for a recipe, and I’m delighted! My mac and cheese turned out wonderfully. It was such a decadent meal, and it was a breeze despite cooking it for the first time. (The notes were really helpful too). I’ll definitely make it again, and can’t wait to try some of your other recipes. Thanks Nagi! -a new fan
I’m planning on making this dish tonight and adding broccoli like some others have done! Quick question before I do, when I add the broccoli before it goes in the oven, should it be cooked already or raw? Thanks in advance!
Hi Morgan! Broccoli won’t take long to cook, you can just stir it in halfway through 🙂
The best comfort food ever! I too have tried a ton of mac and cheese recipes and they have never been good. This is simply amazing! Follow all the instructions though. Mine came out perfect. Thank you Nagi for another great recipe! 👍
Thank you SOOOO much for this recipe!! I have made quite a few homemade versions, and my search is finally over! I use my biggest cast iron skillet, make sure to have everything prepped before I start (key to success with this recipe because it is fairly involved), and pull out my stick blender/cup to use for the roux step (only way I could get it creamy and boy does that work flawless every time!! :)). Thank you again for sharing this with us! 🙂
Pleased to hear you enjoyed it Laura, thanks for letting me know! N xx