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Enjoy the ultimate comfort food with this perfectly creamy, cheese, Baked Mac and Cheese recipe baked in the oven with simple ingredients that the whole family will love.
This is the best macaroni recipe because it has multiple types of cheese paired with the best seasoning mixture to create a depth of flavor in the cheese sauce that you can only get in homemade baked macaroni.
Homemade macaroni cheese is a great casserole dish to serve at any holiday gatherings you may have coming up. It’s hard for people to say no to all the cheesy goodness.
Ingredients for Baked Mac and Cheese:
- Pasta: I like to use corkscrew pasta (or elbow pasta)
- Cheese: be sure to have some shredded mozzarella cheese, shredded Colby jack cheese, and shredded cheddar cheese
- Seasoning: you will need to use salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and paprika
- Butter: use unsalted butter for this classic mac and cheese
- Thickening agent: you will need to use all-purpose flour to make the roux to make the best cheese sauce
- Liquid: both evaporated milk and heavy cream will be needed to create a perfectly creamy cheese sauce
How to make Baked Mac and Cheese:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the pasta, and cook according to the package instructions.
Drain the cooked pasta and set it to the side.
Add all of the seasonings into a small bowl and stir.
In the same pot the pasta was cooked in, melt butter over medium heat once it’s melted add in half of the seasonings, and stir well.
Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
Slowly whisk in the evaporated milk.
Whisk in the heavy cream.
Whisk in the remaining seasonings.
Bring the sauce up to a simmer, turn the heat to low, and let simmer until the sauce gets thicker.
Add in half of all of the cheese and whisk well to melt the cheese.
Stir in the pasta into the cheese sauce.
Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick spray.
Spread half of the pasta mixture to the bottom of the baking dish, and sprinkle half of the remaining cheese over the pasta. Spread the remaining macaroni over the cheese layer. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.
Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven or until the cheese is melted.
How to store leftover mac and cheese:
Fridge: Pour the leftover mac and cheese pasta into an airtight container and store the container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Tips and tricks for this delicious baked mac and cheese:
Why is my homemade cheese sauce stringy?
This is a common problem when making a homemade creamy sauce like this delicious cheese sauce. The key thing to get the best results is to make sure to shred your block of cheese for the creamy mac and cheese.
When you use pre-shredded cheese from the grocery store, they have added ingredients to keep the shredded cheese shredded, making it hard to use that cheese to make a creamy well-combined sauce.
Type of cheese to use:
I personally enjoy the macaroni noodles in a sauce created from mozzarella, Colby jack, and cheddar cheese. But here are a few more options to create different sauce flavors:
- Cream cheese
- Pepper jack cheese
- White cheddar (great for making a white sauce)
Crispy top for mac and cheese:
If you love mac and cheese with a crunchy topping that is super simple to add.
Simple add about 1 12 cups of panko bread crumbs, 1/4 cup of melted butter, and 1/4 tsp of paprika in a small bowl and then sprinkle it over top of the mac and cheese before you cook it for a little bit of a crunch.
More casserole recipes:
- Easy Tater Tot Casserole
- Hamburger Rice Casserole
- Ground Beef Enchiladas
- Dump and Go Garlic Chicken Pasta Casserole
- Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas
Baked Mac and Cheese
8
servings10
minutes25
minutesThis delicious Baked Mac and Cheese is such a tasty mix of cheeses in the perfectly creamy cheese sauce to make the ultimate comfort food.
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Ingredients
1 lb corkscrew pasta (or elbow pasta)
1 lb mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 lb Colby jack cheese, shredded
1/2 lb cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
12 oz evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the pasta, and cook according to the package instructions.
- Drain the cooked pasta and set it to the side.
- Add all of the seasonings into a small bowl and stir.
- In the same pot the pasta was cooked in, melt butter over medium heat once it’s melted add in half of the seasonings, and stir well.
- Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
- Slowly whisk in the evaporated milk.
- Whisk in the heavy cream.
- Whisk in the remaining seasonings.
- Bring the sauce up to a simmer, turn the heat to low, and let simmer until the sauce gets thicker.
- Add in half of all of the cheese and whisk well to melt the cheese.
- Stir in the pasta into the cheese sauce.
- Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick spray.
- Spread half of the pasta mixture to the bottom of the baking dish, and sprinkle half of the remaining cheese over the pasta. Spread the remaining macaroni over the cheese layer. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.
- Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven or until the cheese is melted.
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