The Best Creamy Mac and Cheese Recipe. Seriously.

Watch my creamy mac and cheese web story here.

✔️Skill Level: Beginner
✔️Skills: Cooking pasta, making Mornay sauce, baking
✔️Type: Casserole
✔️Number of Ingredients: 19, some of which are optional
✔️Prep Time: 30 minutes
✔️Cook Time: 15 minutes
✔️Yield: 8 servings

Jump Straight to the Recipe

Not Diet Food. Comfort Food.

Friends, if you’ve come here today looking for salads or even low-fat desserts, I suggest you keep on moving.

Today, I’m here to share with you pure comfort food. All the fats, all the carbs, all the creamy macaroni and cheese goodness you could ever want.

I’m not advocating for eating this way every day or even every week, but as an occasional indulgence, you really can’t do better than this recipe.

Hyperbole? I think not.

What Makes This the Best?

When I want macaroni and cheese, I want to taste the cheese.

I want it to be deeply flavorful and gooey and creamy and perfect.

Three types of “shredding cheese” plus cream cheese and sour cream all whisked into a luxurious white sauce equals one luscious, rich mornay sauce.

If this recipe is making you hungry and you make it, I have a favor to ask:

How To Make the Creamiest Cheese Sauce

Aside from ensuring you have a nice creamy bechamel to start, the best way I have found to make my cheese sauce super creamy is to add cream cheese and sour cream to the mix.

Cream cheese doesn’t bring a ton of flavor, but it does bring a lovely, smooth decadence to your sauce.

And sour cream also adds a touch of tang that can balance out the rich sauce.

How to Make Creamy Mac & Cheese

This mac and cheese, which is a stovetop macaroni and cheese you can either eat straight from the pot or bake first, is not hard to make.

There is a pretty long ingredient list, but most are spices and cheeses, which you are welcome to simplify if you would like.

Ingredients

Here is what you’ll need to make this recipe.

I’ll give substitutes and simplifications where I can.

That’s a pretty long list. Let’s break it up into the components:

For the bechamel sauce:

• butter: You can use any fat here you prefer: oil, bacon fat, lard, shortening
• salt and pepper: “standard” seasoning for the American palate. The salt brings out all the flavor and the pepper gives a bit of a tingle on the back end
• spices: in this case, mustard powder, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and turmeric. This combo makes a lovely, British-inspired flavor profile with the mustard pairing beautifully with the cheese. The turmeric is for color and is optional. Adjust the spicing to your preference. You can introduce herbs here as well
• all-purpose flour: flour, cooked with fat in equal parts, is a roux and is what thickens your sauce.
• whole milk: This is the standard dairy for bechamel. You can make it richer, but I let all the cheese take care of that!

Cheese and Other Enrichments

• cream cheese: provides an overall creaminess to the sauce
• sour cream: adds some tang without too much extra fat (although we’re really just splitting hairs here!)
• sharp cheddar: I love a super sharp cheese to cut through some of the mellow fattiness, so I generally opt for “extra sharp” cheddar
• Colby jack: balances the sharpness of the extra sharp cheddar. Honestly, most of the time I just use all sharp cheddar as my cheese, so please use what you like and what works for you
• Parmesan: Adds a sharp nuttiness. It is entirely optional. If you do opt to use Parm, buy a block and grate it with a Microplane. Don’t try to use the “green can” kind, or your sauce will not be silky smooth

Pasta

Here are some choices of pasta shapes. I generally stick with short shapes that can grab onto a lot of the cheese sauce:

• elbows
• penne rigate (with ridges)
• cavatappi
• medium shells
• rotini
• fusilli

Topping

For me, the topping is entirely optional, since I’m all about the creamy goodness. For folks who like a bit more textural contrast, it’s very easy to make a topping for mac & cheese

• cheese crackers: something salty and crunchy. You could also use potato chips
• panko: extra crunchiness. Panko also doesn’t really get soggy, so it’s nice to use to reinforce the crunch
• cayenne: or other seasoning. At the least, a little pepper and a pinch of salt.

Procedure

In a nutshell, here’s what you have to do to make this mac and cheese:

1. Cook pasta
2. Make mornay sauce
3. Combine sauce and pasta
4. Top with topping and bake (both optional steps

Making macaroni and cheese is not difficult. The one thing you have to remember is, to keep your sauce nice and smooth, reduce the bechamel before adding the cheese and pasta. If there’s too much water in the bechamel (from the milk), the cheese will get grainy, especially upon reheating.

Here’s how I make the sauce:

1. Melt the fat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
2. Add all the spices and cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant.
3. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes to cook off the raw flour flavor.
4. Whisk in the milk, bring to a boil, and then simmer for about 10 minutes to reduce and thicken the bechamel.
5. Whisk in all the cheese and sour cream off the heat or over very low heat.

For the smoothest sauce, reduce the bechamel for about 10 minutes over medium-low heat before adding the cheese.

How To Reheat

This recipe is basically stove-top mac and cheese that I bake just for a few minutes to get the top a bit crunchy.

You can serve it straight from the pot, though.

Regardless, macaroni and cheese tends to get dry in the refrigerator and congeal into a solid mass of noodle and cheese.

This makes it hard to reheat and retain (or regain) the creaminess of the hot-off-the-stove or out of the oven recipes.

Reheating in the Microwave

To reheat it in the microwave, I put a portion in a microwave safe bowl, splash in a bit of half and half, and heat until hot.

Then I stir it to incorporate the half and half. This results in a nice, creamy reheated dish that doesn’t get grainy.

Reheating on the Stove

To reheat it on the stovetop, I put it in a pan with a splash of half and half and reheat on medium low heat, stirring frequently but gently so I don’t break up the pasta.

I don’t recommend reheating in the oven, because it will just dry out even more than it has in the fridge.

Questions

More Macaroni and Cheese Recipes

This recipe is really creamy and decadent, but here are a few other macaroni and cheese recipes you might enjoy.

• Goat Cheese Mac & Cheese is super rich and decadent. Not your average comfort food
• Leftover Pulled Pork Mac and Cheese pairs the glory of delicious pulled pork with garlicky, creamy, cheesy mac and cheese
• Southern Mac and Cheese a shortcut recipe using store-bought or homemade pimento cheese whisked into hot pasta. Easy and delicious!
• Baked Mac and Cheese This recipe uses two different cheddar cheeses for a nuanced flavor. Really tasty, topped with panko

Printable Holiday Recipe Card

Don’t forget your holiday printable! Click on the photo to download the pdf!

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Thank you so much for taking the time!

Best Creamy Mac and Cheese

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Jennifer Field

Ultra rich and creamy, I don’t call this the best creamy mac and cheese recipe for nothing. You and your family are going to love it!

4.45 from 54 votes

Tried this recipe?Please give it a star rating!

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Course Pasta

Cuisine American

Servings 8

Calories 846 kcal

Equipment

• 8 Quart Pasta Pot and Strainer
• 5 Quart Dutch Oven
• Set of 4 Individual Au Gratin Baking Dishes

Ingredients

• 1 pound of your favorite short noodle shapes preferably rigate (with ridges) I used my favorite: cavatappi
• 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt plus more to taste
• several grindings of fresh black pepper to taste
• 1 Tablespoon dry mustard powder
• 2 teaspoons turmeric optional, but it gives it a lovely golden color, plus it's good for you
• 1 ½ teaspoons sweet paprika or sweet smoked paprika
• 1 ½ teaspoons onion powder
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 3 Tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 quart whole milk 4 cups
• 2 oz 1/4 block cream cheese
• ½ cup full fat sour cream
• 8 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese grated
• 8 oz Colby Jack cheese grated
• 4 oz Parmesan cheese finely grated (not from the green can)
• freshly ground black pepper and paprika or ground chipotle for topping

For the optional Goldfish topping

• 1 cup Goldfish crackers or other cheese crackers
• ½ cup panko
• 2 Tablespoons butter melted and cooled
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne or chipotle powder or to taste (optional if you don't like it spicy)

Instructions

 

• Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. If you're going to bake the mac and cheese, preheat the oven to 400F.
• Meanwhile, in a heavy bottomed 4-5 quart sauce pan or Dutch oven,melt the butter. When it starts to sizzle, add the salt, pepper, mustard powder, optional turmeric, paprika, onion powder and garlic powder. Let sizzle about 45 seconds, stirring.
• Dump in the flour and stir until all the butter is absorbed. Cook for 2 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly.
• Add the milk and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken slightly.
• By this time, your water should have come to a boil. Salt your water and dump in the pasta. Cook for 5-6 minutes until just shy of al dente. The bite should be very firm, especially if you're going to be baking it. If eating directly from the stovetop, take the pasta to almost done or until it's just a smidge firmer than you like.
• While the pasta is cooking, take the bechamel sauce off the heat and whisk in the cream cheese and sour cream until melted.
• Whisk in the cheeses, a big handful at a time, until all melted and smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings.
• When the pasta is done, drain it, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid.
• Add the pasta and reserved water to the pot of cheese sauce. Stir well to evenly coat and then bring to a boil, stirring the whole time, until the cheese sauce is as thick as it was before you added the cooking water and the pasta is well-coated with sauce.
• You can either serve it now, or place the mac and cheese into a casserole dish, sprinkle it with some paprika or the optional topping.
• Bake the the topped pasta for about 15 minutes, or until the top/topping is a bit crunchy and has some color on it.
• Let set up for about 10 minutes for individuals or up to 30 for one whole casserole before serving.

For the optional Goidfish topping

• Crush crackers either in a food processor or in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. Either in a bowl or right in the bag, add the panko, butter and spice. Mix well (or squish the bag around well) to incorporate.

Did You Make Any Changes?

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Notes

Nutrionals calculated for 8 servings, including the Goldfish topping. 

Nutrition

Calories: 846kcalCarbohydrates: 75gProtein: 34gSaturated Fat: 24gCholesterol: 122mgSodium: 1254mgFiber: 3gSugar: 8g

Keyword mac and cheese, macaroni, pasta

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