3 Chefs Try to Make Mac & Cheese with No Recipe | Epicurious

foreign [Music] this might be a disaster but you know what I'm having fun this is gonna be good there's like a pound of butter and cheese so there's no way it's not going to be good I don't have no recipes my recipes are here and here [Music] oh [Music] what are you making shells three cheeses it's definitely mac and cheese I see mac and cheese mac and cheese I love big shells it like catches the cheese the best elbows number 81 took them a lot of tries but they got it right oh evaporated milk that'll be fun why not a little bit of Velveeta classic American cheese stuff and from my crumbs I'm gonna use this this is what I'm going to use because I have so many at home I don't even know what to do with them I'm taking this over here we're gonna get started it's not all fitting on the tray I made mac and juice for my daughter's every day all day no no no not all day I haven't made a lot of mac and cheese in fact I never do but I have some ideas okay let's cook let's do this so first I'm going to start the cheese sauce I got my saucepan it's a perfect pan for sauce and add some butter I'm gonna do half a stick and I'm gonna throw some flour in not measuring anything this is probably a bad idea but that's how we do it at home I love mac and cheese I don't really make mac and cheese I know what's supposed to be done I just don't know if I'm doing it right the first thing I'm going to do is just cut my veggies and Grate the cheese this is all going to go into the cheese sauce that I'm making first pasta in the boiling water I'm using a little bit of kosher salt and then I'm using this pasta cabatapi while I choose this because it looks fancy and that's what professionals do we use fancy stuff to impress people basically it's like two elbows in one so this I have all my ingredients here because I'm going to use them very quickly yeah there's some milk now I don't know if I'm adding the right amounts of any of this stuff I chose cayenne pepper and garlic powder as my seasonings along with some salt I'm going to use jalapeno peppers and a red Fresno pepper because I love spicy things I'm gonna do two different colors just so that it's a little more fun to look at I'm gonna do garlic and some parsley I'm gonna mix it in with the panko I'm actually going to add in some of the Velveeta Velveeta got me through my younger years what is this milk what the oh it's a cheese product I'm not using this cheese product Velveeta will add um just the general cheese flavor it'll be something where you'll taste it you'll be like I recognize this this is this is food I'm gonna grate my cheeses I'm going to start with the gruyere we'll do the Aged cheddar and I'll probably finish off with the parmesan yeah that's a good amount of cheese my past is in the water now it's time to make the sauce we're going to start with onions I'm going to sweat out my garlic and onions with a little bit of the butter a little bit of salt these onions spicy I'm gonna sweat the onions and that's gonna add some sweetness when I put some salt and some olive oil this looks pretty good it looks awfully thick thicker than I was expecting I don't want it to be too much this might be a disaster but you know what I'm having fun I don't know if this is the way I should have done it but we'll see I really think like the thing about cooking is like to not be afraid to just like try it you know I'm gonna add garlic my daughter is they don't love garlic they don't love onion so when I do this part I kind of high because I don't want them to like I don't like onion daddy that's how you get your vegetables into your kids by lying to them the garlic is just going to make this pasta delicious because that's what the flavor is you know we're gonna put a little bit of butter the nightmare is going to add a Nutty flavor because you know not as good so I want the nagme to release all the flavors into the butter okay now very important thing right here we're going to lower the heat remember you control the heat the heat doesn't control you I'm going to add a little bit more butter and some flour to make a roux which will be a thickener to make this nice and creamy the flour is going to make the sauce thicker I don't really measure anything I kind of just eyeball it I know that like with um root you're supposed to get it just like sort of like smell like bread and that's when you know it's kind of done when the stair is still a stir and then we're gonna add some latte so I'm adding my evaporated milk and I actually just read about this recently that evaporated milk makes it creamier so I'm gonna try it so I'm gonna add the milk as we go little by little see when you have to keep moving it because otherwise you will have crumbles sauce so we already cooked the flour the sauce is getting thicker and thicker and thicker I'm going to add a little bit more pepper of course black pepper and I'm going to add a little bit more salt I'm going to add some fresh nut bag in to the sauce oops my little nutmeg that is the food ready I don't want the onion well this is cooking I'm gonna add a little bit of heat Fresno because the peppery jalapeno taste but without being too spicy and now I just need my Mac elbow macaroni number 81. I like to use the larger shells because I think that it'll be a better way to catch the sauce I definitely prefer it actually to um macaroni which I know is mac and cheese but I think that the shells are going to be really really great pasta cooks for five minutes according to the the coating uh according to them it cooks for five minutes I don't know how to say that I am actually going to set the timer for a little bit less than what it says on the package because I'm going to bake this in the oven as well so I don't want it to get too overcooked now I am checking in on my sauce it's looking pretty good and thick I tasted it and I feel like it needs a little more Velveeta I don't know who else Cooks like this but I just kind of keep tasting things until it tastes like how my mouth wants it to be the pasta is about to come out okay now I will we want this al dente if you see this white part right here in the middle that means it's Al Dente definitely Al Dente now we're going to set it off because we don't want this to be cooked anymore we're gonna add the pasta with a little pasta water oh I'm gonna wait for the cheese to add it in the end because I don't want the cheese to break down I'm doing this double strain thing make sure I get as much water out of this as possible since I'm baking this I want this to be nice and Saucy I don't want this to be all dry because otherwise it will break time to add some cheese because I'm using Kraft sharp cheddar and cabbage extra sharp I'm keeping it simple I'm going like straight down the middle you know what you expect from you know if you ever had a parent who didn't know how to cook now I am ready to add the cheese and fold all of this in so I have eight cheddar cheese my parmesan cheese I think I need one more cheese so I'm only I'll be right back I'm gonna mix two channels this simple cheddar and this cheddar let's see how good it is beautiful sharp delicious you need a lot of cheese for this it's the only way oh look at look at this it is super gooey look at that it's so thick it's gonna be good all right let's check on my noodles I mean they look you know they look like noodles all right I'm gonna start taking my noodles out now I'm going to marry the pasta with those cheeses throw in some regular sharp cheddar and we're gonna mix it around and let these uh Cheddars melt look at that cheese is melting up beautifully this looks really good right now okay before we make it we're gonna make sure you try it oh my gosh on the rare occasion when I cook mac and cheese I don't have fancy cheeses and now I do so I'm gonna choose to add a fancy cheese because I want to win so I'm gonna go with the gruyere when Chef Saul's tastes mine and he's like why is this so fancy I don't know it's just it's just a thing I do don't worry about it so now I'm gonna add in my diced jalapeno peppers and Fresno chilies I'm gonna sort of slowly fold in my sauce okay just um sometimes you know it takes a little muscle to cook who says that you're not working out a little bit so I'm adding this all now together and actually I was thinking a little bit of fresh herbs would benefit this that I think it'll be just really nice in there the reason why I added egg yolk just in case the pasta gets overcooked this will hold it together yeah I'm crazy so what you don't want to add the egg donut egg let me be did I tell you how you live your life no this hour in my pasta this looks really good dare I say perfect and it's ready to go into the oven with some bread crumbs and get baked I have a bacon dish right here I'm going to scoop my mac and cheese into there I don't know how everybody else eats their mac and cheese but I like it a lot of cheese real sticky real thick I'm going to place this into a buttered dish kind of spread it around evenly now I'm going to put this in a cast iron pan I'm going to add a little bit more cheese just a little bit more and now the parmigiano reggiano this is going to add I would say a salt element I have had the oven preheated to 375. I'm gonna pop this in there I got bread crumbs Italian style I'm gonna add them to the Macaroni to give it that authentic Italian flavor just to give it a little bit of a variety and texture that might be a little too much but you know what when you mix it in it's going to be just right nothing can go wrong for me so um I have my Panko and I am just going to add actually some dry spices now and because I want everything to be spicy in my ridiculous whoa like I said I don't really measure anything I just kind of go with what I think looks good and then I'll just taste it oh wait very small it needs a little color after the mac and cheese has been in the oven I'm going to spread this on top and then toast it in the broiler for about two minutes oh it looks good I'm gonna try one it's really good I'm really happy this will just add a nice crunch to it to top I'm gonna kind of watch it just to see how long it takes to toast I'm sort of unfamiliar with what it's going to look like so you know I'll take a look and see how it goes got it in the bacon dish this is ready to go in the oven I'm gonna put it in at 350 for you know a while I'm gonna broil this for like three four five minutes you have a nice caramelized crust then dinner is ready guess what it's time to get my Mac and Cheese out of the oven it's ready so good I'm really excited it's exactly the kind of like Browning that I wanted it to have I wanted the bread crumbs to get Browner they didn't get as brown as I would have liked but I didn't want to overcook the mac and cheese itself which is the star of the show so I had to pull it out I think it'll still be nice and crunchy hello there you are look at this look at this coming through Caliente it looks like a mac and cheese steak now I just have to Plate this and eat it and then we go into the competition it's not a competition but no way my plating method is called the slop I learned it at Le Cordon blew I just take the spoon I take it out and I just slop it so I want some of the crispy stuff that looks awesome I'm so happy with it oops sorry wow look at you guys yeah wow wow all right judges I've prepared for you a mac and cheese with breadcrumbs that's like what I did I'm like a chef you have kids I don't have kids well I think you're ready too yeah yeah I mean they would be very happy with this we're gonna try mine now I can't wait for you guys to try this wow that's really good yeah yeah it's my kind of mac and cheese this is amazing the 60 feels so good all right my turn I made these for my daughters all the time also I did a read break from here I didn't even know what to do with those and even though it looks spicy but I don't think it's spicy it's really good that's so good and it's like perfect creamy and I use the double elbow pasta because it looks like that one but it's twice as good I don't know about you guys but I really appreciate mac and cheese on a new level now you cook it a lot but maybe for us yeah I think I might add this you putting it in the repertoire yeah I probably won't I'll still go I'm going back to the box after this but I'm real proud of myself yeah it's really good [Music]

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 827,755

Keywords: baked mac and cheese, creamy mac and cheese, creamy macaroni and cheese, epi, epicurious, epicurious mac and cheese, homemade mac and cheese, homemade macaroni and cheese recipe, how to make mac and cheese, instant mac and cheese, mac & cheese, mac & cheese competition, mac & cheese contest, mac and cheese recipe, macaroni and cheese recipe, one pot macaroni and cheese, quick and easy mac and cheese recipe, quick macaroni and cheese, stovetop macaroni and cheese

Id: 7B7lcC3HTCo

Length: 12min 56sec (776 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 31 2023