- It's the most comforting
food of all time, macaroni and cheese. I'm gonna show you an awesome recipe that I've been making for years. We're gonna make a classic sauce, mix 'em up with some noodles. It is to die for. I know you will love this. Let's see get one thing clear here. There is no such thing as
healthy macaroni and cheese. It's fat, milk, cheese, and noodles. It does not exist in the
healthy atmosphere of food, so just accept that off the bat. But the first thing we need to do is shred up a bunch of different cheeses. Sound good? Let's cook. I've got a grater over
some parchment paper to help collect all the cheese, and we're gonna start off with
some yellow cheddar cheese. I've always loved the flavor of this. I love it on burgers. I especially love it
in macaroni and cheese. The reason I put it on parchment paper is so the cheese doesn't go everywhere and it's easy to transport. The next one I've got
is some American cheese. I love American cheese
too on cheeseburgers. It also has something
called sodium citrate in it, which helps make sauces really smooth and none of those clumpy cheese
chunks that are in there. Set that to the side. And then last but not least, I've got some aged white cheddar. This is gonna bring a lot of flavor and a ton of natural salts. Once it is grated, and be
careful on those graters, set it all to the side. I already know what you're thinking. Yes, this is a lot of cheese, but it's macaroni and cheese, so we want a lot of it. So don't freak out. I promise it will all come together. But you can also swap out. I love the combo of yellow
and white cheddar cheese and American cheese. You could try Monterey Jack, Colby-Jack, you could do Gruyere and
get quite fancy there. It's up to you, but have some fun here. Now what we're gonna do
is prep up some veggies. I've got a yellow onion here. Just simply slice off each end, and then cut it in half. We're going to next
remove that outside peel, and then we want to small dice this. Dice it as small as you can. You don't want big
chunks of onions in here. You just simply want to taste the flavor. Next, I've got some garlic cloves, which I'm going to run through
a garlic press as usual. Like I always say, "I am over
chopping garlic in this life." I've done it for 25 years. Make sure you get all of it. Now we're heading over to our cooktop. I've got a nice large rondeau pot. You can use a regular
Dutch oven pot if you want. We're gonna add in some unsalted
butter over medium heat, wait till it's melted, and then we're gonna hit it
with those yellow onions, followed up by adding
in the minced garlic. Now grab a spoon and mix all
of that goodness together. What we wanna do is
get a nice light brown. We're talking maybe six to eight minutes. We don't wanna caramelize it and we don't want them
to just be translucent. We wanna pull some flavor from that. Now, I'm gonna add in
some all-purpose flour because right now what we
wanna do is make a roux. What that's gonna do is
help thicken up our sauce. So go ahead with your spoon and
combine everything together. You'll notice that the butter
is gonna soak up the flour, and you're going to see little clumps of onions and garlic in there. We're next gonna hit it
with some whole milk. Please use whole milk,
lots more flavor in that. Once it's in there, grab your spoon. We're gonna mix everything around just to try to get those flavors out. And we're gonna crank
the heat up to high heat. Really what this does is
help to activate that roux. It will help thicken it
up and much more quickly. Also, at this point, I usually switch out
from a spoon to a whisk so everything gets broken up with ease. You can see that it's
starting to look really thick. What we're looking for is a thin nappe. So coat the back of a spoon, run your finger across, if that top layer doesn't
go over there, we are good. And the reason we don't wanna take this to that nice thick consistency that you would see in like
a creamy Alfredo sauce or a traditional bechamel is we have so much cheese to add in there, we don't want this to be clumped together. We want it to be nice and creamy. That is the goal. Now for the cheese. We're pouring in two cups
each of the white cheddar, the yellow cheddar, and
the American cheese. Once it is in there, grab your whisk and begin to
whisk everything together. We're gonna turn the heat down, just in case you weren't aware, to medium to low heat. Does not need to be hot and boiling. We also wanna season it
very well with sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. This is what's gonna season
up our macaroni and cheese. This is the sauce, so be sure to give it another whisk. We want all the cheese melted, all of those flavors
incorporated in there. And at this point, just turn the heat off
and set it to the side. Don't worry about the cheese sauce. It will stay plenty warm. Because in the meantime, we need to boil up our macaroni noodles. Got a large pot of boiling water. We're gonna add some salt in there. I was always told that water
should taste like the ocean before you cook in it. We're next adding in our macaroni elbows. It's gonna take in between
six to eight minutes to cook. I usually get a spoon in
there to move things around so they don't stick. You wanna take them to al dente because they're still
gonna cook in the oven and they're still gonna
absorb up some of that sauce, and we don't want it to be mush. Once they are finished cooking, give them a good drain. We don't wanna move over
too much of the water and dilute our delicious sauce. So head right over to the
sauce, pour it in there. This next part is gonna be up to you. I like it 'cause it helps
bring structure and fat, and that is large eggs. This is gonna help bring some body, and it's also gonna help so
when you take a nice scoop out, it's not gonna run all over the place. It's gonna hold shape a little bit. But again, if you like it super
creamy, don't add the eggs. Now, in an oversized casserole dish, I'm going to add in our
macaroni and cheese. Pour it all in there so
that it's nice and level, and well, because I love cheese, I'm gonna add a little bit more of each of the shredded
cheese that I did before. Completely covering the top. We are going in the oven on 350 degrees. It's gonna take about 20 minutes. So go hang out somewhere before you go grab it and pull it out. And boom, this looks
seriously so good, you guys. Let it cool down just a
bit before we serve it up. It is all about those
fundamental techniques and putting them into practice, like making a proper bechamel and then knowing when
and how to add cheese so that you can make Mornay sauce. Once you start understanding these things, I promise you, all of your
homemade food from scratch will taste way better. Better than the grocery stores, better than the local barbecue restaurant. You won't even like their
macaroni and cheese anymore. This is super good. So I have a little bit
of plating up to do, but of course, we're
gonna do it in slow-mo. This part is optional, but you can absolutely add
on a little chopped chives or parsley because everything
is pretty yellow in this dish. This is gonna help bring
out some more colors. And for sure, take out a nice big scoop
of this macaroni and cheese. You can put on a plate, in a bowl, whatever you wanna serve it in. I love that stretchy
cheese there in that shot. And man, oh, man, look at this beauty! (upbeat music) Nothing like good old
fashioned comfort food. And I can't believe I've
never made macaroni and cheese on video or my website, ridiculous! Be sure to like this video,
subscribe to my channel. Check out this video. I promise you will love it. I'll see you on there. (upbeat music)
