How to Make Our Favorite Macaroni Salad

[Music] there are lots of different types of macaroni salad and hawaii has a version all its own and today natalie is going to show us how to make it hi julia hi so i'm sure you've had plenty of versions of macaroni salad but a hawaiian macaroni salad usually has a creamy mayonnaise-based dressing thinned out with a little bit of milk crunchy celery and pasta cooked until it's fat so past the point of al dente so before we get started on our dressing we're going gonna start our pasta this is four quarts of boiling water and to this we're going to add one tablespoon of salt and then we're going to add one pound of elbow macaroni we're going to let this go for about 15 minutes or until it's very soft 15 minutes is a long cooking time usually macaroni goes about 10 minutes so 15 minutes it's gonna be very soft we're gonna start our dressing and so this is two cups of whole milk and to this we're gonna add two cups of mayonnaise this is whole milk not low-fat milk low-fat milk is going to cause the dressing to be too thin to this we're going to add one tablespoon of brown sugar and then two teaspoons of black pepper and then this is half a teaspoon of salt and we're going to mix this until it's thoroughly combined and then we're going to reserve one cup of this dressing so now that our dressing is made we're just going to wait until our pasta is cooked all right so it's been about 15 minutes and our pasta looks pretty cooked but we should try it to make sure it's good to go oh yeah so we're just going to turn this off and we're going to drain it so while this is cooling we're going to add half a cup of cider vinegar instead of adding it to the dressing we're adding it to the pasta so it gets soaked up but also the vinegar caused the dressing to curdle and that was just not pretty that sounds gross it does so we're mixing in the cider vinegar and we're just going to stir it in until it's all the way absorbed while this cools we're going to prep our vegetables so we're going to start with four scallions and we're just going to take off the tips not take off a lot of the white and we're going to slice these pretty thin so those are four scallions so i'm just gonna add these scallions to the bowl that already has a grated carrot in it just one carrot just one carrot and then this is one celery rib so i'm going to cut it in half for a little bit of ease and then i'm going to cut these guys into planks and then cut these this way we want more of a finer chop so one large celery rib chopped fine so that's celery scallions and the carrot and of course the carrot is what's traditional in a hawaiian macaroni salad all right so the pasta is cool now it's been about 10 minutes and to this we're going to add our dressing and our vegetables and we want it to be cool enough to handle so the vegetables don't cook in the pasta and then we're going to add our vegetables as well very pretty i actually really love the colors of the scallions and the carrots in there it's a looker we're just going to mix this until it's fully incorporated this is good to go we're going to refrigerate this for at least one hour but it can be made up to two days in advance all right so this is our macaroni salad it's been cooling for about an hour and this is the cup of dressing that we had reserved earlier so one cup goes in here and just stir until it's fully incorporated all right now that it's fully incorporated we're just going to season it to taste so the dressing was very thoroughly seasoned so we're just going to add a little bit of pepper it doesn't really need salt all right this is good to go we can just put it in our serving bowl that is gorgeous all right now it's time to eat don't hold back on my portion oh no i won't it really is a good-looking macaroni salad and i don't think i've ever said that before yeah it's not like the typical ones that you see where it's just kind of like mushy looking not really appetizing this is creamy and decadent and it has some color that's right wow natalie this is delicious that tablespoon of brown sugar in there it actually just brings out some of the vegetable flavors like the carrot that's right it balances everything out it's really acidic it's creamy you need that little bit of sugar yeah and you know most macaroni salads are pretty bland all you get is a little mayonnaise this i get the pepper i got the vinegar i love the scallions that little sweetness goes a long way and i think adding that dosage of fresh dressing right before serving really enlivened all the flavors it made a big difference natalie this is delicious thank you i'm glad you like it julia so if you want to make this delicious hawaiian macaroni salad start by cooking the macaroni until it's fat make a simple dressing using milk and mayonnaise and reserve some of it separately for serving once the pasta is cooked and drained toss it with some vinegar and let it cool before adding the dressing and the vegetables including celery scallions and carrot finally let that salad chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving with that remaining dressing and there you have it from cook's country a really great recipe for hawaiian macaroni salad this is really good thanks for watching cook's country from america's test kitchen so what'd you think leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or just say hi now you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our channel see you later alligator

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 453,885

Rating: 4.9149203 out of 5

Keywords: hawaiian food, macaroni salad, hawaiian macaroni salad, cooks country, cooks illustrated, americas test kitchen

Id: Cp0uO_pcbdA

Length: 5min 51sec (351 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 02 2020