proper way to melt cheese for macaroni and cheese

If you don't have American cheese, you can use Velveeta or any cheese that contains sodium citrate. Tidbits: If you can't find BellaVitano cheese, you can substitute with 1 additional tablespoon of Parmesan cheese. Pop the pan under your hot broiler for 2 to 3 minutes or until the top has lightly browned. Combine the yellow and white cheddar cheese for the topping, then sprinkle the mixture over the top of the mac and cheese.ħ. Pour the macaroni and cheese into an 8x8-inch baking pan or dish.Ħ.

Gently stir it occasionally as it sits.ĥ. Allow the sauce to sit for 10 minutes to cool and thicken, then combine the sauce and pasta in a large bowl and allow it to cool enough that the cheese doesn’t fall to the bottom of the bowl.

Add the remaining cheeses and stir until the sauce is smooth, then remove it from the heat. Stir often with a whisk until the American cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth.ģ. Slowly heat up the milk to melt the butter and cheese. While the pasta cooks, make the cheese sauce by combining the milk, American cheese, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat. When the macaroni is completely soft, strain out the water.Ģ. Cook the macaroni in 2 quarts of boiling water for 20 minutes. If you like this copycat Chick-fil-A mac and cheese recipe, click here for more Chick-fil-A clone recipes. This will ensure that the pasta won’t suck up liquid in the cheese sauce when they are combined, and the sauce will maintain a perfectly creamy consistency. You want to cook the elbow macaroni for 20 minutes so that it absorbs as much water as possible. By first melting several slices of American cheese in the milk we don’t need to make a roux to create a perfectly smooth cheese sauce.Īs for cooking the macaroni, here’s another secret: don’t follow the directions on the box for al dente pasta, because you don’t want the pasta to be al dente, or slightly tough. This natural sodium salt is an emulsifier that keeps the fat in the cheese from separating (and it also happens to be useful in preventing kidney stones!). The benefit of American cheese-which makes up for its lack of flavor-is found in the sodium citrate it contains. Those five kinds of cheese combine to make a great flavor, but the blend would melt into a greasy mess if it weren’t for the assistance of one more ubiquitous cheese: American. The BellaVitano cheese adds a subtle nuttiness to the mix and all three hard cheeses contribute big umami flavor that nicely complements the blend of white and yellow cheddars. According to the official list of ingredients, the formula includes several different kinds of cheese including Parmesan, Romano, and award-winning hard cheese from Wisconsin called BellaVitano. The new Mac & Cheese at Chick-fil-A is baked fresh every day, and the recipe is more complex than you might expect from a fast food chicken chain.

Proper way to melt cheese for macaroni and cheese