Baked Mac and Cheese
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Everyone’s favorite classic mac and cheese! Super simple, super easy and super quick. You’ll never want the boxed stuff ever again!
Featured Comment
Greetings from Chicago!
We did it. We finally moved to the Midwest after 20 years of living in California.
It almost feels a bit surreal as we cope with the 22 degree weather. I mean, it was 65 degrees when we left LA!
But honestly, it feels like home. Except home is filled with 17 unopened boxes filled with my kitchen stuff.
So I need to unpack as fast as possible so I can never leave my Chicago house and instead, nest inside with my new electric blanket and the coziest homemade mac and cheese ever.
This is your classic mac and cheese – there are no surprises here and there’s no fuss at all. It’s simple, it’s quick, and it’s completely made from scratch.
It’s perfectly cheesy without being too gummy, and the crunchy tops are just to die for before you get into that creamy heaven underneath.
You can of course choose to bake these in individual ramekins to avoid any kind of sharing or you can dump the entire mixture into a 2-qt baking dish.
Either works. It’s just that sharing can be a bit difficult on this one.
Baked Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 8 ounces elbow pasta
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 2 (12-ounce) cans evaporated milk
- 12 ounces shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese, about 3 cups, divided
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Whisk in flour, paprika and onion powder until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
- Gradually whisk in evaporated milk until slightly thickened, about 4-5 minutes.
- Remove from heat. Stir in 2 cups cheddar cheese and Parmesan. Stir in pasta; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Divide pasta mixture into 5 (10-ounce) or 6 (8-ounce) ramekins or ovenproof bowls.* Place onto a baking sheet; sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheddar cheese.
- Place into oven and bake until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with chives, if desired.
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Notes
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If I make the sauce and cook the pasta ahead of time, would it work to have it cook together in a crockpot instead of bake in the oven? I’ve made this dozens of times in the oven but want to make it for a party where I won’t have an oven. 🙂
Yes! My family has tried this recipe crockpot style and it was DELICIOUS! Just no crunchy top like in the oven.
It looked amazing in the pot on the stove. Nice and creamy than when I took out of the oven it was not creamy at all and rather chunky. Help please. PS I used the evaporated milk.
I LOVE WHAT YOU PREPARE BUT I DONT GET IT RIGHT
Oh, my goodness! This is a fabulous dish!!!! I love my own recipe, but this is amazing!!!! Thank You!!!!
(‘Cause I do like some heat, I added some chopped jalapeños jalapeños to my serving!) Yum!!!!
My family loves it!
I usually don’t care for homemade mac and cheese but i thought I’d give this a try. I actually cut the recipe in half as there is just the two of us. It fit in three ramekins. It was very good.
It tasted good but the sauce was curdled. What did I do wrong?
If the sauce curdled, your heat while on stove top most likely wasn’t high enough.
I thought if the sauce curdled it was because the heat on the stove was too high.
Best mac and cheese recipe I have ever tried, hands down. I used an extra mature cheddar and fusilli (didn’t have macaroni) and I added some english mustard powder. The mustard gives the cheese a strong kick. Absolutely delicious, thanks for sharing!
Maybe I’m missing something here but isn’t there something wrong with the cheddar cheese measurements in the recipe? The ingredients say “ 12 ounces shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese, about 3 cups”. One cup is 8oz so doesn’t 3 cups mean 24oz? Which is it – 12oz (meaning 1.5 cups) or 3 cups (meaning 24oz)? This is very confusing when two different units of measurement are in the directions
For semi-hard cheeses like cheddar, 1 cup is equivalent to 4 ounces.
Ounces (abbreviated oz.) is confusing because the same term is used for units of measurements by both weight and volume, and 8 oz. of cheese (which is measured by weight when you purchase it) will not be the same amount as 8 oz. of cheese after it is grated measured by volume, i.e., cups. Generally, once cheese is grated, it is measured by volume. So measurements of volume and weight are not interchangeable. Hope this helps.
I haven’t tried it yet, I am going to. Do I use cold or warm milk?
This is truly amazing. I have never used evaporated milk in mac and cheese before, but I now will use nothing else!
This is such a tasty recipe, and easy to make for the hungry.
Delicious, made it just as the recipe and it was delicious!!!
I have to say, I have made a lot of Mac and cheese recipes over the years. My recipe is pretty dang good! However, this recipe is so simple and so GOOD! Try it out – I add one more cup of cheese on top and add chopped jalapeños to the mix. Try it!!
This recipe is delicious! My whole family loved it, will definitely make it again.
Made this-it’s exactly the recipe I was looking for-perfect, thanks!
I don’t care for Mac and Cheese, didn’t grow up on it. BUT…OMG! This is so good! I mean seriously, think about it sitting in my fridge yummy good! Even reheated ( with a little smidge of milk added ) it’s amazing.
I almost never leave reviews on recipes. But this one is incredible! I didn’t have the ramekins so I put all in one dish. I thought it was amazing. I ended up putting just a few tablespoons of breadcrumbs on top the second time, and it was great!
Great recipe! Made it tonight with my daughter. It’s easy to read and follow.
I made this just as the recipe is written and it turned out great! After reading some reviews saying that it made too much cheese sauce, I was a little nervous of that – but the extra cheese sauce soaked into the noodles within a few minutes. I prepped this the morning of our NYE party and then once it had cooled I added the shredded cheese topping and then just popped it into the oven for 30 minutes at the party so that we could enjoy it fresh out of the oven.
I made a Gluten and dairy free version of your recipe using oat milk and gluten free all purpose flour and it was wonderful! So tasty ❤ (I sauteed onions, garlic and added a little bacon too!)
Hi Brittany! What kind of dairy free cheese did you use? I’ve been looking, but haven’t found a good one.