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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This looks sooo good! Love the crunchy top. Homemade is always so much better. Especially when it comes to mac & cheese.
Thanks for the recipe!
I love this recipe! Served it for Thanksgiving and will serve it again tomorrow for our New Year’s Eve party. This time as a BBQ side.
Question; Has anyone prepped this a day ahead? If so, should I prep today, bake tomorrow? Or bake today and reheat 45min before serving?
I made this for Thanksgiving and it was a hit. Now I want to make it for Christmas but I want to try making it in muffin tins. Has anyone tried this?
This recipe is DELICIOUS!! Only problem was that the cheese to pasta ratio was way off, I just added a whole pound of noodles and it was fixed!
My kids loved this! Although I used a whole pound of pasta and the cheese sauce was still ample!!
I made this and my boyfriend raved to his family that I cook with “soul” and I “stuck my foot in it”. Needless to say this recipe is so simple and absolutely delish.
Does 1/2 lb of elbow macaroni mean 8oz? It just didn’t look like very much. If that is the case, a 16 oz box would feed around 12? Thanks for your time! Excited to make my first homemade Mac n cheese
It says it serves 5-6, so yes, doubling the recipe should work out perfect.
Very delicious! I’m so glad I chose your way with the canned milk. It came out very tasteful. My grandson age eight loved it so much. Thanks for sharing.
Super tasty! I doubled the recipe and ended up with WAY too much cheese sauce. I’d recommend only increasing cheese sauce ingredients by half, rather than doubling. At least I have extra cheese sauce for something else. Lol.
Recipe is awesome!! I did smoked paprika instead. Little less then half a tsp. Gave it a nice slight smokey taste. I also decided against the chives. Turned out great. My boyfriend loved it and he’s soooo picky. I added slightly more parm and cheddar too. Also topped it with some Italian Panko bread crumbs.
I made this last week. I followed the recipe to a T…. I’m going to attempt it again for Thanksgiving…..
I cant wait to make this! Has anyone done it with a panko bread crumb on top?
gonna try that exact thing tonight
Wow. this recipe will manifest the best mac & cheese you have ever tasted. It’s even better than your grandma’s.
you dont know my grandma
My grandson is correct. My mac & cheese is superior.
Looks so yummy! Have you tried making any portion of this in advance?
Has anybody tried mild cheddar instead of sharp cheddar?
We
Don’t generally like sharp cheese in this house
I have used mild and it turned out just as good. Go for it.
it was delicious
I just made the recipe last night for my sister and of course for me, and wow the mac & cheese recipe is amazing!! I had never used evaporated milk in a mac & cheese recipe before. The result is not only amazing, it’s delightful, thanks!!!! This recipe serves 5-6 yet, I am having 9 guest over for dinner, can you tell me, should I simply double the ingredients from 1/2 lb of elbow to 1 lb elbow,
from 3 tablespoons unsalted butter to 6 tablespoons butter, etc etc……..Replacing 2 (12-ounce) cans evaporated milk to add 4 (12 oz) evaporated milk? Any advice, or directions would be deeply appreciated.
I need instructions for 8-12 people please asap.
Hi Macy,
You can absolutely double everything (I did too!). You’ll need to heat the sauce longer for it to get thick. And maybe heat a bit longer in the oven. But you shouldn’t have any problems.
Damn Delicious has been the greatest teacher of all! I’m learning & loving everything new from you and it’s important for you to know just how thankful I am to have found Damn Delicious’ site!!! Fast question about the mac & cheese. If I melt the butter, whisk in flour, then complete each step leading up to gradually whisk in evaporated milk…….remove from heat, stir in both cheese—then didn’t prepare it for baking, rather at this point, cooled sauce down totally, placing sauce into a very airtight storage container, put into the fridge over-night, with next day removing sauce from fridge, bring to room temp, heat sauce in pot stove top, once heated add sauce to pasta, place entire mixture into a 2-qt baking dish to bake, would this idea work well or destroy the integrity of the recipe?
I cold smoked, with hickory, blocks of cheddar parmesan and Romano cheese last week to make this recipe as smoked Mac n cheese! Gonna make it tomorrow for Thanksgiving , will post my results
Very good!
Great traditional creamy comfort-food mac & cheese. However, I would recommend reducing or eliminating the paprika in the sauce. It seems to overpower the sauce and gives it an odd/unexpected flavor. I eliminated it in a second batch and it was delicious!