Cayt’s Green Chile Mac – The Stay At Home Chef

Chef Cayt has taken your primary mac n cheese and dressed it up with inexperienced chiles and pepper jack cheese. We love this elevated consolation meals for its excellent stability of creamy, tacky goodness and smoky, peppery warmth. Made in solely 20 minutes, this straightforward meal is ideal for busy weeknight dinners!

For extra scrumptious inexperienced chile recipes, strive our Slow Cooker Green Chile Pork Stew.

When you do this home made mac n cheese, you received’t return to boxed! Critically, this recipe is so easy and simple, and it’s made in solely 20 minutes. This creamy cheese sauce is made in the identical pot that the noodles cook dinner in, utilizing the pasta water as the bottom. This easy hack not solely retains cleanup to a minimal, however the starches from the pasta water give the sauce the right velvety consistency.

Ingredient Notes

• Elbow Macaroni: Any quick pasta like fusilli, penne, or shells work effectively however elbow is a mac n cheese traditional!
• Diced Inexperienced Chiles: If you would like a spicier kick, you may go for scorching inexperienced chiles
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese: Cheddar offers an awesome base taste to this mac. Freshly shredded melts higher than pre-shredded cheese, which accommodates components to stop clumping.
• Shredded Pepper Jack Cheese: The peppers on this cheese add simply the correct quantity of warmth paired with the inexperienced chiles. Substitute with Monterey Jack for much less warmth.
• Heavy Cream:  You possibly can substitute with half-and-half, however the sauce received’t be as thick and creamy.
• Hen Broth: Utilizing a low-sodium possibility means that you can greatest management the flavour. It’s an awesome chef tip.
• Floor Mustard: Simply discovered within the spice part of the grocery retailer. In the event you don’t have floor mustard, you should utilize Dijon mustard as a substitute.

Add a Protein

This smoky mac n cheese pairs completely with leftover pulled pork. You can even use leftover or store-bought ham, and even bacon.

In the event you’re not a fan of pork, shredded hen or beef are nice choices as effectively. Serve on the facet or combine it in to beef this dish up.

The Proper Pot

As a result of this recipe makes use of one pot to cook dinner the noodles and make the sauce, we use a 6 quart pot with an 8 inch diameter, which boils the liquid simply lengthy sufficient to cook dinner the noodles leaving you with sufficient water to make the cheese sauce.

Use whichever massive pot you could have readily available, however take into account that with a tall and slim inventory pot, there will likely be much less evaporation attributable to much less floor space, which can depart your sauce a bit extra runny. However, in case you use a large braising pan, the water will evaporate too rapidly, leaving not sufficient pasta water to make the cheese sauce.

Guarantee that when the noodles are finished cooking, the liquid simply barely under the noodles. If this isn’t the case and an excessive amount of liquid has evaporated, add a couple of 1/2 cup extra of hen broth earlier than making your sauce.

Regulate the Warmth

Inexperienced chiles are thought of to be reasonably scorching—spicier than inexperienced bell peppers, however not as spicy as jalapeños.

For much less warmth: You possibly can go for gentle canned inexperienced chiles and use Monterey Jack as a substitute of Pepper Jack cheese.

For extra warmth: Swap out the gentle inexperienced chiles for decent inexperienced chiles or canned diced jalapeños. Add a splash of scorching sauce of a contact of cayenne pepper for further warmth.