Creamy Baked Macaroni

[fuzzyred]

This week's recipe was Creamy Baked Macaroni from the Tasteofhome Contest Winning Annual Recipes 2010 cookbook.


Ingredients
1 2/3 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon minced chives
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
1/4 reaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 1/2 cuos (6 ounces) Gouda or cheddar cheese (1/2 inch cubes)
2 tablsepoons dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Instructions
1. Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain. In a large bowl, combine the soup, milk, chives, muatard and hot pepper sauce. Stir in the macaroni and cheese.
2. Spoon into a greases shallow 2-qt. baking dish. Combine bread crumbs and butter; sprinkle over top. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes or until heated through and bubbly. Yield: 4-6 servings.


Changes: So, since I'm in Canada and this is an American cookbook, we don't actually have the size cans the recipe calls for. Instead, I used two 284mL cans, which means I had more liquid than the recipe, but it still turned out rather well. I used Gouda cheese, Panko bread crumbs because that's all the store had, and omitted the chives and hot pepper sauce to avoid wasting the leftovers.

It came together rather easily, and after baking for 27 minutes, it was bubbly and had thickened and looked delicious. After letting it cool a bit, it tasted delicious too, and I have enough left for four or five more meals. This was good enough and easy enough that I would make it again when I want something warm and comforting.

Comments

[fuzzyred]

I enjoyed it a lot. I hope you can find your mom's recipe, family cooking is always the best.

[siberian_skys]

Thank you. Hopefully it will turn up.

I'm glad you liked what you made. It sounds so good.

[siberian_skys]

It still hasn't turned up, but I keep coming back and looking at your recipe. Do you think it would work as a stove top recipe if I took out the soup? I keep thinking the flavor profile would be really tasty. I love spicy food and had never thought of using mustard and hot sauce in Mac & Cheese.

[fuzzyred]

From what I remember of box macaroni, their powder cheese uses milk and butter for the sauce. The cheese in the recipe is in 1/2-inch cubes, so it got soft and gooey, but didn't get fully melted. I think if you did it stove top you might want to cut the cubes into 1/4 inch maybe, and add the milk butter and cheese to the noodles once cooked (and mustard and hot sauce), then let simmer and heat for a couple minutes and I think you should be ok. I'm not sure how the bread crumbs would work, but you should be able to leave those out easily if desired.

[siberian_skys]

I think I'd take out the bread crumbs until I can bake it, because it's not going to brown on the stove. I hadn't thought about making boxed mac n cheese and then just adding mustard and hot sauce. That probably would work. I haven't had that in a long time.

[fuzzyred]

Leaving out the crumbs probably would be best. Adding the mustard and hot sauce straight to the boxed stuff would probably be easier too, and I don't see why it shouldn't work.

[siberian_skys]

I've got some frozen mac n cheese as well. I could make that and just add the seasoning. I'm wondering if it would work with mashed potatoes as well.

[fuzzyred]

Adding to frozen should work. I'm not certain about a stove top version, but that might be workable with mashed potatoes. I think the oven version would be doable with mashed potatoes though, or possibly roasted potatoes.

[siberian_skys]

I'm going to have to try these ideas out.

[fuzzyred]

Let me know how that goes if you do try them; I'm curious to know how they would turn out.

[siberian_skys]

I will do that. I'm very curious.

[siberian_skys]

You wanted to know how it came out. I have some instant potatoes so I made a single serving and tried it out. I just drizzled some yellow mustard on top once it was microwaved and then put a couple of drops of hot sauce on it as well and stirred it in. It didn't change the texture, but just made it tangy. I think anymore of the sauces on it would cover up the taste of the potatoes, but you never know.

[fuzzyred]

Cool. Tangy mashed potatoes is different than normal. I think you might be right about more sauce overpowering the potatoes; they don't exactly have a strong taste to them.