Mac 'N Cheese with Bacon and Cheese

Mac 'N Cheese with Bacon and Cheese takes around 1 hour from beginning to end. One portion of this dish contains approximately 33g of protein, 39g of fat, and a total of 727 calories. For $1.87 per serving, this recipe covers 32% of your daily requirements of vitamins and minerals. This recipe serves 8. A mixture of milk, sharp cheddar, garlic cloves, and a handful of other ingredients are all it takes to make this recipe so tasty. 23 people found this recipe to be flavorful and satisfying. A couple people really liked this main course. It is brought to you by Foodnetwork. Overall, this recipe earns an outstanding spoonacular score of 81%. Spicy Green Chile, Smoky Bacon, 3 Cheese Grown Up Mac and Cheese, Mac and Cheese Grilled Cheese with Bacon Two Ways, and Three Cheese Skillet Bacon Mac and Cheese are very similar to this recipe.

Servings: 8

Preparation duration: 20 minutes

Cooking duration: 40 minutes

 

Ingredients:

4 slices bacon, cut crosswise into thin strips

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound elbow macaroni

1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 cloves garlic, smashed and divided

2 garlic cloves, smashed

Kosher salt

4 cups milk

1 large onion, diced

5 1/2 cups shredded sharp white Cheddar

Leaves from 1/4 bunch fresh thyme

2 or 3 sprigs thyme

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Equipment:

pot

oven

sauce pan

frying pan

whisk

baking pan

Cooking instruction summary:

Watch how to make this recipe. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the macaroni and cook for 8 to 9 minutes, until al dente. Drain. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a small saucepan heat the milk with the thyme sprigs and 2 garlic cloves. Melt the butter in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly, to keep lumps from forming. Strain the solids out of the milk and whisk it into the butter and flour mixture. Continue to whisk vigorously, and cook until the mixture is nice and smooth. Stir in the 4 cups of the cheese and continue to cook and stir to melt the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Add the cooked macaroni and the parsley and fold that all in to coat the macaroni with the cheese mixture. Scrape into a 3-quart baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining 1 1/2 cups cheese. Bake for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. While that bakes, heat a saute pan. Add the bacon, render the fat and cook until crispy. Add onion, garlic and thyme leaves and cook for about 5 minutes to soften the onion. Season with salt and pepper. To serve, scatter the bacon mixture over the mac and cheese. Use a big spoon to scoop out servings, making sure you get some of the smoking bacon mixture on each spoonful.

 

Step by step:


1. Watch how to make this recipe.

2. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.

3. Add the macaroni and cook for 8 to 9 minutes, until al dente.

4. Drain.

5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

6. In a small saucepan heat the milk with the thyme sprigs and 2 garlic cloves. Melt the butter in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat.

7. Whisk in the flour and cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly, to keep lumps from forming. Strain the solids out of the milk and whisk it into the butter and flour mixture. Continue to whisk vigorously, and cook until the mixture is nice and smooth. Stir in the 4 cups of the cheese and continue to cook and stir to melt the cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

8. Add the cooked macaroni and the parsley and fold that all in to coat the macaroni with the cheese mixture.

9. Scrape into a 3-quart baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining 1 1/2 cups cheese.

10. Bake for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

11. While that bakes, heat a saute pan.

12. Add the bacon, render the fat and cook until crispy.

13. Add onion, garlic and thyme leaves and cook for about 5 minutes to soften the onion. Season with salt and pepper.

14. To serve, scatter the bacon mixture over the mac and cheese. Use a big spoon to scoop out servings, making sure you get some of the smoking bacon mixture on each spoonful.


Nutrition Information:

Quickview
726k Calories
33g Protein
39g Total Fat
58g Carbs
27% Health Score
Limit These
Calories
726k
36%

Fat
39g
61%

  Saturated Fat
23g
144%

Carbohydrates
58g
20%

  Sugar
12g
13%

Cholesterol
112mg
37%

Sodium
810mg
35%

Get Enough Of These
Protein
33g
67%

Vitamin C
100mg
122%

Selenium
54µg
78%

Calcium
729mg
73%

Vitamin A
3620IU
72%

Phosphorus
657mg
66%

Vitamin B2
0.63mg
37%

Vitamin K
37µg
36%

Manganese
0.71mg
35%

Zinc
4mg
27%

Vitamin B6
0.48mg
24%

Vitamin B12
1µg
21%

Magnesium
78mg
20%

Folate
76µg
19%

Potassium
595mg
17%

Fiber
3g
16%

Vitamin B1
0.24mg
16%

Vitamin D
2µg
15%

Vitamin B5
1mg
14%

Copper
0.26mg
13%

Vitamin B3
2mg
13%

Vitamin E
1mg
12%

Iron
2mg
11%

covered percent of daily need
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Food Trivia

Cooking food is one of the great revolutionary innovations of history because it not only transformed the way we prepare food, but because it also became a center of cultural communion and organized society.

Food Joke

I tried not to be biased in hiring a handicapped person, but his placement counselor assured me that he would be a good, reliable busboy. I had never had a mentally-handicapped employee, and I wasn't sure I wanted one. I wasn't sure how my customers would react to Stevie. He was short, a little dumpy, and had the smooth facial features and thick-tongued speech of Down Syndrome. I wasn't worried about most of my trucker customers because truckers don't generally care who buses tables as long as the meatloaf platter is good and the pies are homemade. The four-wheeler drivers were the ones who concerned me; the mouthy college kids traveling to school; the yuppie snobs who secretly polish their silverware with their napkins for fear of catching some dreaded "truck stop germ;" the pairs of white-shirted business men on expense accounts who think every truck stop waitress wants to be flirted with. I knew those people would be uncomfortable around Stevie so I closely watched him for the first few weeks. I shouldn't have worried. After the first week, Stevie had my staff wrapped around his stubby little finger, and within a month my truck regulars had adopted him as their official truck stop mascot. After that, I really didn't care what the rest of the customers thought of him. He was like a 21-year-old in blue jeans and Nikes, eager to laugh and eager to please, but fierce in his attention to his duties. Every salt and pepper shaker was exactly in its place, not a bread crumb or coffee spill was visible when Stevie got done with the table. Our only problem was convincing him to wait to clean a table until after the customers were finished. He would hover in the background, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, scanning the dining room until a table was empty. Then he would scurry to the empty table and carefully bus the dishes and glasses onto a cart and meticulously wipe the table up with a practiced flourish of his rag. If he thought a customer was watching, his brow would pucker with added concentration. He took pride in doing his job exactly right, and you had to love how hard he tried to please each and every person he met. Over time, we learned that he lived with his mother, a widow who was disabled after repeated surgeries for cancer. They lived on their Social Security benefits in public housing two miles from the truck stop. Their social worker, who stopped to check on him every so often, admitted they had fallen between the cracks. Money was tight, and what I paid him was probably the difference between them being able to live together and Stevie being sent to a group home. That's why the restaurant was a gloomy place that morning last August, the first morning in three years that Stevie had missed work. He was at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester getting a new valve or something put in his heart. His social worker said that people with Down Syndrome often had heart problems at an early age so this wasn't unexpected, and there was a good chance he would come through the surgery in good shape and be back at work in a few months. A ripple of excitement ran through the staff later that morning when word came that he was out of surgery, in recovery and doing fine. Frannie, my head waitress, let out a war whoop and did a little dance in the aisle when she heard the good news. Belle Ringer, one of our regular trucker customers, stared at the sight of the 50-year-old grandmother of four doing a victory shimmy beside his table. Frannie blushed, smoothed her apron and shot Belle Ringer a withering look. He grinned. "OK, Frannie, what was that all about?" he asked. "We just got word that Stevie is out of surgery and going to be okay." "I was wondering where he was. I had a new joke to tell him. What was the surgery about?" Frannie quickly told Belle Ringer and the other two drivers sitting at his booth about Stevie's surgery, then sighed. "Yeah, I'm glad he is going to be OK," she said, "but I don't know how he and his mom are going to handle all the bills. From what I hear, they're barely getti.

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