Our New Favorite Macaroni and Cheese

I think we should start a new menu category on this blog for our macaroni and cheese recipes. I mean, as a kid, what could be more important than having multiple options when it comes to the most kid-friendly meal ever created? Well, I guess some could argue peanut butter and jelly might be the winner of that competition, but not in our house. (Plus we call it jelly and peanut butter because we feel the priority should be given to the jelly over the peanut butter. Otherwise, it starts to feel too dry and sticky in your mouth.)

Macaroni and Cheese is Important to Kids

Although we have posted a few macaroni and cheese recipes already, this is important. So we will warn you now that this may not be our last. However, this one is so good that we are not sure we want to experiment anymore for quite a long time.

The real deal breaker for us is how creamy and cheesy the noodles end up after cooking. There are loads of recipes out there claiming to be THE Panera Mac-N-Cheese that we love so much, but so far, there is just nothing as good as that. Regardless, this one is getting really close.

And the best part about it? It is so easy. You start by just throwing everything into an Instant Pot. Now, as we have said before, these things are a bit scary. I mean, who wants to blow up their house for a macaroni and cheese dinner? But then again, for our favorite meal, we thought it might be just worth the risk.

Adjusting the Recipe

After adding the macaroni, water, chicken broth, butter, salt, and garlic to the pot, we took a leap of faith and hit the PRESSURE COOK setting and brought the cooking time to 6 minutes. We made sure the back tap was not on the vent setting.

And that knob is so nerve-wracking! It seems so flimsy, like it its not doing anything when you turn it.

While we waited for the pressure to build and the cooking time to finish, we grated our cheese. The original recipe that we were using suggested using a mixture of Colby and cheddar. But of course, we did not have Colby at some point when we made this and just used all cheddar. Turns out we liked the taste a bit more as it had a certain kick to the cheese that was missing before with the mixture.

We also increased the garlic, because why wouldn’t you?

After all of the beeping, (seriously, what were these people thinking when they designed the machine to beep for that long?), we waited for a few minutes hoping the pressure would release.

But of course, we had to be brave and decide to push that little lever over to the vent side. And wow! The amount of steam that came flying up scared us all! There was water all over our kitchen cabinets, but eventually, the little metal disk dropped and we opened the lid.

Next up, we poured in the evaporated milk and the grated cheese. Boy does that look good!

We love it when all of the dishes for a meal come down to one main pot, and this is such an easy cleanup.

Will We Try More Macaroni and Cheese Recipes?

It may be a while before we experiment with a recipe after this success. The only issue we have found is that the leftovers do get a bit dry after the pasta soaks up the cheese. One suggestion is to add a little bit of milk as you rewarm to moisten it back up.