Smoked Mac and Cheese
This smoked mac and cheese recipe is to die for! It uses a mix of smoked gouda and smoked cheddar in a creamy garlic bechamel sauce. The flavors are rich, cream and smokey as-is but you could also place it in a smoker for about 45 minutes for even more smokey goodness.
Equipment
- smoker * optional
Ingredients
- 1 lb cavatappi pasta cooked al dente
- 3 tablespoon salted butter
- 5 garlic cloves finely diced
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoon flour
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1.5 cups smoked gouda such as Red Apple
- 1.5 cups smoked cheddar such as Red Apple, divided
- ½ teaspoon franks hot sauce
- ¼ teaspoon yellow mustard
- salt
Instructions
- Melt butter in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium heat. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and pinch of salt and cook for 2 minutes or until softened but not browned.
- Whisk in flour and let the roux cook for a few minutes or until the flour taste has cooked out.
- Whisk in milk, then let simmer until thick. Slowly add in heavy cream then turn the heat to medium-low.
- Let simmer for about 10 minutes until sauce has thickened and has slightly reduced.
- Now whisk gouda cheese, little by little. Once it’s melted, whisk in half the cheddar and continue to stir until the sauce is smooth and creamy. Be sure to reserve the other half of cheddar.
- Stir in the the hot sauce, mustard, ½ teaspoon salt and stir. Season with more salt if needed.
- Mix in the pasta and pour into a greased baking dish.
- Top with the remaining smoked cheddar and place under the broiler for 7-10 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
- Remove from broiler and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
Although it’s already quite smokey at this point, If you’d like to put it in the smoker, preheat your smoker to 225 using apple wood. Once the mac and cheese is prepared simply place it in the smoker uncovered for 30-40 minutes and close the lid. Since you’re using smoked cheeses to begin with, you won’t want to have it in much longer than this or else it will be overwhelmingly smokey and dry.
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