Make Baked Mac And Cheese 10X Heartier With This Savory Topping
There's something about mac and cheese that invites imaginative additions. If you're pondering how best to next upgrade this comfort food classic, consider making your next baked mac and cheese 10 times heartier with a savory topping of stuffing.
You may be used to elevating your mac and cheese with breadcrumbs, herbs, onions, and other common stuffing ingredients, so using stuffing itself is an intuitive step up that incorporates all their combined flavors. Whether your stuffing contains meat or you're simply piling carbs on top of carbs, stuffing will turn your mac and cheese from a side dish into a meal. Stuffing recipes can run from simple to quite complex; use your palate to decide which one will best complement your mac and cheese. You might love blue cheese mac and oyster stuffing, but think carefully about whether that combination sounds appealing.
If you're using pre-cooked, leftover stuffing, your prep will be a breeze. Just prepare your preferred mac and cheese (if you don't have one, check out these 10 decadent mac and cheese recipes), spoon it into a casserole dish, then crumble a generous amount of stuffing over the top before it heads into the oven. To avoid overly browning both the mac and cheese and the stuffing, cover the dish with foil, then remove it midway through cooking.
Cook your stuffing separately and safely before topping your mac and cheese with it
If you are making a fresh batch of stuffing, the process will take a little longer, but is absolutely worth it (especially if you consult our 12 easy tricks for perfect homemade stuffing). If your stuffing doesn't contain any ingredients that need to be cooked to a safe minimum internal temperature, you might only need to saute your vegetables and then mix them with your other ingredients before dressing your mac and cheese. However, if your stuffing contains meat, eggs, or anything else that must not be undercooked, do not top mac and cheese with raw stuffing and rely on the oven to finish the job. The FDA advises that stuffing should be cooked to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit, so for reasons of food safety, cook it separately, then top your mac and cheese with it prior to baking. Plus, these two cooks will help the stuffing get crispy, giving it a satisfying textural contrast with the soft, gooey pasta beneath.
Finally, don't think that using stuffing as a topping rules out any of your other favorite upgrades for mac and cheese. Provided you mix and match with care, you could come up with something special. Admit it — aren't you a little curious about, say, a baked jalapeño popper mac and cheese dressed with cornbread and andouille sausage stuffing?
