Chili's Loaded White Cheddar Mac and Cheese

Home reconstruction

Two things about this dish that decide whether a home version works.

It is a stovetop mac, not a baked one. The sauce stays loose and glossy rather than setting into a firm casserole. If you bake it, you have made a different dish.

White cheddar splits more readily than yellow. Same cheese, but the aged white cheddars people reach for have less moisture and more protein, and they break at lower temperatures. That is why home versions of specifically white cheddar mac go grainy more often.

Handling the splitting problem

Three approaches, and you only need one:

Evaporated milk. Concentrated and stable, so the sauce holds at higher temperatures. Simplest fix.

A roux. Butter and flour cooked out first, then milk. The starch stabilises the proteins. Traditional and reliable.

Sodium citrate. About 3 g per 200 g of cheese, dissolved in the milk. Makes a sauce that will not split under any circumstances. This is what commercial kitchens do.

Whichever you pick, take the pan off the heat before the cheese goes in. The residual heat is enough to melt it and the direct heat is what breaks it.

What you need

• 350 g cavatappi or elbow macaroni
• 40 g butter
• 30 g plain flour
• 480 ml whole milk, warmed
• 120 ml evaporated milk
• 300 g white cheddar, grated from a block
• 1/2 tsp mustard powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• salt and white pepper

For the topping

• 6 rashers bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 60 g panko breadcrumbs, toasted in butter
• 2 spring onions, sliced

Grate the cheese yourself. Bagged shredded cheese is coated in starch to stop it clumping, and that coating is exactly what makes a sauce gritty.

Method

1. 1. Cook the pasta 2 minutes short of the packet time. Drain, keeping a cup of the water.
2. 2. Melt the butter in the same pot. Whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute — it should smell nutty, not raw.
3. 3. Whisk in the warm milk gradually, then the evaporated milk. Simmer 3–4 minutes until it coats a spoon.
4. 4. Take the pan off the heat. Add the cheese in three goes, whisking each in fully before the next.
5. 5. Stir in the mustard powder, garlic powder, salt and white pepper.
6. 6. Fold the pasta through. Loosen with the reserved pasta water — it should be noticeably looser than you want it, because it tightens fast.
7. 7. Serve topped with bacon, toasted panko and spring onion.

Why loose is right

Stovetop mac firms up in the time it takes to get to the table. A sauce that looks correct in the pan is stiff in the bowl. Aim for something that just barely holds on the spoon.

Toppings

The panko is worth the extra pan. Toast it in butter until golden, and scatter it on at the last second — it goes soft within a couple of minutes on the sauce, so add it at the table rather than in the kitchen.

Storing

Three days in the fridge. Reheat gently with a good splash of milk stirred through; the sauce tightens a lot when cold and needs the liquid back.

It does not freeze well. Cheese sauces go grainy through a freeze and thaw and there is no fixing it.