Best Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese Recipe
Try this Best Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese Recipe recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Best Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese Recipe recipe, or contribute your own.
- Carbohydrate 0.698934250001095 g
- Cholesterol 47.6059375039243 mg
- Fat 15.8330573764805 g
- Fiber 0.027825 g
- Protein 9.30615562501551 g
- Saturated Fat 10.0403015009376 g
- Serving Size 1 1 -12 (42g)
- Sodium 256.758200010513 mg
- Sugar 0.671109250001095 g
- Trans Fat 0.882043875103641 g
- Calories 182 calories
Step-by-step
- Combine the half & half with the cheddar cheese soup, and mix until it's nice and smooth.
- Next, sprinkle in the paprika and black pepper, and mix.
- Pour the elbow macaroni and cheese into the crock pot, half of the shredded cheddar & colby, the cut butter, and half & half/ cheddar soup mixture.
- Mix until well incorporated.
- Top off with the remaining shredded cheese.
- Put the lid on top of the slow cooker, then set the slow cooker on low.
- Let cook for 3 hours.
- Serve and enjoy!
Uncooked pasta placed directly into a slow cooker will turn to mush unless the starch-to-liquid ratio is managed with absolute precision. Many cooks dump everything into a crock pot and hope for the best, only to find a gluey mass of broken dairy fats and overhydrated elbow macaroni. Slow cookers apply gentle, indirect heat from the sides and bottom. This heating profile prevents the rapid gelatinization that occurs on a roaring stovetop. Yet, low heat also extends the hydration window dangerously. When dry pasta sits in liquid for three hours at 190 degrees Fahrenheit, the starch molecules swell past their structural threshold.
Success requires respecting the moisture content of the canned cheddar soup and the dairy. Half-and-half contains roughly twelve percent milk fat. This fat content separates easily under prolonged heat if not buffered by enough dry surface area. Distribute the shredded cheddar and colby cheeses evenly throughout the uncooked macaroni rather than dumping them in clumps. Stirring the butter into pieces ensures that the melting fats coat the exterior of each tubular noodle. This creates a hydrophobic barrier that slows down water absorption.
Timing dictates the final texture. Three hours on the low setting is the strict limit for standard elbow macaroni. Leaving the crock pot running beyond 180 minutes converts the starches into paste. If scheduling forces a longer hold time, switch the appliance to the warm setting immediately at the three-hour mark. Alternatively, swap out standard wheat pasta for a high-protein semolina blend, which holds its shape significantly longer under thermal stress.
