Beefy Mac
Hi friends, so we had our second Facebook live video yesterday. I hope you got a chance to join in the fun. We made one of my guys favorite comfort dishes Beefy Mac. I will have to say that name is not a terribly good description of the actual dish. It is actually more of a chili inspired mac & cheese with ground beef. And what we learned in our video was how to make a homemade Bechamel sauce.
One reason I chose to make this particular dish is it contains very simple ingredients that you might have in your pantry/refrigerator while you are social distancing. Another is it gave me an opportunity to encourage you to try something new. Remember, I am a self-taught chef if you want to call me that. And I didn’t have someone cheering me along telling me “You can do it. That’s it. No worries. It’s Just Food.” And I really want you to have the opportunity to learn a technique and feel confident doing it. If we mess something up, we will try and fix it. And even if we can’t it will probably taste good anyway!
You may have noticed while watching my video for Beefy Mac and others that I often use a flat ended wooden spoon. I find this to be one of the most valuable tools in my kitchen. Of course, for this recipe I was using it to keep the flour from burning as we cooked the roux for the Bechamel Sauce. You can also use this type of spoon to break up ground meat to brown in a skillet. I really appreciate the fact that wood is easy on non-stick surfaces of my pans as well. Amazon carries a beautiful teak set of 4 from Lipper for $13.20. Not only are they beautiful, they will last you forever! I might just have to add more to my collection!
Now I know that this is a carb load since it is mac & cheese. And if you happen to have any fresh green beans left in the refrigerator my Food Prep: Green Beans would be a nice addition to round out this as an actual meal. We had half a bunch of asparagus left so we had that as a green side with ours.
Beefy Mac
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 lb. elbow macaroni or other small pasta
- 1 medium onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/3 cup salted butter
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cups milk
- ½ tsp dry mustard
- 1 ½ tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 2 cups medium cheddar cheese shredded
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- Heat water to boiling in a 6-quart pot for your pasta
- Brown your ground beef in a skillet. Once the beef is browned, add your onion and garlic. Cook until translucent.
- When water is boiling, salt water and drop your pasta to cook according to package directions for Al Dente texture.
- Heat separate 6-quart Dutch oven over medium heat. (or move cooked pasta to a bowl to wait for dish assembly). Melt butter in warm Dutch oven.
- Once butter is melted add flour and stir constantly. Cook 3-4 minutes.
- Start whisking in your milk 1/3 at a time. Mixture will get lumpy at first. Just keep whisking. It will smooth out as you continue to whisk and it heats up.
- Once all milk is added, mixture is smooth, and heated through. Start adding spices and whisk them in well.
- Now whisk in half of the cheese. Once the sauce is smooth add the other half.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Now stir in pasta and beef mixture.
- Serve
