Looking for a beer mac and cheese recipe? This stove top mac and cheese gets a make- over with Mexican Beer and a hint of heat from red chile powder. Crisp and complex in flavor, you won’t believe your tastebuds.
What You Can Expect From This Recipe
Mac and cheese with beer? Yes, you’ve gotta try it.
I think most of us can agree that Mac and Cheese is simply glorious. I’ll take it from that blue box, or any version of homemade. And I simply could not resist making this recipe for beer macaroni and cheese.
Rather than a Southern style mac and cheese recipe, which is baked, this recipe leans towards the French method of making a simple version of Bechamel sauce, which is making a simple flour and butter based roux, with milk.
And things get even easier because this is a stove top recipe.
Using Modelo Especial Mexican Beer to flavor the cheese sauce is genius. It’s a Pilsner style beer and it’s crisp, clean, balanced flavor blends wonderfully with the cheese.
And speaking of the cheese, I’ve chosen a combo of Sharp Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses.
The consistency of the beer cheese sauce is just right thick and creamy. Without being too thick.
The addition of New Mexico Red Chile Powder kicks Beer Mac and Cheese up even another notch. Absolutely delicious.
Let’s take a look.
Ingredients You’ll Need
This beer mac and cheese recipe combines the standard procedure for creating a creamy cheese sauce, but then takes on a whole new life with the addition of beer. Lead ingredients include:
- Macaroni. Elbow or shell is always traditional for macaroni and cheese. All of those pockets grab on to that creamy cheese. But have some fun, try other curly shapes like shells and cavatappi.
- Mexican Beer. Modelo Especial, a Mexican Lager works very well here. Crisp and refreshing. Please experiment with the beer and try this with a Guinness for a stronger deeper flavor.
- New Mexico Chile Powder: A single blend red chile powder, preferably Chimayo.
- The Cheese: Cheddar Cheese. I like to use a medium cheddar, but using a sharp cheddar will enhance the flavor to a stronger note. Monterey Jack Cheese. White and creamy. I always like Monterey Jack for macaroni and cheese. It’s a great melting cheese. Another white cheese choice would be Muenster Cheese.
Pro Tip: Purchase good quality cheese and grate it yourself. Pre-grated cheese in bags includes additives to keep it from clumping, which will also compromise the melting factor. Grating cheese from a block of cheese will result in a creamier and more consistent melting experience. Plus, it’s less expensive.
Step by Step Instructions, It’s Easy
- Step 1: Grate The Cheese: When grating this much cheese, make it easy on yourself and use your food processor.
- Step 2: Cook macaroni noodles according to package instructions. Before you drain the pasta, fish out some of that starchy pasta water.
Pro Tip: Why is pasta water good for pasta sauce? Don’t throw all of that pasta cooking liquid down the drain, It’s liquid gold. It’s a must to add to any sauce for any pasta dish. It’s high in starch and this salty starchy water helps the sauce cling to the pasta while helping to thicken the sauce. It turns any pasta dish into a luxurious pasta dish.
- Step 3: Make the roux. In the same pan, melt the butter and cook until bubbly. Add the flour and start stirring to form paste. Cook for a couple of minutes until the flour starts turning golden.
- Step 4: Make the Beer Sauce: Alternate adding the milk, beer, and pasta water to the roux to make a beer Bechamel sauce.
- Step 5: Make the Cheese Sauce: When smooth and creamy stir in the shredded cheeses and chile powder.
- Step 6: Add the cooked macaroni and stir until well blended.
Tips For Success
- Cheese can carry a lot of salt. Once you’ve finished stirring the macaroni into the cheese sauce, taste before adding salt to season.
- Letting the cheese sauce bubble for a couple of minutes will temper the alcohol flavor in the beer.
- Pasta noodles will continue to soak up some liquid once they sit. Drizzle on a little milk to thin once they’ve been stored.
What To Add To Mac and Cheese
Want to make it a meal? Consider these:
- Cooked Chicken
- Cubed Ham Steak (fully cooked)
- Cooked and crumbled bacon
- Or even a Chicken Sausage, cooked and sliced.
Storage:
- This beer mac and cheese will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Sealed well, macaroni and cheese freezes well for up to three months.
- To reheat, let it thaw in refrigerator overnight. I like to reheat individual servings in the microwave at 50% power.
Equipment Needed
- This makes enough to feed an army, so you’ll need a large 6-quart Dutch oven or soup pot. I have a Le Creuset 8 Quart that I use so often.
- A pasta strainer or colander.
- If you don’t have a food processor to shred the cheese, you’ll need a box grater.
Recipe for Beer Mac and Cheese
This is a creamy beautiful bowl of macaroni and cheese unique and crisp using Mexican Beer. I hope you give this Beer Macaroni and Cheese Recipe a try.
More Mac and Cheese Recipes
Love pasta dishes as much as we do here On The Ranch? Don’t miss my Pasta Category. You’ll find lots of great recipes, including the most popular mac and cheese recipe on my site for Flemings Steakhouse Mac and Cheese. Straight from the Executive Chef, a very special recipe.
Beer Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 pound Elbow macaroni
- ¼ cup Butter
- ¼ cup Flour Plus 1 TABLESPOON
- 1 cup Modelo Especial beer
- 1 cup whole milk
- ¼ cup reserved water from the cooked pasta
- 8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese shredded
- 8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese shredded
- ½ teaspoon New Mexico Red Chile Powder
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions in a Dutch oven.
- Drain, reserving ¼ cup of the pasta water.
- In the same pan, melt the butter and cook until bubbly. Add the flour and start stirring to form paste. Let this cook for a couple of minutes until it starts to turn golden. Watch it close, don't let it burn.
- Alternate adding the milk, beer, and pasta water. Let the sauce bubble for a couple of minutes to temper the alcohol flavor.
- When smooth and creamy stir in the shredded cheeses and chile powder. Add the cooked macaroni and stir until blended. Taste and adjust flavors for saltiness.
Notes
- Cheese can carry a lot of salt. Once you’ve finished stirring the macaroni into the cheese sauce, taste before adding salt to season.
- Letting the cheese sauce bubble for a couple of minutes will temper the alcohol flavor in the beer.
- Pasta noodles will continue to soak up some liquid once they sit. Drizzle on a little milk to thin once they’ve been stored.
Nutrition
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Beer Mac and Cheese … It’s what’s for a Side Dish
Why Trust My Recipes? I am a Culinary School Graduate and believe that everyone should try to cook as often as they can. I’ve been cooking for 50 years, and my recipes are tried and true tested and tested and then tested again before published. To read more take a look at my About Page.
holly moly! that recipe is awesome! its booked mark already, i will cook this one lunch!
holly moly! that recipe is awesome! its booked mark already