Hatch Chile Mac and Cheese

Our Hatch Chile Mac and Cheese recipe is creamy Mac and Cheese with roasted green chiles, tomatoes and Southwestern spices. Pure comfort food!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 20

Servings

Calories 613kcal

Author Lea Ann Brown

Ingredients

1 pound Elbow macaroni cooked and drained, reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 Tablespoon Butter
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
5 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon Chamayo Chili Powder or cayenne
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
6 cups Shredded Colby Jack Cheese
12 Hatch chiles Roasted, skins removed and chopped. About 1 Cup
2-3 medium tomatoes Chopped. About 1 Cup.
1/2 cup Half & half

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Melt the one tablespoon of butter in a small fry pan. Add Panko bread crumbs and cook until toasted. Stirring often. About 5 minutes. Add some chopped cilantro if you'd like for extra flavor. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a 7 quart oven safe Dutch oven, cook macaroni according to package directions for al dente . Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta water.
In the same Dutch oven, heat the stick of butter over medium heat until melted, then stir in the flour. Stir until the mixture is blended and smooth, about 1-2 minutes.
Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the milk. Add the dry mustard, white pepper, Chamayo chile powder, and salt. Return to heat and stir until mixture begins to simmer. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until starting to thicken.
Stir in the cheese until blended and smooth. Stir in the chopped chile peppers , tomatoes and the cooked elbow macaroni and stir until macaroni is well coated. Drizzle half and half and reserved pasta water around the edges of the casserole, no need to stir.
Cover the Hatch chile mac and cheese and bake 20 minutes. Remove the lid, add the toasted Panko bread crumbs and bake uncovered an additional 10 minutes.

Notes

Tips For Success

Be sure to cook the macaroni according to package instructions for al dente. The macaroni will continue to cook during the baking process. Over cooking during boiling may compromise the texture of the macaroni to turn out mushy.

Why save pasta water? It's pure gold. Adding the starchy water before baking will improve the texture of the macaroni.

There's a lot of cheese in the recipe, use a food processor cheese grater attachment to make quick work of the task.

Set the milk and half and half out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before starting this recipe. Room temperature ingredients will simply lessen the time it takes for the sauce to thicken.

Disclaimer: I am not a dietician nor a nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared in this recipe is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, I recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator as calories can vary depending on which brands were used.

Nutrition