Chili mac and cheese
- Preparation 20 min
- Cooking 35 min
- Servings 6 to 8
- Freezing Absolutely
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🍲 A supper born out of leftover chili
This one started on a weeknight when I had a pot of chili sitting in the fridge and no plan for it. My kids will eat anything with melted cheese on top of macaroni, so I stopped overthinking it and folded the two together. It worked on the first try. Now I make it on purpose, with the chili built right in the pot, instead of waiting for leftovers to force my hand. Some recipes take years to land. This one showed up on its own because the fridge made the decision for me.
🍝 The macaroni cooks right in the chili
No second pot of boiling water, no colander, no pasta sitting there going cold while the sauce finishes. The dry elbows go straight into the chili with the broth and they cook in it. That is the whole trick. All the starch that would have gone down the drain stays in the pot and thickens the sauce while the pasta swells. Every noodle picks up the cumin and the smoked paprika from the inside out, not just off the top. The cost is small: you stir and scrape the bottom every two or three minutes.
🧀 Gouda in the sauce, cheddar on top
The gouda goes in first, off the heat, and melts into the sauce. The cheddar gets buried over the top and the whole pot goes under the broiler for two or three minutes. I use two cheeses because I think they go well together and it tastes good. On timing, there are two honest answers. Written the way it is below, this builds the chili from scratch and runs about an hour. If you already have chili in the fridge, skip the first three steps and you are eating a lot sooner than that.
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🌽 Brown the frozen corn in olive oil first
The corn is not filler here, it earns its spot. If you have two minutes to spare, take it straight from the freezer and let it sizzle on its own in a good drizzle of olive oil over high heat until the kernels pick up dark spots. The sugars caramelize and that toasted note carries through the whole pot. Then it goes in with the beans exactly as written. Nobody eating it will point at the corn and say anything. They notice when it is missing, though.
🍝 Kill the heat too early, never too late
Overcooked pasta is the one thing that ruins this. Because the elbows cook in the sauce, they keep drinking liquid after the burner is off, through the five minute rest, under the broiler, and through the rest after that. Cut the heat while they still have real bite. If the pot looks a touch loose at that moment, good. That is exactly the liquid the pasta is going to absorb over the next ten minutes, and it is what keeps the finished dish saucy instead of pasty.
🧂 Season in layers and taste before the gouda
Salt matters a lot here, but not the way it does with boiled pasta. None of this liquid gets poured down the drain, so you cannot salt it like pasta water and walk away. Season the onions, season the beef, season the broth before the macaroni goes in, then taste right before you stir in the gouda. That is your last honest read. Once the gouda and the cheddar are in, they bring their own salt and you lose the ability to judge it.
🥄 Scrape the bottom every two or three minutes
Pasta starch plus tomato sugars over a low flame is a recipe for a scorched bottom. Use your biggest pot, six quarts at a minimum, because the macaroni more than doubles in volume. Keep the heat low, keep the lid on between stirs, and when you do stir, drag the spoon flat across the bottom and into the corners. It takes fifteen seconds and it is the difference between dinner and a burnt pot.
🫙 Freeze it after the broiler, not before
I freeze this one at the very end, once everything is cooked and browned. Cut it into portions and freeze them. Three months is no problem. To reheat, add a real splash of beef broth or even plain water before it goes into the oven or microwave. The pasta has been quietly absorbing sauce the entire time it sat in the freezer, and it needs some of that liquid handed back.
🌱 The meatless version, with lentils
Swap the ground beef for a can of lentils, rinsed and drained like the beans. You skip the step where you drain the fat, obviously, and you add the lentils along with the bell pepper and the spices so they have time to take on the cumin and smoked paprika before any liquid hits the pot. Switch to vegetable broth while you are at it. Everything else stays put, timings included. Between the two cheeses and the spice, nobody goes looking for the beef.
✅ What to serve with chili mac and cheese?
It is a full meal in one pot, so I do not build a menu around it. A sharp green salad on the side and you are done. What really pays off is putting toppings on the table and letting everyone finish their own bowl: sour cream, pickled jalapeños, cilantro, and a spoonful of traditional Mexican salsa over top for something fresh and cold against all that melted cheese. Feeding a crowd? Start with kickass nachos with homemade chili. And if the chili itself is what you came for, my classic beef chili is where this whole thing started.
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Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- Olive oil
- 1 1/3 lb (600 g) medium ground beef
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 tsp (5 ml) chili powder
- 1 tsp (5 ml) sweet smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) Italian seasoning
- 1 cup (250 ml) frozen corn
- 1 cup (250 ml) black beans, rinsed and well drained
- 1 cup (250 ml) red kidney beans, rinsed and well drained
- 1 can (28 oz / 796 ml) diced tomatoes with Italian herbs
- 6 cups (1.5 L) beef broth
- 1 lb (500 g) dry elbow macaroni
- 2 cups (500 ml) shredded gouda
- 1 cup (250 ml), or 2, shredded cheddar
- 1 small handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
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Preparation
- In a large oven-safe pot over medium heat, add the onion and garlic followed by a good drizzle of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and stir. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes to soften.
- Add the ground beef and cook for 7 to 8 minutes, or until the meat is no longer pink. Break it into small pieces. Drain off the fat.
- Add the bell pepper, chili powder, paprika, cumin and Italian seasoning, then stir. Cook for 1 minute, stirring.
- Add the corn, beans, tomatoes and beef broth. Season with salt and pepper, stir and bring to a boil.
- Add the dry macaroni and push it down so it sits under the liquid. Lower the heat, cover and cook for 14 to 16 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot every 2 to 3 minutes.
- Uncover and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and the pasta is just al dente. Pull it off the heat while the noodles still have a little bite.
- Add the gouda and the fresh parsley and stir. Let it stand for 5 minutes.
- Set the oven to broil.
- Bury the top with the cheddar and slide the pot into the oven. Broil for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the cheese is deep golden on top. Let it rest 5 minutes before serving.
Ground beef, onion, garlic, bell pepper, black and red kidney beans, corn, canned tomatoes, and the spice trio that makes it chili: chili powder, cumin and smoked paprika. Then elbow macaroni cooked right in all of that, plus cheese. Mine uses two, gouda melted into the sauce and cheddar broiled on top. You will also see it written chilli mac in Canada and the UK, and it is the same dish. Anything beyond that list is a house preference, not a rule.
They are cousins, not twins. American goulash is ground beef, onion, tomato and elbow macaroni cooked together in one pot, seasoned mostly with Italian herbs, and it usually has no beans and no melted cheese folded through. Chili mac takes that same one pot shape and swings it toward chili: chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, beans, and a serious amount of cheese. Neither has much to do with Hungarian goulash, which is a paprika beef stew with no pasta in it at all.
Yes, and that is literally how this recipe came to be. I had a pot of chili and no plan for it. If you have roughly six cups of chili already made, skip the first three steps entirely. Put the chili in a large oven-safe pot, add the corn and the beef broth, bring it to a boil, then pick up at the step where the macaroni goes in. From there you are about twenty minutes out. Building the chili from scratch instead puts you closer to an hour.
Replace the ground beef with a can of lentils, rinsed and well drained. Add them with the bell pepper and the spices rather than at the start, so they soak up the cumin and smoked paprika before the liquid goes in, and switch the beef broth for vegetable broth. Nothing else changes, times included. The black beans and kidney beans are already doing structural work in there, so the finished pot still eats like a real supper and not like a side dish.
A crisp green salad with a sharp vinaigrette is honestly all it needs, since everything else is already in the pot. The better move is a toppings spread: sour cream, pickled jalapeños, chopped cilantro, and traditional Mexican salsa so each bowl gets something cold and acidic against the cheese. For a crowd, put out kickass nachos with homemade chili first. Staying in baked pasta territory, my cheesy beef and macaroni casserole is the closest neighbour on the site.
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