The Easiest Ways To Upgrade Boxed Mac And Cheese

Name a more comforting meal that can be made in a couple of minutes than boxed mac and cheese. Okay, wait, stop! Stop naming them! I appreciate your answer to that provocation will be purely subjective, but for me, boxed mac and cheese is the one. It’s quick. It’s easy. It’s delicious. And it can also be…so boring. 

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Sorry to say it! While there’s undeniable pleasure in only working with the ingredients in, and instruction on, the box, this can produce something quite plain – especially if the boxed mac and cheese you’re working with isn’t your fave. Well, it needn’t be this way! There are so many ways to make boxed mac and cheese more of a thing, an event, a joy, and you don’t have to put on a chef’s hat to make it happen. The easiest upgrades in three, two, one…let’s go. 

Swap Your Milk

Probably the best bang-for-your-buck upgrade you can make to boxed mac and cheese, swapping your regular milk for something a bit more flavorful can make a world of difference. Instead, use light or heavy cream, a good sour cream, half-and-half, cream cheese, or your favorite milk alternative. 

Naturally, you might not want to sub all of your milk out here; instead, I’d recommend cutting it with one of these ingredients. You’ll still need looseness, and you don’t want your mac and cheese to be too heavy, but adding one or more of these in can give it more heft and a better mouthfeel. 

Cheese It Up

You probably don’t need to be told this, but I’ll say it anyway: The only thing better than cheese is more cheese. And boxed mac and cheese is begging for you to use something that isn’t just what comes in the packet, or what’s recommended on the box. 

So, go big on your cheese. Opt for Gruyére or Emmental for nuttiness. Add parm for umami. Hey, throw in goat cheese if you want! It’s your meal, and your mac. 

Brown Your Butter

I know I said you wouldn’t need a chef’s hat up top for these upgrades, but for this one, a chef’s mindset might help. While you’re boiling your macaroni, heat up a pan, and put a big knob of your favorite butter in. Then, allow it to slowly sizzle and deepen in color, until it’s a caramel brown.

When your boxed mac recipe then asks you to add butter or margarine, add in the browned butter instead. Doing this will give your mac and cheese a deeper, toastier, fuller flavor. It’s low-effort, high-reward.

Broil Your Mac

The problem with boxed mac and cheese is it has two textures going for it: The squidge of the macaroni and the smoothness of the cheese sauce. Both of them are fine. Both of them are good, even. But I want crisp. I want crunch. I want more!

So, after you’ve finished cooking your mac and cheese, put it into a heatproof bowl, add some breadcrumbs (and some more cheese if you’re nasty), and broil it. It’ll take a few minutes, and you’ll have something that feels like it came out of the oven. 

Make A Meal Of It

And, of course, if you really want to bulk it up, you know what to do: It’s add-in time, baby. Stir through some cooked bacon, rotisserie chicken, cooked peas, chopped spring onions, your favorite herbs, some ground sausage, some ground beef…honestly, whatever you fancy.

When you do this, though, I’d just gently recommend that you don’t wanna take it too far from the original recipe. The whole point of turning it into a meal is that you add complementary flavors and textures, and make it more satisfying, without turning it into something completely different. Be moderate. Unless you don’t want to, obviously.