Cheesy chili mac from The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science (page 725) by J. Kenji López-Alt

Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

  • w_1j6tpr on December 31, 2025

    This was so good but it made a huge portion. I halved the recipe based on the other review here and it is still a lot of food. The recipe says serves 4-6 but it I would say we will get 6 or more servings out of the halved recipe. The mac and cheese seemed really cheesy, almost too cheesy if that’s even a thing. But when it was mixed with the chili, it all worked out. I did not use beans in mine. Overall it was delicious and I would make this again.

  • clcorbi on July 31, 2017

    So, this recipe is awesome. Both the components--the chili and the mac n cheese--are delicious separately, so it's not surprising that they're still delicious when mixed together. The only change I made was to reduce the amount of cheddar in the mac n cheese to 1lb, rather than 1 1/4lb, and I also omitted the extra Parmesan on top. Here's the thing about this recipe, though. IT MAKES A HUGE AMOUNT OF FOOD. I guess I should have realized this from the ingredients list--1lb beef, 1lb pasta, 1lb cheddar, 1/2lb American cheese--but since the head note said 4-6 servings, I just didn't think about it. Once I started cooking I realized how much food I actually had on my hands. I would say you could feed 10-12 on this recipe. Maybe more, with sides. I filled a huge casserole dish and still had too much chili mac, so I filled a second medium dish wish the rest, and stuck it in the freezer. I hope it defrosts well. This is certainly delicious but you will get a LOT of food from it.

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