Spicy creamy Mexican chorizo mac and cheese
You NEED this one-pot comfort food mashup in your life.
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Macaroni and cheese is one of the most ubiquitous foods in America. It’s simple, rich, and delicious. Like millions of other kids across the country, I grew up eating the boxed mac and cheese on a very regular basis. I’ve mentioned before that I was a picky eater as a kid, and mac and cheese was one of the few things I actually liked. I would bet that I’m not alone in that regard. I think the simplicity is important. One of the picky eater’s greatest fears is that somewhere, somehow, there might be a vegetable lurking in the food you’re about to eat, and mac and cheese offers nowhere to hide. It’s pasta and cheese (or cheese-like substance).
But I’ve always thought it a bit odd that considering its ever-present nature in the American culinary landscape, there’s been relatively little experimentation on mac and cheese that’s taken hold in a meaningful way. There’s the beloved mac and cheese with cut up hot dogs of your childhood. There’s baked mac and cheese with breadcrumbs. And if you want to get truly fancy, lobster mac and cheese. Lots of restaurants offer their spins on it, but that’s about it in terms of widespread differentiation on the dish. This list is obviously not exhaustive, but you get the point.
I remember around the time I first made this dish, I had been eating a lot of skillet pastas. Like mac and cheese, they’re pretty straight forward, pack a ton of flavor into one pot, and don’t make a ton of dirty dishes. This is probably how I had the idea of “Hey, why not do this, but also load it up with like, a pound of cheese?”
When considering the options for how to alter mac and cheese to make it more of a skillet pasta, I immediately went to Mexican food. It may be my favorite type of cuisine, and I thought the bright, spicy, smoky flavors of Mexican dishes would pair well with the rich creamy base of a mac and cheese.
Taken by this bolt of creativity, I got out my notepad and wrote down the recipe that suddenly appeared in my head. I had never written an original recipe before, so I had no idea whether it was good or not, but I had read enough recipes to know that I was on the right track.
The first bite let me know that I was indeed correct. Between the chorizo, the chiles, and the diced tomatoes, there are enough things in the pot to create a higher level of complexity, but the dish doesn’t lose the warmth and comfort of a good mac and cheese. The heat and acidity balanced perfectly against the cheese, and the fat from the chorizo emulsified with the chicken stock to create a rich base for the sauce. The flavor is deep and smoky without being overpowering, so if you’re sensitive to spice there’s no reason to be cautious.
So here it is, the first recipe I ever wrote myself. If you make it, I would love to hear from you and get your feedback. Enjoy!
Mexican chorizo mac and cheese
Serves: 4-6
Cook time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb chorizo, removed from casing
1 medium onion, diced
1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 4 oz can diced green chiles
4 cups chicken stock
1 lb chunk or tube pasta
1 lb shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
Chopped cilantro, for garnish
Instructions
Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add chorizo, breaking up and browning for about 4 minutes. Add onion, jalapeño, and garlic, cooking until vegetables soften, about 7-8 minutes.
Add cumin, oregano, and chili powder, salt, and pepper, blooming spices in the pan for about 30 seconds, until very fragrant. Remove from heat and set contents aside on a plate, leaving an empty pot. Do not wipe out.
Add chicken stock, tomatoes, and green chiles and return to high heat. Bring to a boil and add pasta, cooking until pasta is al dente and liquid has cooked down, about 10-12 minutes. Add liquid if necessary to ensure pasta cooks properly. There will not be much extra liquid so be sure to watch it carefully and stir often. It should look like this when it’s ready:
Return chorizo mixture to pot and turn heat down to low.
Add sour cream and shredded cheese. Stir until melted together to form a thick sauce. Serve immediately topped with cilantro.
Notes
The chorizo I would normally use for this recipe was unavailable, so I opted for a pre-cooked sausage and cut it into coins, and cooked it using the same directions. It worked well, but I found the raw chorizo cooked in crumbles to be preferable.
Keep an extra cup of stock or water on hand to make sure the pasta cooks correctly. Sometimes I’ve had to add almost the whole cup and other times I never needed to add any liquid, so make sure to just keep an eye on it and keep stirring to keep the pasta from sticking.
If you don’t happen to like cilantro, I would strongly advise topping this with scallions. This dish is quite rich, and a fresh herb really helps round it out.