With this mac and cheese, you can enjoy the hearty flavor of French onion soup in a cozy new container. This is a wonderful recipe to serve as a side dish alongside grilled steak or as part of a formal entertaining meal.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 35 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 50 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon dry sherry
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt, divided
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
- 1 (12 ounce) package elbow macaroni
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ cups whole milk
- 2 cups shredded white Cheddar cheese, divided
- 2 cups shredded Swiss cheese, divided
- ¼ French baguette, cut into 1/2-inch slices
Instructions
- Heat 2 tablespoons butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 40 minutes.
- Add thyme, Worcestershire, and sherry and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 3 minutes. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Remove onions from the pan and set aside. Reserve skillet.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 2 teaspoons salt. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 6 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Butter a 9×13-inch or 3-quart baking dish.
- Place the reserved skillet over medium heat and add remaining butter. When butter has melted, whisk in flour and cook, stirring often, 2 minutes. Whisk in milk and bring mixture to a simmer, stirring often. Sprinkle with remaining salt and pepper and cook 5 minutes, stirring often. Stir in 1 1/2 cups Cheddar and 1 cup Swiss cheese and remove from heat.
- Stir in reserved onions and pasta and pour mixture into the buttered baking dish. Tear bread slices in half and place over the top of the pasta mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses.
- Bake in the preheated oven until golden and bubbly, about 25 minutes.
- You can use red wine vinegar instead of sherry.
- The dish can be prepared up to 2 days ahead of time up to the point of baking. To cook, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake until golden and bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes more.
Reviews
Delicious but Dry. After serving part of it, I added another half cup of milk and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Then I mixed in what hadn’t absorbed and microwaved it, and it was much creamier. It even improved the flavor, making it more like French onion soup. If I make it again, I’d use an extra 1/2 cup of milk at least. Perhaps even cream
This was amazing! Grandson doesn’t like onions. He had 3 helpings. Two of my favorite meals combined. Making it again this week to freeze for lunches.
This was delicious. A great way to enjoy Mac n cheese with a different flavor. (But not too different where traditional Mac n cheese lovers wouldn’t like it.) My kid tore it up. I had a leftover plain chicken breast which I chopped up and threw in for some more protein. I had small baguette slices, but although the pieces were small, I would cut them up to a more bite sized piece next time, so you don’t have to eat your Mac n cheese with a knife to cut these bread pieces. Just a note: I originally found this as a video through YouTube. In the video she deglazes the pan with about 1/4 cup of beef broth, which seems to have been forgotten in the written format here. That definitely will take away from the “French onion soup” flavor if you don’t add it!
My husband loved it! There’s a lot of prep work to do with shredding the cheese and chopping onions (maybe I’m just slow lol) so it did take me a long time to make but I would say it’s well worth it. I did use the red wine vinaigrette instead of sherry, and instead of swiss I used gruyere. I used both panko breadcrumbs and baguettes on top to make the crust. The panko didn’t crisp as nicely bc of the baguette on top though but I don’t think it make that big of a deal. Overall I’m sure my husband is going to ask me to make it again 🙂
Nicole! This is awesome!!! If I owned a restaurant, I would make sure this made an appearance on my menu! It is a bit of a labor of love (as is all, really good FOS recipes) but wow!!! As Mac & Cheese?! Delicious! Decadent!! Made zero changes except cubed the French bread instead of sliced. Also, for the white cheese, needed to use Kraft “Cheddar Mix” which included white, sharp and Colby cheeses. The rest I made as written. I cannot wait to make again! Thanks for sharing this unique yet wonderful and hearty recipe!!!