Do you desire a quick and simple Mac n’ Cheese that appears to have taken all day to prepare? The dish is as follows.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 55 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 1 (16 ounce) package small pasta shells
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 1 pinch garlic salt
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 3 (11 ounce) cans condensed cream of Cheddar cheese soup
- ⅔ cup shredded Havarti cheese
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 ⅓ cups shredded Cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Place the diced onion in a large pot of lightly-salted water; bring to a boil. Cook the pasta until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes; drain. Transfer the onion and pasta to a casserole dish; season with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Stir the butter and brown sugar into the pasta mixture until the butter melts. Add the Cheddar cheese soup, Havarti cheese, Parmesan cheese and 1/3 cup of Cheddar cheese; stir well. Sprinkle remaining Cheddar cheese over top of the dish.
- Bake in preheated oven about 45 minutes. Change oven setting to ‘Broil’ and cook until top is golden brown, about 4 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 506 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 56 g |
| Cholesterol | 65 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 20 g |
| Saturated Fat | 14 g |
| Sodium | 1175 mg |
| Sugars | 8 g |
| Fat | 23 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This was awesome. No changes, followed the recipe like my mother taught me years ago. Lol I couldn’t find small shells, so used medium. Thank you for this recipe. My husband who is battling leukemia Absolutely loved it. God bless and keep posting your recipes.
Delicious!! Perfect side for my Christmas rib roast. I did make some modifications to the original recipe, and used it more so for inspiration just because I refuse to use velveeta in Mac n cheese… I wanted a richer flavor. I wanted an all white Mac n cheese so I bought a block of havarti, & a block of white cheddar and shredded them myself. I omitted the velveeta and the cream soup and just mixed a block of softened cream cheese with 1/2 & 1/2 until I got a similar consistency of the cream soup. I cut the brown sugar in 1/2 (I was nervous to add it but it was PERFECT for offsetting the richness of the cheese). Added some breadcrumbs on top before baking and it was absolutely amazing!!! This recipe was a great inspiration!
This is by far the best Mac n cheese recipe!!! I followed the directions, didn’t change anything. It’s a crowd pleaser to be sure.
I have made this dish about 50 times. Each time I make it, our guests (especially kids) go crazy for it. I cut back on the brown sugar a little bit. Great “make ahead” for kids lunches at school.
I’ve made this multiple times for parties. I still use the brown sugar, but I cut it in half.. To counter the sweetness of the brown sugar, I add bacon. That sweet/salty combo adds a lot to the dish, I think!! I found that the pre-cooked bacon is best, it’s less greasy and heats up nicely in the oven.
Had this at a party a few years ago and love love loved it! Its always a big hit when I make it. Now we make a meal of it by adding ham to it and some bread crumbs on top. OMG! SOOOO GOOD!!
This DELICIOUS! My mom and I recreated this without sugar, plus we added some bacon. Overall, I give it a five stars. My whole family loved it and we definitely plan on having this meal again.
Didn’t care for this recipe at all, not to mention the fact it was expensive to make with all the cheese in it. Wouldn’t use it again.
This was probably one of the best mac n cheese base recipes my family has ever tried. Yes, I made a couple of changes but that was to personal likes (no onion, no brown sugar, added chicken bites that had been sauteed in olive oil and crushed garlic). As a whole – it was creamy, filling, and tasted wonderful! Thank you for sharing!
It was way too sweet. If you plan on making this, leave the brown sugar out or greatly reduce it. No one in the family liked it.
I’ve made this for a number of BBQ events. To say it’s a favorite among my colleagues would be an understatement. I showed up with a fresh batch at the 4th of July BBQ and word spread through the party like wildfire. The entire pan was empty in under 10 min. Now I’m “not allowed to come to BBQs without bringing this.” I’m buying a bigger pan so I can make double batches. Muenster can be used in place of Havarti.
Yum.
I have definitely had better mac n cheese. This tasted ok but the color seemed off. Very dull…I’ve seen mac n cheese that was a nice yelow color. Easy to make though.
I did not care for the brown sugar in this dish. I’d never serve this at any kind of party or event.
I made this recipe last weekend and was not impressed with it at all. I believe its the canned goods that completely ruin the mac and cheese experience and they taste extremely processed. My gf and I ate it because I made it but I will not be making this recipe again.
This is very good. I had a bunch of cheese I needed to get rid of from a party and put it in this dish. I didn’t have the cheese called for, but a mix of pepper jack, colby and swiss and it was awesome. Whenever I have cheese that’s gonna go south if I don’t do something with it, I will make this. I left out the sugar and did not miss it. The base of cheese soup is much easier than making a roux. I had two cans of cheddar soup and one can of nacho soup and that was great. Everyone loved it.
I love this recipe! I leave out the brown sugar like several other posters, add a little extra cheddar cheese, and my family devours it! It is certainly not the most healthy recipe, so I only cook it once or twice a year, but we love it every time!
The brown sugar ruins this recipe.
On the advice of a few other reviews, I omitted the brown sugar as well (I’m more of a savoury fan than sweet). I used white old cheddar to put into the mix and reserved a cup of orange old cheddar for the top (a cup because 1/3 isn’t enough to coat it). I also mixed the cheese that was to go on top with bread crumbs and fried french onions (half of a can). I added dabs of butter on top to make it golden. Then I added more french fried onions at the end before serving. I used Campbell’s condensed cream of Cheddar Cheese soup. It’s a touch on the salty side and there’s MSG in it so there’s no need to season with more salt. This was a big hit at home though. My husband said it was the best mac n’ cheese he’s ever had!
Oh my Gosh, so good (and sooo easy!) My family loves this recipe, wouldn’t change a thing!
I made this for a cookout and it came out great. I did use less brown sugar and instead of Havarti I used a sharp cheddar cheese. Yum! Everyone raved about how creamy it stayed after being reheated later in the night and wanted the recipe. Will definitely make again!