Who doesn’t love homemade macaroni and cheese? We discovered this recipe when we were searching for a use for the hot sauce we love, but I accidentally purchased too much of the wrong flavor. My husband loves the extra hot Crystals, and I bought the regular. Delicious, but we didn’t need 2-3 bottles of it, which is what I had bought!
The irony of this recipe being on the Crystal’s website is that we didn’t think they put enough Crystal’s hot sauce in it, so we more than doubled it. Yep, more than doubled! We also added more pepper, added sausage, and changed up the flavor of the cheeses that we use. We also took out the salt, but add it back in if you like cooking with salt. We are on a low-sodium diet so we tend to cook without it as much as possible.
What we came up with could be a side or an easy entrée due to the sausage adding meat. You can, of course, add more Crystal’s hot sauce and/or black pepper to your individual servings. I personally would not identify this as a “spicy” dish … just not plain!
Ingredients
- 1 pound of elbow macaroni
- 1 pound of sliced smoked sausage (we use kielbasa).
- 2 cups of milk (we use 2%)
- 2 large eggs
- 4 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (divided)
- 1 stick unsalted butter (melted)
- 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- 1.5 tablespoons of Crystal’s Hot Sauce
- 2 tsp of black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Bring the water to a boil and cook the macaroni according to the bag’s instructions until it’s not quite al dente. Drain and set aside.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the milk and eggs.
- Add in the cooked macaroni and the sliced sausage.
- Add in 2 cups of the sharp cheddar, butter, the pepper, and Crystal’s Hot Sauce. Stir well until everything is combined.
- Spread about half of the macaroni mixture into a 9×13-inch baking dish (in a pinch, we’ve separated this recipe into two 8×8″ casserole dishes).
- Sprinkle 1.5 cups of the Jack cheese on top of that layer.
- Layer the remaining macaroni mixture on top of the cheese.
- Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and carefully remove the foil.
- Top the macaroni mixture with the remaining 2 cups of sharp cheddar and half a cup of Jack cheese.
- Broil on the top rack for about 3 to 5 minutes. Watch it closely and remove the dish when the cheese starts to lightly brown in spots.
- Let the macaroni and cheese cool until it becomes fully set, which should take about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Serve warm with additional pepper and Crystal’s Hot Sauce on individual servings according to personal preference.
