I used the mild chiles from Select New Mexico. They are cut in bigger chunks than most diced green chiles but are very mild – you get that chile flavor with just a hint of heat. These are carried at many Walmarts – you can see which carry them at denvergreenchili.com/walmarts.
Bacon Chile Mac
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
This is a hearty, flavorful mac and cheese dish with plenty of bacon in it. It's a good dish for people who don't like a lot of heat as it uses mild chiles. In the picture, I've baked this dish in individual baking dishes that each hold 6 ounces. It makes a cute personal side dish. These can also be frozen before baking. To cook, just pull them out of the freezer a few hours ahead of time and bake as directed.
Author: Anita Edge
Recipe type: Casserole
Serves: 8
Ingredients
- ½ lb macaroni
- 12 strips bacon
- 3 tablespoons bacon fat (from cooking the bacon)
- 4 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon dry mustard
- 3 cups milk
- ½ cup diced onion
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ teaspoon Paprika
- 1 large egg
- 12 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1½ cup diced mild green chiles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook the macaroni to al dente in a large pot of boiling, salted water.
- Meanwhile, fry 12 pieces of bacon in a skillet until starting to crisp; then put bacon on a separate plate to cool, then crumble into small pieces.
- Take 3 tbsp of the bacon fat and put in a separate pot on low heat. (You might want to use butter or part butter, part bacon fat.) Whisk in the flour and mustard, stirring nonstop for 5 minutes to prevent lumps. Gradually stir in milk, salt, pepper, onion, bay leaf, paprika, green chile, and crumbled bacon. Simmer and stir for 10 minutes to thicken, then remove bay leaf. Note: even with mild chiles, heat varies - you might want to put in just a cup of chiles and then taste for heat before adding the last half cup.
- Temper in the egg by adding some of the hot milk mixture while vigorously blending with a fork, then gradually adding to the milk mixture in the pot while stirring.
- Blend in ¾ of the cheese and stir til melted.
- Fold in the macaroni and pour into a 9″ x 13″ baking dish. Top with remaining cheese.
This sounds absolutely wonderful, however the ingredient list does not call for “sun dried tomatoes”, but in the recipe it says to add them. ??? Also do you not put any of the bacon that you fried in the mixture too? Or are you frying the bacon just for the grease itself?
Thanks!
Oops – that was supposed to be crumbled bacon. I fixed it, so now you add crumbled bacon.
BTW, it would be good if you add sun dried tomatoes also 🙂