In this video, Chef John puts his signature twist on two classics with his Green Bean Mac and Cheese! This creamy, cheesy dish combines tender green beans and perfectly cooked macaroni for a comforting, crowd-pleasing side. Perfect for holidays or weeknight dinners, this recipe adds a fresh and flavorful spin to traditional mac and cheese.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Green Bean Mac and Cheese.
00:08That's right, we are mashing up a green bean casserole with our classic All-American Mac
00:13and Cheese recipe.
00:15And the results were, very predictably, absolutely delicious.
00:19And yes, this is exactly how you get your kids to like green beans, no matter how old
00:24they are.
00:25And to get started, we're generously going to salt some water, which will bring to a
00:29boil over high heat.
00:31And because we're smart and efficient, we will be using this water to blanch our green
00:35beans and cook our pasta in.
00:37So what we'll do once our water is boiling, is transfer in one pound of trimmed green
00:42beans, which is actually how mine came.
00:44And it seems like the trimmed option is fairly readily available at many markets.
00:50But if not, just go ahead and simply trim off the ends.
00:53But either way, what we'll want to do is blanch these for about four minutes.
00:57Since we're trying to end up with something halfway between raw and fully cooked and soft.
01:02And obviously, this will depend on how thick your beans are, and you may have to adjust
01:06the time if your beans have a different girth.
01:09But for this size, four minutes was perfect.
01:12And obviously, you can grab one and check, before we fish them out into a bowl, at which
01:16point we'll simply let these sit until they're cool enough to handle.
01:20And I didn't have to, but if you think you overcooked them a little bit, you can always
01:23run them under cold water to stop the cooking.
01:26But either way, like I said, once those are cool enough to handle, we'll go ahead and
01:30slice them up, which I'm going to do in about one inch pieces.
01:33Alright, if you're going for a Michelin star, have your prep cook line these up and do just
01:37a few at a time.
01:39And cut them the exact same length as your cooked pasta.
01:42But for us common folk, this is fine.
01:45And once our beans are set, we'll go back to our still boiling water, and we will dump
01:49in one pound of elbow macaroni.
01:51And I swear I do this every time.
01:54I grab the spider I used to remove the beans, to stir the pasta, which is the exact same
01:58size as the wires on this strainer, which means a few pieces always get stuck.
02:03And then I have to do this, which is no big deal, but it is slightly annoying.
02:09And one of these days, I'm just going to start with a wooden spoon, which is what I use to
02:12stir this for the rest of the process.
02:15And what we'll do is cook this one minute less than the package directions, before we
02:19pull it off and let it drain very well.
02:22And besides the beans and our macaroni, the only other thing we need to prep is our cheesy
02:26béchamel sauce, which if you can, I'd try to make while your pasta is cooking.
02:32Which we'll start by stirring some flour into some butter that we melted over medium heat.
02:37And once we have all that whisked together nice and smooth, we'll let it cook for about
02:40two minutes, just to take that raw pasty edge off the flour.
02:44And one way to tell your flour's cooked long enough, is that it actually starts to smell
02:48like cooked pie crust.
02:50So while we don't want it to brown too much, we definitely want to let that flour toast
02:53a little bit.
02:55And once that happens, we will dump in our milk all at once, which is very cold, since
03:00as we all probably know, hot roux, cold milk, no lumps.
03:04So just dump it in and give it a whisk.
03:07And then all we need to do here is cook this, stirring occasionally, until it comes up to
03:11a simmer, at which point it's going to thicken beautifully.
03:15And while we're waiting, in between stirs, we can go ahead and season this up, which
03:19we'll do with some salt, plus more than a few shakes of cayenne.
03:23We'll also do a little bit of dried thyme, as well as some white pepper, which could
03:28be freshly ground black pepper.
03:30And then I think a little touch of nutmeg's always nice in this, which as usual I will
03:34freshly grate, since it's so much better.
03:38And after a few seconds of nutmeg, we can add a little touch of Dijon, and then we'll
03:42finish up with a small splash of Worcestershire sauce.
03:46And we will stir that together, and like I said, wait for this to thicken, which like
03:50all flour-based sauces, will happen as soon as this simmers.
03:54And by the way, you can just leave everything on medium.
03:57But if you do want things to happen quicker, you can increase your heat to medium-high.
04:01Just make sure you're stirring very often.
04:04And once our béchamel does start to simmer and thicken up, we will turn off the heat,
04:08and we will transfer in one pound of freshly grated cheddar cheese.
04:13And I'm using a little bit of white and orange, but both I think should be extra sharp, or
04:17at least that's my preference.
04:20And I know that does look like too much, but I don't think it is, and there should be plenty
04:24of residual heat in that sauce to melt all that cheese nicely.
04:28So just keep stirring with your whisk until it all melts in, at which point we can give
04:33it a taste, and adjust with more salt or pepper if we want.
04:37And then once we're happy with it, we can move into final assembly, which means we'll
04:42add our green beans to our cooked pasta, and then pour over and stir in our freshly
04:47made cheese sauce.
04:49And the funny thing that happens to people when they make a baked mac and cheese, is
04:53at this point they always think they have way too much sauce.
04:56And then they bake it, and they think, huh, I could have used some more sauce.
05:00So I know it looks like a lot at this point, but don't worry, it's all going to get baked in.
05:05And once we do have that evenly mixed, we'll transfer it into a casserole dish.
05:09And if you're using a 9 by 12 inch like I am, it's going to come pretty much all the
05:13way to the top.
05:15So once we have that in there, and evenly distributed, I think we should transfer it
05:18onto a sheet pan, since we might, and probably will, get some drippage.
05:23So that's what I did, before moving on to the final, and maybe most important step,
05:28and that would be covering the top with some french fried onions, that mysteriously appear
05:32at this store every holiday season.
05:35And while I usually use breadcrumbs, or sometimes crushed up potato chips for my mac and cheese,
05:40I figured since fried onions are so perfect on green bean casserole, they will probably
05:44be perfect here, and they were.
05:47But anyway, you decide.
05:49I mean, you are after all the jack of your crispy topping plan of attack.
05:54And that's it, our green bean mac and cheese is now ready to transfer into the center of
05:58a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until everything's nice and hot, and the top
06:04is browned, and it hopefully looks like this.
06:07Oh yeah, now that is beautiful, and I would love to dig right in, but we really should
06:12let this sit and set up for about 5-10 minutes before we serve, which I absolutely did not
06:17do.
06:18Ok, it only lasted about 2 minutes, before I grabbed a spoon, and went in for a bite.
06:23And that my friends, was everything I was hoping it would be, and more.
06:27Right, even without the beans this is going to be great, but they really did add an extra
06:32very delicious element, thanks to their very pleasant texture, and beautiful appearance,
06:37and most importantly, that little bit of subtle bitterness they have.
06:41Since like I've been saying for many, many years, a little touch of bitter makes everything
06:45a little bit better, since it basically amplifies the other flavors, and just makes everything
06:50a little more tasty.
06:51And while this would have been fantastic with any kind of crunchy topping, those little
06:55brown bits of french fried onions were absolutely perfect.
06:59And after eating straight out of the dish like a savage, I went ahead and plated some
07:03up so I could make sure a fork would work as well.
07:06But no matter what you eat this with, or whether you serve it as a side, or a main course,
07:11it combines two of the most popular, and most delicious casseroles of all time.
07:15Which is why I really do hope you give this a try soon.
07:19So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
07:23more info as usual.
07:26And as always, enjoy!