Gluten Free Mac & Cheese
Adapted by Kyle Libramonte
Prep Time: 10 Minutes • Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Serves 6
Ingredients:
- 16 oz gluten-free elbow macaroni (sub regular elbow macaroni — the original calls for it, and either works the same way here)
- 2 cups chicken broth (check the label if you're keeping it strictly gluten-free — sub vegetable broth)
- 3 cups whole milk, divided, plus a splash more for adjusting at the end (2% works; nothing leaner than that)
- 12 oz sharp cheddar, shredded off the block
- 3 oz cream cheese
- ½ stick (4 tbsp) butter, optional — for a richer, more buttery sauce
- ¾ tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp mustard powder
- A dash of ground cayenne, to taste
Instructions:
- Shred the Cheese: Grate the sharp cheddar yourself off a block — it's the one bit of prep this recipe asks of you and it's worth doing. Bagged shredded cheese is dusted with anti-caking starch, and that's what turns a cheese sauce grainy instead of glossy. Cut the cream cheese into a few rough pieces so it melts in evenly later, and if you're going the butter route, cut that into tablespoon-sized pats too.
- Cook the Pasta: Add the dry gluten-free macaroni, 2 cups of the milk, and the chicken broth to the Claypot Multi-Cooker and set it to Pasta mode. Cook until the noodles are al dente, stirring every couple of minutes so nothing settles and grabs at the bottom — pasta cooking directly in its own liquid needs the movement. Start tasting early: gluten-free elbows tend to run a few minutes faster than wheat pasta and go from firm to soft quickly. As they cook, the liquid reduces and thickens, and that starchy milk becomes the base of your sauce. — Gluten-free pasta throws off noticeably more starch than wheat, which is a gift here; you get a thicker, silkier sauce base without doing anything extra.
- Build the Sauce: Switch the same pot straight over to Sear/Sauté on high — no draining, no transfers, no second pan. Stir in the shredded cheddar, the cream cheese, the remaining cup of milk, and the salt, pepper, mustard powder, and cayenne. If you want a richer, more buttery sauce, add the half stick of butter here alongside the cheese so it melts in and emulsifies rather than sitting on top — the extra fat coats the cheese proteins as they melt and gives you a rounder, more indulgent result. Leave it out and you still get a proper creamy sauce, just cleaner and more cheese-forward. Keep stirring as everything comes together. — The pot's dense clay body means the residual heat from the pasta cycle is already there working for you, so the cheese comes up to melting temperature without the sharp blast that makes a sauce break.
- Hold It and Dial in the Consistency: The moment you see everything melted through and the sauce starting to bubble at the edges, switch to Keep Warm. This is the setting that gets you there — high heat past this point will tighten the sauce and can turn it grainy, and Keep Warm holds it steady while it settles into that loose, glossy, straight-out-of-the-blue-box consistency. From here, milk is your dial: a splash more at the end loosens it and makes it creamier, while holding back gives you a thicker, stickier sauce that clings to the noodles. Gluten-free pasta keeps drinking liquid as it sits, so if you want it creamy, stop while it still looks slightly too thin — it will be exactly right by the time it hits the bowl.
- Serve: Bring the pot to the table on the included trivet — never straight onto a cold or wet counter, since a sudden temperature swing is the one thing pure clay doesn't forgive. It doubles as the serving dish, and the clay's heat retention means the last bowl is as warm as the first. Cleanup is easy once it cools: the naturally non-stick clay releases even starchy pasta residue with warm water and a soft sponge, or you can send the pot and lid through the dishwasher. Just skip scouring pads and abrasive cleaners, and never submerge the base unit — wipe that down with a damp cloth only.
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