Some foods have no geographical boundaries, age limitations or cultural restrictions. Mac n cheese is one of those kinda foods. It certainly IS a comfort food for many, including me, and an easy whip up for dinner or lunch when you are out of ideas.
Today, is about revamping the cult classic Main course dish into an awesome Side dish, the Mac n cheese fry!
We are gonna take the essence of a good mac n cheese and turn it into an amazeballs (yeah i said that) side dish for your next luncheon. These are balls of a more sturdier macaroni mixture which is coated in a crumb coat and deep fried or baked. They go perfectly well with all popular dips and sauces and work beautifully to make your food spread more elaborate and delicious. Similarly, I’ve also served them for a brunch and they were quite the hit!
Bonus feature: You probably already have all the ingredients in your pantry to prep these bad boys! Let me walk you through the recipe, follow me…
What will you need?
Answer? Very basic house-hold ingredients that you can see here. This recipe calls for adding 2 cups of minced meat. I usually have a bit of pre-boiled meat in my freezer at all times which I used here. ( Cooked by boiling in garlic, ginger, black pepper, salt, water and green chilies paste). I used ditalini pasta, but you can use any pasta available, just make sure they are smaller in size which will make them easier to manage.
GETTING STARTED
We start by heating a little oil in a sauce pan, and add our garlic ginger paste, macaroni, minced meat, capsicum and sauteing it all together at medium to high heat. Then we add all the spices and seasoning and milk and saute a little bit more. The next step is to add the all-purpose flour which is always done after removing the saucepan from the flame.
TIP 1: If the flour is added while the mixture is still on the flame, it may cause lumps in the mixture, therefore you should always remove the pan whenever you are adding flour to any milk based mixtures.
And then the mixture goes back on the flame for 2 more minutes. Remove the mixture and let it come down to room temperature. We don’t want the cheese to melt at this point so we will make sure our macaroni mixture is cooled down and then add the shredded Mozzarella and mix well. You can do a taste test at this point, but make sure all your seasoning is a little bit overpowering than you like, because once you crumb-coat it, the flavors will mellow down a bit.
MAKING THE MAC N CHEESE FRY BALLS
Finally you have landed on your last step of the process. I usually just put some oil on the palm of my hands and take heaped tablespoons of the mixture and form rough balls. But this might be trickier for beginners to manage. If you are finding it hard to make the balls from your hands, you can take a cookie sheet and drop tablespoons full of the mixture all over the tray and freeze it. Alternatively, you can use a cupcake tray instead of a cookiesheet for more regular shape of the balls. Once frozen, you can take them out and coat in the coating mixture.
The balls are dipped in all-purpose flour, then eggs and then crumb coated.
TIP 2: Adding chilled water to your beaten eggs give you a crispier crumb coat.
After crumb coating, its upto you when you want to use it. If you are preparing this for guests, I would suggest to make these in advance and freeze them. You can then take them out 20 mins before frying and fry them on medium to high flame. All the ingredients in the balls are cooked so you dont need to worry about leaving anything raw inside, its only the cheese that needs melting. Simple ketchup works really well with them honestly but you can go ahead and try any exotic sauces that you would normally eat with your mac n cheese.
More Snack-style-Mains you may like.
Do you have any questions? I’m happy to help! And of course, If you try this recipe, I’d loveeeee to see it or simply hear about it! Hit me up in the comment section below and I’ll get back to asap! Happy Cooking!
Mac n Cheese Fry
Ingredients
- 2 cups Dry Ditalini Pasta
- 2 cups Pre-cooked Minced Meet optional
- 1 cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
- 2 medium Capsicum Chopped
- 1 cup Milk
- 1 tsp Garlic Ginger paste or 2 cloves of garlic and 1 small piece of ginger shredded
- 2 tsp salt or to taste
- 2 tsp black pepper powder
- 1 tsp paprika powder
- 1 tbsp Soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Siracha sauce
- 2 tsp All-purpose flour + extra for coating
- 1 large Egg beaten with 1/2 cup chilled water
- 1 cup Bread Crumbs
- 1 cup Oil for frying
Instructions
- The first step is to add 1 tbsp of oil in a saucepan along with garlic and ginger paste. Put the flame on at medium heat.
- Add your minced meat, pasta and capsicum. Saute for about a minute or 2.
- Add all your sauces and spices. Saute for another minute or 2.
- Pour milk in the saucepan, mix all the ingredients and remove from flame.
- Add 2 tsp all-purpose flour and mix well. Put the saucepan back on the low flame and stir constantly. When you can see bubbles forming in the milk and your mixture seems visibly thick, remove from flame. Cover the mixture and allow it to cool down.
- Once the mixture is cooled, add shredded mozzarella and do a taste test at this point.
- Put oil on both your palms and take 1 heaped tablespoons of mixture and make rough balls out of them. Alternatively if you find the mixture hard to handle, you can line a tray with cookie sheet and drop table spoons of mixture on the sheet. Freeze the mixture and then use when hardened.
- Finally, coat the balls first in all purpose flour, then beaten eggs and finally with the breadcrumbs
- Fry the balls at medium flame until golden brown.
- SERVE – Serve as a side with your main course or as an appetizer.
Ishani Nath says
Looks really tempting and the process is easy. I shall try very soon. I love cheese and anything made with it.
Wajiha says
hi5 sista! same! anything with cheese and im on board 😀
vaishali says
Oh wow…this looks so good. I’m droling
Wajiha says
Thankyouu 🙂
Sayanti says
I love mac and cheese fry and thanks for sharing the recipe with me. I am gonna go and try this out
Vy Nguyen says
Delicious!! I really love cheese. thanks for the recipe
Wajiha says
🙂 🙂 the pleasure is all mineee!
Europe finance blog says
This looks similar to the one my mum makes.
Wajiha says
🙂 really? thats awesome!
Fibi Drese says
This looks very yummy! I love Mac and cheese. Will try your recipe trmw
Wajiha says
🙂 yay lemme know how it went
Summer Mitch Ryan says
I agree Mac n Cheese is a food for all. As much as I really like this, there are ingredients here that aren’t available here. Maybe I could substitute. What do you think?
Wajiha says
yes definitely. Can you tell me what isnt available for you? I might be help you with the substitutions
maysz says
Wow! I really like this ULTIMATE MAC n CHEESE FRY. it makes me hungry! I’ll try to make my own version of ULTIMATE MAC n CHEESE FRY thanks for sharing the ingredients. 🙂
Wajiha says
🙂 yay! go for it!
Ellen says
Omg these look so delicious!! Definitely will try these out with the new deep fryer I bought the other day.
Wajiha says
🙂 awesome! lemme know how it went
Katrina || KS Loves says
These sound INCREDIBLE ???????????? I am drooling
Wajiha says
🙂 yay! Mission Accomplished!
Backpacking Series says
Mac and cheese was known but making fries out of them looks like a great snack! A creative recipe to try!
Wajiha says
Thanx 😀
indu says
Mac & cheese fry look delicious and indeed nutritious too. But I will try this without any meat content.
Wajiha says
Ofcourse! I know some people avoid meat which is why ive kept it optional cz quite frankly the taste is still pretty awesome the meat is just for us non-vegs who just HAVE to have some form of animal meat in our food lol!
chai says
I’ll keep this one. I’m just telling my husband the other day if we could have mac n cheese. this is with a twist, fry!
Wajiha says
Thats awesome 🙂 Lemme know when u do ok?
Maryam says
Hope i find enough time to try these soon ????
Wajiha says
:D:D im sure u will mehwish! hang in there. Say hi to younus bhai for me
Bunnmies Healthy Choices says
I’ll definitely be trying this soon. I love how you included a step by step instruction, and love the pictures. I’ll leave a feed back when I try this.
Thanks for sharing.
Wajiha says
Thankyou so much 🙂 oh definitely try it! ill b waiting for your feedback 🙂
Evelyn Hernandez says
This looks like something my son would enjoy!
Wajiha says
That sounds awesome 😀 lemme know when you try it
Juli says
I love this! Can’t wait to try something like this when I have a large gathering.
Wajiha says
🙂 yay! Waiting for your feedback when you do