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A super-creamy and cheesy Mac and Cheese taken up a level with spicy Mexican chorizo sausage and earthy, roasted Poblano peppers!
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So I'm not a big football fan. Baseball is more my thing, and probably due to my son being completely obsessed with it. Anyway, this weekend was the Super Bowl, and it sort of came up on me pretty quickly and surprisingly. I may have been living under a rock.
I was advised with too-short-of-notice that I needed to make some sort of food for the fam to watch during the game. My husband offered up his help with some burgers on the grill, and I just so happened to have the ingredients to make this macaroni and cheese, so here it is!
This was going to be a recipe for the blog anyway, but it just worked out to be a perfect Super Bowl dinner side dish.
Tip for the kiddos: I did pull some out before I added the chorizo and poblanos, since both of my kids will act like they ate hot coals if there is even a slight hint of spicy. I don't think they're my real kids.
Tips for making Mac and Cheese with Chorizo and Roasted Poblanos
- Chorizo is a spicy Mexican sausage that you can find near the hot dogs and bacon. I've also found it in the specialty meat section where the salami and prosciutto is. When you buy it, it comes in links, and there's a plastic casing around it that you need to remove. After you remove the casing, it is more like a ground, crumbled meat rather than a link sausage. Sneaky!
- Poblanos are large, elongated green peppers that are not too high on the spicy scale. For comparison purposes, a jalapeño rates a 10,000 on the Scoville scale. The Scoville scale is a scale that measures the hotness of peppers - check out this site for lots of info: www.cayennediane.com. A bell pepper rates a 0. A poblano pepper rates a 2,000. That's not so bad! The flavor is awesome too!
- You can use any type of medium shaped pasta such as macaroni, penne, or farfalle. I like to use one with ridges so it holds onto the creamy, cheesy sauce. I found this unique pasta at World Market called lumaconi, but Amazon also sells it here.
Mac and Cheese with Chorizo and Roasted Poblanos
Ingredients
- 12 ounces macaroni or other similar type pasta
- 1 poblano pepper
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups milk
- 12 ounces sharp cheddar cheese shredded
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- ½ tablespoon Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
- 8 ounces chorizo sausage
- ½ cup avocado for topping
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, do not rinse.
- Preheat oven broiler to high. Place oven rack on very top level. Place poblano pepper on a cookie sheet as close as possible to the heat element without it touching. You want the outside of the pepper to get blistered and black. It will look as if it is burned. Keep an eye on the pepper, since you will need to turn it a few times to get it black on all sides. Once it is black on all sides, remove pepper and place in a brown paper bag to rest while you are making the cheese sauce.
- Melt butter in a medium sauce pan. Add flour and cook 2-3 minutes to remove the raw flour taste. Slowly add the milk, whisking constantly. This will prevent lumps from forming.
- After the milk has all been added and the mixture is a smooth consistency, add the cheddar and cream cheeses and Dijon mustard. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.
- Remove chorizo from casings and cook in a small skillet until browned. Set aside.
- After pepper has rested for about 15 minutes in the paper bag, peel all of the blackened skin off. Slice the top of the pepper off with the seed pod and discard. Also remove any stray seeds. Slice and chop pepper into ½" pieces.
- In a large pot, mix the cheese sauce with the pasta. Add the chopped poblano peppers and about half of the chorizo. Top individual servings with more chorizo and chopped avocado.
M. Ellithorpe
This sure does look good enough to eat but I would be in line with your kids; take some out for me before the spicey stuff goes in. Can't tolerate spice.
I'm not a big fan of cooking (anything) but if I were, your directions are very clear and easy to follow.
I'm looking forward to seeing what other creations you come up with.