French Onion Macaroni and Cheese
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:6 to 8 servings
- Kosher salt
- 4tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
- 2pounds yellow or Vidalia onions, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
- 5sprigs fresh thyme, plus more thyme leaves for garnish
- 1fresh or dried bay leaf (optional)
- Black pepper
- 1pound cavatappi or elbow pasta
- 1baguette, cut into ½-inch slices
- 1garlic clove
- 2tablespoons sherry vinegar, red wine vinegar or white wine vinegar
- 3tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4cups whole milk
- 16ounces Gruyère, grated (about 5 cups)
- 12ounces white Cheddar, grated (about 4 cups)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
1103 calories; 60 grams fat; 34 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 17 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 84 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 16 grams sugars; 57 grams protein; 1313 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. (If you’re planning to bake the macaroni and cheese in a baking dish instead of a skillet, butter 9-by-13-inch baking dish or other 3-quart casserole.)
- Step 2
Meanwhile, in a deep, large (12-inch) ovenproof skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions, thyme sprigs and bay leaf, if using, and season with salt and pepper. Cover with a lid, baking sheet or foil and cook, stirring once or twice, until the onions are softened, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Step 3
Uncover and continue to cook on medium-high, stirring occasionally, until deep golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. If the onions look dry, add a few tablespoons of water at a time to prevent them from burning, scraping up any browned bits that are stuck to the bottom of the skillet. (You will need to do this several times.)
- Step 4
While the onions are cooking, heat the oven to 450 degrees. Cook the pasta in the boiling water until 2 minutes shy of al dente; drain and set aside. Rub one side of each baguette slice with garlic.
- Step 5
When the onions are a deep golden brown, discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaf and deglaze the skillet with the vinegar until evaporated, scraping up browned bits as you go, about 30 seconds. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter. When melted, add the flour and cook, stirring, until the flour begins to stick to the bottom of the pan and has turned a light golden brown, about 3 minutes. Slowly whisk in the milk and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, whisking often.
- Step 6
Reserve 1 cup of the Gruyère. Carefully add the remaining Gruyère and all the Cheddar to the caramelized onion mixture and carefully stir until melted. If your pan is big enough, add the cooked pasta and stir to combine, or combine the sauce and pasta in the prepared dish.
- Step 7
Spread the pasta mixture in an even layer in the prepared dish, then top with the baguette slices, garlic-side up. Sprinkle the toasts with the reserved 1 cup Gruyère and season with pepper. Place the skillet or dish on a sheet pan and bake until bubbly and brown in spots, 10 to 15 minutes. If you like a crispier top, broil for a few minutes. Let cool slightly, then garnish with fresh thyme leaves.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
joachim
Wonderful recipe. To make it a bit more like French onion soup I used beef broth rather than water when cooking the onions. I felt this added a bit more flavor reminiscent of the soup.
KH
Really great flavor, but seems like there's a step missing - remove the onions before you deglaze and whisk the flour and milk together. Otherwise you wind up with a whisk full of onions. The baguette slices are divine.
Figaro
Glad you brought this up. Vidalia and other sweet onions contain more water than standard yellow ones; therefore, they take way longer to caramelize. If you want the sweet taste, add sugar? I wouldn't - onions take on a natural sweetness when caramelized. I use sweet onions in all kinds of salads, sandwiches, etc. They are also great on the grill: halve them, season with olive oil, s&p and balsamic vinegar - delish. This recipe, put yellow onions in the fridge. When you slice them, no tears.
T Mog
Made this and was excellent with combined tweaks of: remove onions before deglazing pan, use Sherry vs vinegar, add Dijon mustard, add smoked paprika, lightly toast baguette slices before rubbing with garlic. Learned most of these tweaks from various prior cooks' notes and chose the ones that appealed to me! And they were good choices...
WK
This recipe seems to call for making a white sauce (Bechamel), but I would think this takes more time to thicken before combining with all the other elements...? If you made it separately from the onion pan, maybe with a little white wine, half-&-half, then assembled...
marcella from Italy
I'd reserve a bit of the cooking water and add it back to the sauce before stirring the pasta in. Pasta will continue cooking in the sauce and definitely needs quite a liquid environment to get done without thickening things up too much. On the other hand, the starch dissolved in the cooking water ensures you don't end up with something too watery either. (Pasta water, the unsung ingredient that makes everything perfect! ;)
blsmadrid
Absolutely delicious. As someone mentions, a step is missing, the white sauce should be made without the onions, I took them out of the pan, made the beschamel, added the cheese, then added them. I used a little more than half the pasta that is recommended here and next time will use even less. I passed on the gruyere and instead used a mixture of cheddar and manchego cheeses. The baguette slices really added to the dish.
David
There’s another step missing. You need to toast the baguette slices in order to rub the garlic cloves on them. Otherwise, you end up shredding the bread. Excellent recipe. Adding mushrooms next time, and will have some beef broth in the pasta boil.
GA
Made it today. Delicious!! Trader Joe’s has a gruyere/cheddar combo cheese that worked fabulous. A keeper!
marcella from Italy
Flavour-wise, if this tastes bland or somewhat "off", try adding a bit of yellow mustard and/or a splash of Worcestershire sauce. This is what Jaime Oliver does in his take on this (definitely outrageous!) recipe and it works ;)
Lori Goodsell
If I did this again, I would use half the amount of noodles. We added rotisserie chicken and since we didn't want to spend 25$ on Gruyere, we used half and then doubled the cheddar cheese.
Lisa
Recipe says to stir in the flour (you could use a wooden spoon) but whisk in the milk...
Danny
What I did (and MY WAY IS BEST!) is to take the caramelized onions out of the skillet, deglaze with vinegar, then begin the bechamel sauce. Once the sauce begins to thicken, then add in the onions. The butter that the onions have been sautéed in will thicken the sauce even more. Then add in your cheeses.
marcella from Italy
the secret to a creamier dish is to reserve a ladleful of the pasta water and to add it back to the white sauce. Pasta will continue cooking in the sauce and this may make the whole thing a bit too thick. The pasta water provides the pasta with something more fluid to soak up, and the starch dissolved in it ensures that it won't be watery at the end.
John Andrews
I'd freeze portions before the baking steps. So that when you reheat, you're cooking the pasta the rest of the way to al dente, and not overcooking.
Susan
Has anyone made this ahead and refrigerated? Can you do it? Maybe don’t put the toasts on until right before the oven?
Christina
Whoops. Be careful with the broiler, mine lit the toasts on fire. Thankfully I still had half a baguette left!
Keiko
There's a bunch of stuff missing from this recipe as printed. I guess it's obvious that you need to cook the pasta, but what temp for the oven, and how did the garlic get on the toasts? (Toasts? Does the bread get toasted?)
PMD
Idk why so many people think there’s a step “missing.” You do not have to remove the onions before deglazing. Lots of white sauce recipes call for adding flour to onions. Yes, the onions will get caught in the whisk, but only momentarily before you add all the liquid. It’s going to be ok, I promise.
F. Nairac
This is one of the most deliciously scrumsheous recipes ever.
Ciarán
Made this last night-- definitely the best mac & cheese I've had. Served it with tabbouleh and used store-bought garlic bread slices in place of baguette, otherwise did everything as suggested and it turned out beautifully. Would absolutely consider adding dijon mustard next time.
nick
Made this tonight- good recipe as described, although next time I may try some of the suggestions in the reviews such as adding beef broth
liza
Any suggestions for a meat side to this obviously rich side? I was thinking burgers might be fun, or grilled sausages?
M Foster
Is this a wet Mac and cheese or a dry one? I’m afraid to make it because wet Mac and cheese makes me gag. Definitely prefer a drier Mac and cheese, meaning not so saucy. I don’t know what it is, but cheese sauce has always made me queasy ever since I was a kid.
VC
This was a “no”for our family of 3 adults. We all agree that we really like caramelized onions but felt that this was too much. I weighed them ahead of time and used what the recipe required. Aso, I did have some reservations about the baguette slices going in as they felt like carb overload. Breadcrumbs or smaller croutons would work, I’ll stick to Sam Sifton’s Southern Mac and Cheese, but will definitely add some caramelízed onions for a flavor boost.
Caroline
This took me a bit longer to make. Definitely want to try again, but am going to try a few modifications. First, I’m wondering if pressure cooking the onions would work to speed up the caramelization process. The other things I want to try is a little less milk, and potentially skipping cooking the pasta and just having it cook in the oven.
Susan
We have been making this recipe annually for five years now when we put up our Christmas tree. We love it so much we decided to make it again as we take down our tree this year! I have made it by taking the onions out and keeping the onions in and both work fine, to keep it to one dish, I just push them aside in the pan to whisk the flour in a bit. Instead of roasting the baguette, I just cut it up ahead of time so they stale slightly, this allows them to not be too crunchy after it is baked.
Jlaw
Very delicious but incredibly rich! Don't think I'll make it again.
Janet
Halved the recipe since I was cooking for two. Served it along side roasted veggies. Easily got 2 dinners and 4 lunches out of this quantity. Made a quick garlic butter to spread in the toasts and loved the added flavor!
jode
Mine turned out grainy :( I would add the cheese after the milk has cooled down a bit, and I'd choose a different cheese to replace the white cheddar next time because it was too strong for my liking! Gruyere is also just soooo expensive. Otherwise, it was fun to make a new dish in my rotation :)
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