The method is simple: Cut bacon into one-inch pieces and fry it up until crispy while the water boils.

Take a cue from the Italian-Roman classic spaghetti alla carbonara. After draining the noodles and mixing in the cheese, stir in the broccoli and shredded chicken (both yellow and white cheddar work well here) until everything is nice and warm. Simply steam or sauté broccoli florets while the noodles boil-or better yet, let that pot of water do double duty and toss the broccoli in there. This combination's got comfort food written all over it, and it couldn't be simpler to whip up, especially if you've got some leftover roast chicken from the night before. Here are a few of my favorite ways to upgrade boxed mac and cheese in three ingredients or fewer: 1. Most importantly, they pay off big time in terms of flavor. Sure, adding extra ingredients can take away a bit of the simplicity, but incorporating them is easy and rarely takes more than a few minutes-in fact, you can usually finish the prep while the pasta water boils. Some are based off my cravings (spicy, bright and herby, or totally carbo-loaded), and other times they're based off whatever leftovers are in my fridge.

From the bright orange Kraft mac and cheese dinners my dad 'cooked' when my mom was out of town, to the countless microwaveable single-serve Easy Mac cups I consumed in college, and fancied-up shells and white cheddar from Annie's that now fill my pantry, this gloriously convenient invention has always been a part of my life.Īnd while you can often catch me whipping up a batch of the stuff in its purest form (including last night, when I had zero desire to prepare a full dinner), there are times when I like to experiment with different combinations of ingredients. Let me get one thing straight: I have loved boxed macaroni and cheese for as long as I can remember.

How to make mac n cheese taste better