Mac ‘n Dog – Mac and Cheese with Hot Dogs / Sausages
I love mac and cheese.
If I see macaroni and cheese on a menu I’ll usually order it. God forbid my mom makes a Thanksgiving dinner and the mac and cheese isn’t included. Well, that has not actually happened, but she knows better than to make only one pan. It’s the first dish we run out of during the holidays. I probably love it more than anyone in the family. For some reason she only makes it on occasion, so I learned her recipe. I want mac and cheese all the time. I like all types of mac and cheese, but my favorite way to cook it is with hot dogs. Add a salad and you have a full meal. (Don’t forget to eat your veggies).
FYI
A couple of items I’d like to point out about this recipe:
- This recipe works well as a stove top mac and cheese. I figured that out because I couldn’t wait to eat it one day, so I skipped putting it in the oven.
- You can also pour the cheesy dog combination into a casserole dish and bake it for 20 min at 350 degrees. If you don’t add the hot dogs to the dish, it’s basically my mom’s macaroni and cheese casserole.
- In the video demo I actually make mac ‘n dog with beef sausages. You can add any type of protein you like or leave the meat out.
- The key to the perfect cheese sauce isn’t the cheese. It’s the bechamel sauce. Bechamel is the base, so if it tastes good, your mac and cheese will taste good.
- Use real butter. Never use margarine. It isn’t better for you. Real is always better.
- You can use more or less milk to make it the consistency you prefer.
- Make this with real cheese! Not out of powdered cheese or cheese sauce.
- You can use any cheese you like. I always start with sharp cheddar and I like to add in 1 or 2 special cheeses. In the video I use gruyere, but I’ve used asiago, parmesan, monterey jack, colby, you name it.
- Some people like breadcrumbs on top of their mac and cheese, but I don’t like it that way. Not even in the oven. Feel free to add breadcrumbs if you want to.
Give it your own twist.
I want to encourage you to get creative with this dish. Add in whatever meat, cheese or topping you like. Once you get a hang of making the bechamel sauce the sky is the limit.
Mac N Dog
Ingredients
- 16 Oz Elbow Macaroni
- 6 Cups Water To boil Elbow Macaroni
- 1 tbsp Salt To salt boiling water - I like pink himalayan or kosher
- 3 Large Sausage Links Any Type of Sausage or 5 Regular Hot Dogs
- 1 Stick Butter
- 6 tbsp Flour
- 2 Cups Milk
- 1 tbsp Mustard Powder
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 Cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese
- 1 Cup Any other favorite cheese (guyere, monterey jack, asiago, etc)
Instructions
- In a stock pot boil Water. Once water is boiling add the Salt and Elbow Macaroni to the pot for about 5 minutes or until the macaroni is cooked to your liking. I like mine a little past aldente since this is stove top.
- Cut the Sausage Links diagonally. Then put them in a pan on medium heat moving them around every 30 seconds for about 5 minutes or until all sides are browned. Remove the sausages from the pan. Do not remove the sausage oil.
- Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the butter until melted, but do not brown.
- As soon as the butter is melted add the remainder of the the dry ingredients: Flour, Mustard Powder & Black Pepper. Whisk constantly for about 2 minutes so the flour cooks.
- Pour in the milk and whisk until the mixture becomes a creamy bechamel sauce. If the sauce is too thick you can add more milk. It all depends on how creamy you like your macaroni and cheese.
- Turn off the heat when the sauce is the desired consistency. Sprinkle in the cheese. You may use more or less cheese based on your taste.
- Once the mac is mixed well with the cheese, put the sausage and any remaining juices back into the pot and fold into the macaroni and cheese mixture.
Mac and cheese was always one of my favorite dishes at thanksgiving. I am vegetarian so while this specific recipe may not be my thing I may take a look at how the cheese is made for a different kind of flavored cheese. Do you like white or regular cheddar cheese more and do you have recipes for both?
Hi Jon,
Thanks for checking out this recipe. As a vegetarian you can leave out the meat or even add in anything else you love to give the macaroni and cheese some flare. “Plain” mac and cheese is always a great side dish!
I love Mac and Cheese so much that I use all different types of cheeses. I happened to have Swiss Gruyere so that’s what I used. However, I’ve used Asiago, Colby, Monterey Jack, a mixture of Italian hard cheeses like parmesan and romano, etc. The sky is the limit when it comes to cheese! I tend to use sharp cheddar as my base most of the time, but I use what I have on hand.
What I’m not crazy about is processed cheese. As you can see from the YouTube video, making the bechamel sauce is so easy that there really isn’t a need for processed cheese that people say melts better. If you aren’t using a bechamel sauce then I guess that’s where something like velveeta would come in handy. My mom said that as a kid she used milk, butter and velveeta, but she grew up and started using more real ingredients and removing a lot of processed foods out of her diet as much as possible. So, I’m really not used to the taste of processed cheese to be honest.
I’ve never tried using vegan cheese or nutritional yeast, but that would be a nice challenge! If I test out a vegan recipe I’ll be sure to reply here to update you on how it turned out! I have done a gluten free mac and cheese in the past because one of my good friends is allergic to wheat, so I used rice macaroni and cornstarch in place of flour. I should post that recipe at some point as well.
I really like the fact that you started when you were so young to be a chef! This makes it your No. 1 Passion in life and so you can concentrate all your efforts into it and make a successful website from it.
The way you have presented your recipe is easy to follow and I like the feature of being able to print it. Thank you for thinking of us who cook when you created it, and how we would like to have a copy of the recipe.
My favourite is also Macaroni And Cheese, but we do it differently with tomatoes and an egg mixture, which can be done on the stove, just requires a good dose of stirring until it thickens.
Wow I’ve never made mac and cheese with an egg mixture, but I have topped it with tomatoes (I made a Mexican inspired Macaroni and Cheese and lettuce and tomatoes went well). I’d guess if you were gluten free egg is a good alternative to flour for a thickener for the cheese sauce. Thank you for sharing. Where are you from? It’s so interesting to know how other regions of the world make similar dishes!