Boxed Mac And Cheese Is So Much Better With A Bolder Butter

The ultimate in comfort and convenience, boxed mac and cheese is an ideal dish to satisfy everyone's appetite. With so many popular instant mac and cheese brands to choose from, you can put your meal together simply and quickly with the tastes you love. It's a good tip to go for butter instead of milk for richer boxed mac and cheese, but this ingredient upgrade doesn't have to stop there. Similar to adding browned butter to boxed mac and cheese for a deeper flavor, so too can you include a compound or flavored butter for an even more elevated taste sensation.

The wide variety of different ways to add flavor to butter is only limited by your imagination. Consider everything you love about a delicious dish of mac and cheese and determine what favorite flavors you can add to butter to enhance this. From adjacent mixes like garlic or parmesan compound butter to unique flavors like fish and fermented soybeans, with a little time and creativity, you can make the ultimate flavor matchup for the mac and cheese dreams. Although it adds a bit more effort to a typically super-convenient instant mac and cheese, the inclusion of compound butter is worth the extra time.

With any standard boxed mac and cheese such as Kraft Original Macaroni and Cheese (available on Amazon) the main elements are conveniently packaged and prepared so all you need to add are water, butter, and milk. One simple method for making compound butter is to combine all the ingredients using a food processor before wrapping it into a log shape to store in the fridge for later use. This way, you'll always have more than a few tablespoons on hand when it's time to make your boxed mac and cheese.

As far as flavors, you can create a variety of mac and cheese-friendly butters that range from basic to decadent. Try three-ingredient garlic butter or a chili crisp compound butter, which, while typically used for meat dishes, would make an excellent accompaniment to your dinner as well. For more seafood-forward palates, you can incorporate crawfish with butter for a vibrant summertime condiment or pop open a can of anchovies for a perfectly salty compound butter. If you really want to soar to new heights, try an umami-rich miso butter that, using only two ingredients, is still packed with flavor and will greatly benefit your boxed mac and cheese.