Best Grilled Mac 'N' Cheese Pancakes Recipe With Spicy Sauce Recipe
For when you want cheesy pasta, but you're also trying to grill
If you go by the name DJ BBQ, chances are you have a grilling trick or two up your sleeve. This recipe from the YouTube cooking star's new book, Fire Food, more than supports that claim: I'm willing to place a nickel on the fact that you're not out there grilling up mac 'n' cheese pancakes every Saturday. Leave out a pepper or two from the sauce if you're not one for heat and remember these are pancakes—meaning they're a perfectly fine breakfast choice.
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Recipe adapted with permission from 'Fire Food,' by Christian Stevenson (DJ BBQ), published by Quadrille May 2018
Grilled Mac 'n' Cheese Pancakes with Mojo Rojo Sauce
Get the recipe for mac 'n' cheese pancakes made on the grill and served with a spicy red mojo sauce from YouTube cooking star DJ BBQ's new cookbook, Fire Food.
Ingredients
- For the Mojo Rojo Sauce
- 4 Romano peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
- 8 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 3 jalapeño chiles, deseeded and roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted and crushed
- 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
- Handful of coriander (cilantro) leaves
- Handful of thyme leaves
- 2 rehydrated chipotle chiles
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons salt
- For the Macaroni
- 12 ounces macaroni pasta tubes
- 1¾ ounces butter, plus 2 tablespoons for frying
- 1¾ ounces all-purpose flour
- 1⅔ cups whole milk
- 10½ ounces Red Leicester cheese, grated
- 3½ ounces Roquefort or blue cheese
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 1 jalapeño chile, sliced
- Handful of coriander (cilantro) leaves, chopped, for garnish
Directions
- Make the mojo rojo sauce: In a food processor, blitz all the sauce ingredients up to and including the chipotle chiles. Once blended, pour into a bowl and stir in the vinegar, oil and salt.
- Make the mac and cheese: Boil the pasta until al dente and drain. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, whisk the butter, flour and milk over medium heat until smooth and thick. Once the sauce is bubbling and the flour is cooked out, add all the cheese, the mustard and the jalapeño slices. Keep stirring until melted.
- Add the cooked pasta into the cheese sauce, stir well and leave to cool for about an hour. This recipe works better when the mac and cheese is cold.
- When you're ready to eat, start your outdoor cooker, half with direct heat and half indirect. Divide the cooled mac and cheese into 8 balls. On the direct heat, melt the extra 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet. Throw a couple of the mac and cheese balls into the pan and use your spatula to flatten them into pancakes.
- Fry the pancakes until you have a thick golden crust. Then flip and fry the other side.
- You might lose a couple of stray bits of macaroni when you flip, but don't fret, just let them crisp up. They are actually part of the recipe—you are going to top everything with these mac and cheese "burnt ends." 8. When you have a thick crust on both sides, remove the pancakes from the heat and repeat with the remaining ones. When they are all cooked, spoon the mojo rojo sauce over the pancakes and top with the chopped cilantro and burnt bits to serve.