This is the pan that ends the argument about what is for supper. One pound of ground beef, a box of macaroni and a block of cheddar, and forty minutes later there is enough on the table for six people with seconds for whoever gets there first.
It is the boxed stuff you grew up with, except you can read every ingredient. HAAAAAM-Burger does the work that the little foil packet used to do, and it does it twice — most of it goes in early so it toasts in the beef fat, and the last half tablespoon goes in after the cheese so you can still taste it.
The macaroni cooks right in the broth and the milk rather than in a pot of water you pour down the sink. All the starch it gives off stays in the pan, and that is what thickens the sauce. No roux, no flour, no cornstarch, and one pan to wash.
Fall broccoli is coming in across the Carolinas this month, and two cups of florets stirred in at the end turns this from a side dish into the whole supper. Chopped collards do the same job once the cool nights have sweetened them.
Do not skip the chopped pickles on top. They are not decoration — all that beef and cheddar needs something sharp cutting through it, exactly the way a pickle chip does on a real burger.
One-Pot Cheeseburger Mac with HAAAAAM-Burger
One-pot cheeseburger mac with browned beef, sharp cheddar and macaroni cooked right in the sauce, seasoned with organic HAAAAAM-Burger.
Ingredients
For the beef
- 1 lb ground beef, 80/20 — you want the fat here
- 2 Tbsp HAAAAAM-Burger organic seasoning, divided
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp yellow mustard
For the pasta
- 2 1/2 cups low-sodium beef broth
- 1 cup whole milk
- 8 oz (about 2 cups) dry elbow macaroni
- 2 cups small broccoli florets (optional, and in season right now)
To finish
- 2 cups sharp cheddar, shredded off the block
- 2 Tbsp cream cheese (optional, and it makes the sauce silky)
- 1/3 cup chopped dill pickles
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced
- Yellow mustard, for zigzagging over the top
- Kosher or flaky sea salt, to taste
Instructions
- Dice the onion, mince the garlic and shred the cheddar off the block before you turn the burner on. Once the pasta goes in the pan you will not have a free hand. Shred your own cheese while you are at it: bagged shreds are dusted with starch to stop them clumping, and that same starch is what makes a sauce turn grainy.
- Heat a large deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high. Add the ground beef and press it flat against the pan. Leave it alone for 3 to 4 minutes until a real brown crust forms underneath. That crust is where the cheeseburger taste comes from, and you only get it by not stirring.
- Break the beef apart, add the onion, the garlic and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the HAAAAAM-Burger, and cook 3 to 4 minutes until the onion softens. Do not drain the fat. The seasoning is dissolved in it.
- Push everything to one side of the pan, drop the tomato paste into the bare metal and let it toast for 45 seconds until it darkens a shade and smells sweet rather than tinny. Stir it through the beef along with the Worcestershire and the teaspoon of mustard.
- Pour in the broth and the milk and bring it to a gentle boil, scraping the brown bits off the bottom as it comes up.
- Add the dry macaroni, stir once, drop to a strong simmer and cook uncovered 9 to 11 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes so nothing catches. The pasta cooks in the sauce rather than in a pot of water, and the starch it gives off is what thickens everything. There is no roux here and no flour packet.
- If you are using the broccoli, stir the florets in for the last 5 minutes. They will come out bright and just tender, and they turn this into the whole supper.
- Take the pan off the burner completely and wait a full minute. Stir in the cream cheese, then the cheddar a handful at a time until the sauce is smooth. Cheese added to boiling liquid splits and goes stringy; cheese added off the heat does not.
- Stir in the last 1/2 tablespoon of HAAAAAM-Burger and let the pan sit 3 minutes. It looks loose at first and tightens as it rests.
- Scatter the chopped pickles and scallions over the top, zigzag a little yellow mustard across it and bring the pan to the table. Salt at the table rather than in the pan, so everyone gets it the way they like it.
The seasoning goes in twice, and that is the recipe
One and a half tablespoons go in early, where they toast in the beef fat and sink into the base. The last half tablespoon goes in after the cheese, where it stays bright and you can still taste it as a seasoning rather than as a background. Stir it all in at once and you get a pan that tastes flat on top. This is the same trick we use in the Skillet Patty Melt.
Why the pasta cooks in the pan
Boiling macaroni separately and draining it pours the starch down the sink. Cooking it in the broth and milk keeps that starch in the pan, and it is what makes the sauce cling instead of pooling. It also means one pan to wash. Stir every couple of minutes, because starch that settles on the bottom scorches.
Cheese off the heat, every time
Take the pan off the burner and count to sixty before the cheddar goes in. Cheese is fat and protein held together loosely; boiling liquid pulls them apart and you get oily strings in a thin sauce. A minute of patience is the whole difference between silky and broken. The two tablespoons of cream cheese are optional and they do make it noticeably smoother.
The pickles are not a garnish
They are doing a job. A pan of beef, cheddar and milk is a lot of richness in one bowl, and it needs something sharp cutting through it, which is exactly what a pickle chip does on a real burger. Leave them off and by the third forkful it all tastes the same. The mustard zigzag is there for the same reason.
What is good right now
Yellow onions and garlic came out of the fall harvest and will keep in a dark cupboard all winter, so they are both cheap and at their best this month. Fall broccoli is coming in across the Carolinas right now and a couple of cups of florets stirred in at the end turns this from a side into supper. Chopped collards work too, and they sweeten after the first cool nights — give them 8 minutes rather than 5. The macaroni, the cheddar, the milk and the pickles are pantry and refrigerator staples, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Feeding more, and the day after
This serves six as it is written and doubles in a wide Dutch oven, though you will want to add the second pound of beef in two batches so it browns instead of steaming. Leftovers keep three days. It firms up solid in the refrigerator, so reheat it in a skillet over medium with a good splash of milk stirred through, not in the microwave, which dries the edges and leaves the middle cold.
Make it yours
For a bacon cheeseburger version, cook four strips of chopped bacon first, brown the beef in the fat and crumble the bacon back in at the end. For a lighter pan, use ground turkey and add an extra tablespoon of butter with it so the seasoning still has fat to bloom in. For heat, a spoonful of pickled jalapeño brine in place of some of the Worcestershire does more than crushed red pepper does.
One seasoning doing all of it
HAAAAAM-Burger is our USDA Certified Organic hamburger and french fry blend — no MSG, no fillers, small batch, made by our family. The seasoning itself is gluten free and kosher; the macaroni is not, so read that box if it matters at your table. It comes in one size now, the 5 oz resealable pouch, which stores flat and is easy to pinch from with one hand while the pan is going.
More HAAAAAM-Burger
Crispy Oven Fries with Burger Sauce is the obvious thing to put beside it, Bacon Cheeseburger Quesadillas is what to do with the leftover beef, and Easy Smash Burger Sliders is the same flavour when you have a crowd and a griddle.