Mac n’ cheese and fried chicken potluck

It emerged on Twitter, of course, where all good food parties are born. I don’t even remember how the topic came up, but someone started talking about comfort food and someone else brought up macaroni and cheese and another person chimed in with fried chicken and the next thing I knew, a bright-orange Evite was in my inbox announcing a Macaroni & Cheese / Fried Chicken Potluck.

A spread of cheesy goodness

I decided to go for the mac n’ cheese, which like any good human being I love, though oddly before this weekend I had never made it myself. I’ve always tended more toward the quick and dirty boxed variations, growing up with the occasional Kraft or shells + Velveeta before graduating to the more virtuous Annie’s. For whatever reason, I never felt the urge to make it from scratch.

So this was the perfect opportunity. Naturally, I obsessed about it for days. Basic? Bacon? Mushrooms? Green chiles? An attempt at the legendary fried mac n’ cheese wedges from Denver’s Cherry Cricket?

Ultimately I did the obvious thing and turned to one of my most reliable cooking resources: my cousin Megan, currently a pastry chef at the delicious Columbia City Bakery, always ready with recipe suggestions and sure-fire potluck winners. We consulted, and she gave me the guidelines for her crab mac n’ cheese with Gruyere, Comte, and chives.

I ended up using a Barefoot Contessa recipe for lobster mac n’ cheese as the template for Megan’s crab mac n’ cheese, and I have to say I was pleased with the result. It’s always nerve-wracking making something for the first time, especially when you are making it for other people and even more so when you aren’t going strictly off a recipe. But it turned out gooey and bubbly, with the sharp bite of the Comte cheese giving it a nice kick while the savory crab paired well with the chives.

The reviews from the others at the potluck were positive too, and almost all of it got eaten — which is the best kind of feedback, especially considering there were about 8 or 9 other kinds of mac n’ cheese and a few types of fried chicken.Some of the other offerings: Lorna‘s prize-winning macaroni and cheese had six kinds of cheese and a pound of bacon (!), Valentina creatively rolled up long, wide noodles individually, and hosts Sarah and Frank fried up ridiculous amounts of popcorn chicken that everyone devoured like…popcorn. [Update: Lorna thankfully has better photos in her blog post.]

I only took one hurried photo before diving in, but you can see my little mac on the right side in the red casserole.

If you need a dish for a potluck, macaroni n’ cheese or otherwise, I’d recommend this one. It makes a ton of food so you’ll need some help eating it. I have an entire pan full of it in the freezer still.

Crab Macaroni n’ Cheese

Adapted from Megan Bokan

• Kosher salt
• Vegetable oil
• 1 pound cavatappi or penne
• 1 quart whole milk
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 12 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (4 cups)
• 8 ounces Comte cheese, grated (2 cups)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound cooked crab meat (canned is fine unless you’re a high roller)
• 1/2 cup chives, chopped
• 1 cup panko (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling salted water. Add the pasta and cook until just al dente but not completely done. Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don’t boil it. In a large pot, melt 6 tablespoons of butter and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. Still whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the Gruyere, Comte, 1 tablespoon salt and the pepper. Add the cooked noodles, crab, and chives and stir well. Place the mixture in 1 big casserole or 2 medium ones.

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, combine them with the panko, and sprinkle on the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the noodles are browned on the top.