Tortilla Chip Fried Mac and Cheese
Triangles of mac and cheese coated in crushed up tortilla chips and deep fried until crispy! Served with a pesto guacamole! Biting into one of these crispy triangles of bliss is pure comfort! The mac and cheese recipe is so loaded with cheese that it hardens in the fridge and then melts fully after frying, oozing out of the tortilla chip crust as you dig into it!
The inspiration for this recipe
I recently was a guest on one of my favorite weekly streams Anytime with Alden and Ken! I asked the hosts a series of questions to try and figure out a fun mash-up holiday appetizer. This tortilla chip crusted deep fried mac and cheese bite was a combination of several of their favorite foods like mac and cheese, chips and guac, pesto, and mozzarella sticks! I thought it might be a weird combo, but it all ended up fitting together in these perfect little triangles!
Make the Mac
It’s a super simple mac and cheese recipe – just evaporated milk, cornstarch, pasta, and cheese! I like to have this recipe in my back pocket for when I want a more trashy version of mac and cheese. (I say trashy with love, no disrespect!) Let the mac cool down in a sheet pan and then slice it into triangles.
Add the tortilla chip crust to the mac and cheese
Season the flour with some garlic powder, chili powder, and salt. Then dip the mac and cheese into the flour, then egg. Then go back into the flour and then egg one more time to form a thick coating. Finally dip it into the chips and you are ready to fry!
Make the pesto guac
The premise of this guac was to continue to combine several favorite foods into one bite. I was going to serve guac and pesto separately, but at the last minute I realized a pesto guac would taste awesome. I made this pesto, but you could easily just buy store bought pesto and stir it into the avocado. Just add some fresh lemon.
Fry the tortilla chip mac and cheese bites
Bring the oil to temperature and add in the tortilla chip fried mac and cheese bites! Fry about 3 minutes until golden, but if you see any cheese starting to leak out like in the last picture here, make sure to take them out ASAP to minimize cheese losses.
Serve the tortilla chip fried mac and cheese
Pile the triangles up on a platter and serve with the guac! The combination of flavors here is wild, but it is never too much. Just the right balance!
So creamy, so delicious!
I suggest a couple beers and some friends to pair this with.
And don’t forget to dip the tortilla chip fried mac and cheese into the pesto guac for maximum flavor!
Twists on this recipe
Can you bread these with regular breadcrumbs? Yes, of course. Could you go crazy and use cool ranch doritos? I think so?
I know people will ask about air frying. You could brush them with a little oil and air fry on high. Then will come out good since the tortilla chips are technically already fried. Personally I would probably shallow or pan fry them before air frying, just use about a half inch of oil in a pan and flip them half way though cooking.
I fried mac and cheese one time a while back, inspired by a broad city episode. I also have coated food in crushed tortilla chips!
Tortilla Chip Fried Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
Mac and cheese
- 12 ounces evaporated milk
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 8 ounces elbow pasta
- 5 ounces grated mozzarella cheese
- 5 ounces grated cheddar cheese
Pesto Guac
- 3 ounces basil
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup crumbled parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- 1 lemon (juice of)
- 2 ripe avocados
Frying
- 1.5 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 eggs
- 4 cup tortilla chips
- oil for frying
Instructions
Make the mac and cheese the day before
- Whisk the cornstarch with the evaporated milk when it is sill room temperature.
- Add to a large pan and bring to a simmer. When it thickens, remove from heat.
- Bring a heavily salted pot of water to a boil and add in the elbows. Cook about 3 minutes less than the package says until it is just barely tender. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid and then strain the pasta.
- Add the pasta to the evaporated milk mixture. Add about 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking liquid and stir to combine. Stir in the cheeses. Continue to stir until the cheeses are all melted. If you need to turn the heat back on the pan, go ahead, but be careful not to overheat or the cheese will seperate. If it needs more liquid, stir in a little more pasta cooking liquid, but go easy because you want to make sure it is solid after it cools!
- Line a 1/4 baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour the pasta onto the baking sheet and spread it out evenly. Cover with more parchment and let it cool in the fridge overnight or at least 5 hours.
Make the guac
- Put the basil, garlic, cheese, pine nuts, oil, and lemon into the food processor. Blend until smooth.
- Put the avocado into a bowl. Add in the pesto and stir to combine. I only used about half of the pesto, but you can use as much as you feel is right. Taste and season with salt, pepper, or more lemon to your personal tastes.
Fry the mac
- Mix the flour and spices in one shallow plate. Whisk the eggs in another.
- Smash up the tortilla chips and add them to a third plate. You can do this in a blender, food processor, or just smash them up in the bag with a rolling pin or heavy spoon.
- Take the mac and cheese out of the fridge and put it onto a cutting board. Cut into triangles.
- Dip each triangle first into the flour, then the egg. Repeat flour and egg one more time to make sure the coating is thick. Then dip into the chips.
- Add the oil to a large heavy bottom pan. You could also use an actual fryer for this! Follow manufacturers instructions. And see above for air fryer tips.
- Bring oil to 375. Fry the chip coated triangles in batches depending on how big your pan or fryer is.
- Should take about 3 minutes. If you see any cheese leaking out, pull them asap!
- Allow to cool on a rack while you continue to fry. Season with salt when they come out of the fryer.
- Serve with the guac!