Forget Chips: French Onion Dip Gives Mac And Cheese 10x The Flavor

Mac and cheese is always better with a tasty topping — seasoned breadcrumbs, crumbled bacon, crushed crackers, potato chip crumbs, you name it — but the base ingredients often remain the same. As much as you want to add a delicious finishing touch to the dish, elevating the foundation is key to stellar mac and cheese. Instead of making macaroni with regular sour cream, swap it out for French onion dip.

Sour cream upgrades mac and cheese with a velvety finish and tangy taste, and French onion dip does the exact same while adding a unique twist. Since the dairy product is often used in lieu of or in conjunction with milk, and French onion dip is made with sour cream, it's a simple swap. The sweet, savory product can give you the creamiest mac and cheese of your dreams while imparting a caramelized, earthy flavor to complement the cheese. Making the condiment at home grants you better control over the taste, but there are some great store-bought French onion dips to get the job done.

When cooking mac and cheese with French onion dip, use equal amounts of the dip and milk for a well-balanced flavor. After boiling the noodles until they're al dente and draining, melt butter in a pan. Add the dip, milk, your seasonings, and the shredded cheese, and turn the heat low, stirring frequently to ensure the sauce stays smooth. Once the cheese is sufficiently melted, toss the noodles to make sure they're evenly coated.

With the dip delivering a deep, sticky-sweet taste from the caramelized onions, it's important to use cheeses that perfectly complement the classic ingredient. Take a note from our decadent French onion mac and cheese recipe and use gruyere and cheddar cheese. Gruyere is deeply nutty and savory, perfectly contrasting the caramelized dip. Meanwhile, cheddar is the epitome of umami, ensuring the onions don't make the mac and cheese too sweet.

You can go for the full French onion taste by incorporating beef broth, thyme, and white wine, or just let the French onion dip and cheeses do the talking. But keeping things simple is the perfect choice when adding the dip to mac and cheese that features havarti. The cheese is renowned for its buttery yet mild taste, which would help the caramelized onions shine through. Any variety of havarti is a good pairing with French onion dip, but the aged version is saltier and earthier, bolstering the onion dip even more. You can stick with havarti alone, or add a milky flavor with mozzarella and provolone.