I was looking to make a really creamy mac and cheese, but with a little spice. That’s when I saw the tub of gochujang sitting in the back of the fridge.

Gochujang is a type of red chili paste popular in Korean cuisine. The paste is made from gochugaru chili flakes, rice, fermented soybeans, and salt. The sweet and spicy paste is strong and packs a punch.

A year or two ago I started cooking stir fry with it after acquiring some to make Bulgogi-style barbecue. Since then I’ve used it for meat, vegetables, salad dressings, and even as a hot sauce. We use enough of it that we keep both a 1 lb tub in the refrigerator along with a smaller bottle-size for the table. The condiment has grown popular and generally available in most grocery stores now.

We use a mass-market gochujang, but there are actually many different varieties, and unique recipes. I got my wife Jang: The Soul of Korean Cooking by Mingoo Kang, Nadia Cho, and Joshua David Stein, that goes much deeper into the different types and styles. For this recipe, the mass-market gochujang worked perfectly well.

The very first mac and cheese I learned to make was the Alton Brown baked macaroni and cheese. The recipe originally was from his series, Good Eats. In many ways that show was instrumental in my own interest in cooking. For years, I made that mac and cheese. I adapted into variations like cupcake-sized mac and cheese for parties. I even sliced it one time and deep fried it. But what I really love is creamy mac and cheese, and this recipe is much stiffer than I really wanted.

Brown’s recipe includes tempering egg into the cheese sauce. The egg helps the mac and cheese set while baking. The consistency is desirable for a tray of mac and cheese because it means its possible to cut out slices, and makes a more solid food for cupcake shapes and deep frying. That’s all well and good, but I love when the pasta is swimming in creamy sauce.

I started experimenting with new mac and cheese variations, baking it without any egg in the sauce. That worked to some degree. I could still achieve a crispy top by adding bread crumbs, and the two textures were pretty good. But it was easy to dry out.

One of the great benefits of a baked mac and cheese is that it can be made ahead of time and reheated. Even if you aren’t making it days ahead of time, a baked mac and cheese is more robust, in case the other part of a meal takes longer to come together. But creamy, saucy, silky smooth mac and cheese –

Anyway, the last few times I’ve been making mac and cheese I’ve experimented with my own variations on creating a cheese sauce. The core component is dairy, mixing in butter, milk, cream sour cream, cream cheese, shredded cheese, velveeta cheese. All of these contribute some flavor and texture, and its important to balance both. Velveeta is really good at creating creamy consistency, but realistically it feels gross to eat a large block of velveeta. Cheddar has some flavor, but isn’t actually great for consistency.

I had read a few years back that acidity level impacts the mouthfeel of melted cheese. I even went through the motions of getting a food-grade pH meter. But the easier solution to this is balancing whatever cheese brings flavor with and equal part of munster, which has little flavor but good consistency when melted. Cream cheese is also really helpful for having a thick and creamy-feeling mac and cheese. Sour cream brings a little bite, and since I happened to have an open container, I added it to the sauce.

As with most recipes, I looked over a few recipes like this vegan recipe and this saucy recipe. I then went ahead and more or less ignored both of them. This recipe was more or less invented in the moment from a concept, and it turned out remarkably good.

To cut the fattines, I served it with a Sweeet and Spicy Slaw dressed with an acidic, sweet and spicy flavor. Truthfully I had half a cabbage sitting around and wanted to do something with it. I also had cucumbers and I cut one up, combined with scallions and sesame seeds and the slaw dressing.

If you end up using this recipe, keep in mind the quantities are an estimate, since its a newish recipe, and fluid.

Gochujang Mac and Cheese

Ingredients

2 tablespoons Gochujang
4 oz garlic, microplaned
4 – 6 oz heavy cream
4 oz sour cream
4 oz cream cheese
8 oz cheddar, shredded
8 oz munster, shredded
5 or 6 scallions

Instructions

Cook pasta
Warm oil on medium heat
Add gochujang and garlic
Stir mixture into oil
Splash in about half the cream
Stir until thin
As cream bubbles, add sour cream
Stir until combined
Add cream cheese
Stir until cream cheese is mostly dissolved
Begin added shredded cheese in small amounts
Stir cheese into sauce
Continue adding cheese and stirring into sauce.
Add remaining clean to thin
Combine pasta and stir until evenly coated
Top with thinly chopped scallions

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