Three Cheese Crawfish Mac & Cheese

• servings: 9 servings
• active time: 30 minutes
• total time: 1 hour 25 minutes

Ingredients

1 lb. crawfish

1 teaspoon salt

8 oz. macaroni

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons butter

1 small onion (chopped)

½ bell pepper (chopped)

2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

1 stalk celery (chopped)

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 1/3 cup milk

½ cup heavy cream

1 cups cheddar cheese (grated)

1 cup pepper jack cheese (grated)

1 cup provolone cheese (grated)

2 teaspoons blackened seasoning

2 tablespoons chopped chives

1 ½ tablespoons breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons grated cheese (any combination of cheeses from above)

Directions

Shell the crawfish, removing the meat. Save the shells and heads.

Combine crawfish shells and heads with 8 cups of water in a pot.

Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes. See notes.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Strain crawfish heads, etc. and reserve crawfish stock.

You should end up with about 4 cups of crawfish stock. Add additional water, if necessary to make 4 cups.

Bring the 4 cups of stock to a boil with the salt.

Add macaroni and cook until al dente.

Strain, reserving cooking liquid.

Toss macaroni with olive oil.

In a pot, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter.

Add onion, bell pepper, garlic and celery.

Saute until softened.

Add flour and cook on medium high heat for about 5 minutes, to cook out the raw taste of the flour.

Add milk and heavy cream. Simmer on medium heat for 3-4 minutes, until thickened.

Turn off heat and add cheese, crawfish, blackened seasoning and chives. Stir to combine.

Add ½ cup of reserved cooking liquid. Stir to combine.

Transfer to square baking dish sprayed with non stick spray.

Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.

Sprinkle a few tablespoons of cheese on top.

Transfer to oven and bake for 25 minutes.

Notes

Substitute lobster,shrimp, or crab.

Nutrition

• Calories: 425 kcal
• Total Fat: 25 g
• Saturated Fat: 14 g
• Cholesterol: 137 mg
• Sodium: 780 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 25 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1 g
• Total Sugars: 3 g
• Protein: 24 g