Ree Drummond Levels Up Mac And Cheese With This Store-Bought Seasoning

When it comes to mac and cheese, everyone has a secret weapon or technique to amp up the flavor or make it more decadent than the rest, especially if you are a celebrity chef. Ina Garten leaves her mac and cheese out overnight or adds truffles to this classic dish to create a luxurious version. Bobby Flay reinvents his version into a macaroni and cheese carbonara. But Ree Drummond's mac and cheese is a little more accessible. She opts for a store-bought seasoning you probably already have in your pantry: Lawry's Seasoned Salt. 

Lawry's Seasoned Salt is a go-to when you want to add a little complexity to a burger or to enhance the flavor of French fries, but when you add it to mac and cheese, it's a tasty game changer. The Pioneer Woman loves this pantry staple salty blend. Lawry's Seasoned Salt uses onion and garlic powders, along with paprika, celery seed, and turmeric to create its signature taste. When added to mac and cheese, this seasoning doesn't overwhelm. Instead, the spices are going to create subtle layers of both savory and sweet in every bite of these cheesy noodles.

The paprika will give a light, earthy smokiness to this dish while the onion and garlic balance the taste. The celery salt is more of a background player, letting the other spices shine, and turmeric makes for a brightening in color. However, because mac and cheese tends to skew a little salty due to the nature of cheese, Ree Drummond uses just a small amount. In fact, before you start sprinkling your seasoned salt into your cheese sauce, she warns that if you have a sensitivity to sodium, start with a small amount and sprinkle in a little more until your taste buds are happy.

If you want to give your dish a little kick, you can also add some red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper without worrying that either will clash with your seasoning. But Lawry's Seasoned Salt isn't the only pantry powder Drummond uses for more flavorful mac and cheese. While she isn't one to add frilly ingredients to this childhood favorite, the cookbook author also adds dry mustard to give it a little tang that sets her recipe apart from others. So, the next time you are making mac and cheese from scratch or even one of the boxes of Kraft mac and cheese, consider breaking out your bottle of Lawry's Seasoned Salt for bigger flavor.