I would absolutely make it this way with a roux to bake it. If I’m not baking it though you can for sure one pan it. Drain mostly cooked noodles, milk, butter, Velveeta, cream cheese, and a little bit of any other hard orange cheese you might have. Principally, this is I believe the main application for Velveeta besides queso and it’s the star of Mac and cheese on the stovetop.
Velveeta is a lot safer in these kinds of recipes because it’s less likely to clump if your roux/milk/cheese ratio is off.
However, you can just use the same cheat that Velveeta uses, a culinary emulsifier, to get the same results while also using high quality cheese. Traditionally the roux acts as an emulsifier but it’s easy to have too much fats for the amount of roux that you’ve made so you get the clumping/grainy texture. Using sodium citrate you can just mix the cheese and milk directly without needing to make the roux. It’s very convenient to just heat milk and put cheese in it without fussing with the roux.
Here’s a recipe if you want to try it (spoiler: it’s basically milk, cheese, sodium citrate):
I would absolutely make it this way with a roux to bake it. If I’m not baking it though you can for sure one pan it. Drain mostly cooked noodles, milk, butter, Velveeta, cream cheese, and a little bit of any other hard orange cheese you might have. Principally, this is I believe the main application for Velveeta besides queso and it’s the star of Mac and cheese on the stovetop.
Velveeta is a lot safer in these kinds of recipes because it’s less likely to clump if your roux/milk/cheese ratio is off.
However, you can just use the same cheat that Velveeta uses, a culinary emulsifier, to get the same results while also using high quality cheese. Traditionally the roux acts as an emulsifier but it’s easy to have too much fats for the amount of roux that you’ve made so you get the clumping/grainy texture. Using sodium citrate you can just mix the cheese and milk directly without needing to make the roux. It’s very convenient to just heat milk and put cheese in it without fussing with the roux.
Here’s a recipe if you want to try it (spoiler: it’s basically milk, cheese, sodium citrate):
https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/silky-smooth-macaroni-and-cheese/