Ruth's Chris Lobster Mac and Cheese Recipe (2024)

For well over half a decade now, Ruth’s Chris restaurants have been providing the quintessential American dining experience across the country from any one of their 100+ locations.

Equally as well known as the famed Ruth’s Chris Fish Market is the much loved Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse restaurants, which can serve anything from T-bone or ribeye steaks to stuffed chicken and lamb chops.

With so many incredible meat dishes, they need a good selection of sides to accompany them.

One of those is their lobster mac and cheese.

It’s much loved by diners and is a reliable choice no matter what main you order.

Today we are going to show you how to make this popular side by yourself at home!

How to make Ruth’s Chris lobster mac and cheese

What makes Ruth’s Chris lobster mac so adored by patrons is the fact they are not tight with their portions.

They offer a generous serving of lobster, which is combined with their signature three-cheese macaroni pasta, all of which is cooked and seasoned to perfection.

It’s delicious enough to where you could easily serve this as a main dish, as it already has great protein and carbohydrate sources.

But of course, you are free to pair this with almost any main dish you’d like, and it’s always going to be delicious.

It’s also pretty easy to make! Lobster is not always the easiest thing to work with, but this recipe can be prepared and cooked in under an hour, so it won’t pull too much of your time away if you’re pairing it with a delicious steak like Ruth’s Chris does.

Ingredients:

• 2 lobster tails, pre-chopped and cooked
• 2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded gruyere cheese
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 stick of plain butter
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• Pepper (to taste)
• 1/2 lb elbow macaroni (pre-cooked to package instructions)

Optional seasonings:

• 1/2 tsp mustard powder
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Number of portions: 6

Instructions

All the steps involved in this recipe are pretty simple and shouldn’t pose any challenge for even the novice cook.

We’ll essentially be cooking this in three stages where we first prepare the lobster meat, then the macaroni pasta, and then finally bake everything together.

None of the steps take particularly long, so it’s a great recipe to prepare no matter the day of the week.

There’s also a bit of creativity here when it comes to choosing which spices you wish to add and how thick you’d like the sauce to be.

Step 1:

Start by pre-heating the oven to 400 degrees F.

Step 2:

While the oven’s heating up, take a pan (or a grill pan if you have one) and add a little olive oil over medium-high heat.

Step 3:

Once it’s up to temperature, fry the lobster tail for about 10 minutes, depending on how thick they are.

You’ll need to flip them over to make sure they are adequately cooked all the way through.

Pro tip: An easy way to check is to take a knife and cut it into the thickest portion of the tail.

If it’s completely white and there’s no grey/translucent-looking meat, it’s done.

Do ensure it’s thoroughly cooked as although we will be baking it later, it’s only for 20-25 minutes and won’t be enough to cook the rest of the tail.

Therefore, it needs to be adequately cooked at this stage.

Step 4:

Once the lobster meat is cooked, you can set it aside.

Next, you need to cook the macaroni according to the package’s instructions, which usually involves just boiling it in some water and perhaps adding a little salt, but it can vary from brand to brand.

Step 5:

Next, we’ll make the coveted three-cheese sauce.

To do this, first, melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.

Step 6:

Once the butter has melted, add in the flour and stir them both together for about three minutes or until it’s adequately incorporated.

It should become much thicker.

Step 7:

Start to whisk the milk into this butter/flour mixture a little bit at a time.

This is where your personal preference can come into play as the slower you mix the milk into the sauce, the thicker it will be.

Step 8:

Add2 ½ cups of cheddar cheese, ½ cup of gruyere, and ½ cup of parmesan.

However, keep a pinch or two of each aside, as it’s a good decoration if you sprinkle a little bit more cheese on the top, which will turn nice and bubbly when baked.

Step 9:

It’s time to add the final seasonings to the sauce, which includes salt, pepper, garlic powder, mustard, and nutmeg.

Give it a good stir to ensure it’s evenly distributed in the sauce.

Step 10:

All of the individual sections are now finished, so we can now add the drained macaroni and fried lobster tails to the sauce and stir it all together.

Step 11:

Add the final mixture to a baking dish, ideally about 9×13, which has been coated with cooking spray.

Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top and bake for 20-25 minutes.

The top should be beautifully golden and bubbly.

Enjoy your wonderfully rich baked lobster mac and cheese!

Ingredient substitutions

By and large, the ingredients in this dish should be fairly easy to source, but there are a lot of cheeses used, and you might not have every single one of them.

Here are a few alternative ingredient suggestions that might make your life a little bit easier.

American cheese

Often referred to as “cheddar lite,” it’s remarkably similar to cheddar in many ways but is slightly milder in its flavor and a little softer.

As we’re baking it anyway, it’s no problem and can simply be used as a 1:1 substitute

Gouda cheese

Wonderfully soft and deliciously tasty, as it’s made from cow’s milk, you can substitute any of the recipe’s cheeses with some gouda if you need something in a pinch.

Ideally, pick a young gouda as it will melt easier during baking.

Macaroni

If you find yourself without any elbow pasta, you can easily substitute this with another shape of macaroni, such as the regular tubes, or the ridged ones (penne rigate) can often do a better job at holding that sauce.

What to serve with Ruth’s Chris lobster mac and cheese

Using Ruth’s Chris themselves for some inspiration here, lobster mac and cheese is a fantastic side dish that pairs well with almost anything on their menu.

Here are a few suggestions for great mains you can pair it with.

Filet mignon

Filet mignon is much loved because of its melt-in-your-mouth texture.

While it doesn’t quite have the marbling that something like a ribeye or New York strip has, the way they sear and season it makes an excellent pairing with lobster mac and cheese.

Garlic-crusted sea bass

Of course, it doesn’t just pair well with beef.

It works great with seafood, too.

Their tender panko garlic-cooked fillet of sea bass served with lemon butter can make a great (and lighter) alternative to the heavier beef.

Other kinds of seafood such as shrimp also work great, too.

How to reheat Ruth’s Chris lobster mac and cheese

Although it’s hard to imagine you won’t eat all of this delicious dish in a single sitting if you do have leftovers you need to reheat the next day, here’s how to go about it.

How to reheat Ruth’s Chris lobster mac and cheese in a pot

Add a teaspoon of milk per cup of lobster mac and cheese that you want to reheat to the pot.

Heat it over medium heat while breaking it up/agitating it with a wooden spoon until it’s at the desired temperature. You can also add a little extra butter or cheese to make it taste fresher.

How to reheat Ruth’s Chris lobster mac and cheese in a microwave

If it’s looking a little dry before microwaving, you can add some milk.

Put the leftovers into a microwave-safe bowl and heat for one minute, remove it, stir everything up, and then put it back for another 30 seconds.

How to reheat Ruth’s Chris lobster mac and cheese in the oven

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Transfer all the leftovers into an oven-safe dish, once again adding some extra milk to ensure it doesn’t get too dry during the cooking process.

Bake it for 25-30 minutes and check it has warmed all the way through.

How to reheat Ruth’s Chris lobster mac and cheese in an air fryer

Preheat the air fryer to 350 degrees F.

Place all the leftovers (or as much as you can fit) into the frying basket and warm it for 4-5 minutes.

You can take it out halfway through and stir everything up to help it reheat evenly, but it’s not completely necessary with an air fryer.

How to store Ruth’s Chris lobster mac and cheese

Macaroni can easily dry out, and lobster can easily become rubbery when stored incorrectly, so here are the best practices when it comes to storing mac and cheese.

Store in the fridge

Ensure it’s first cooled to room temperature and place it in a shallow, air-tight container.

Once refrigerated it should keep for 3 to 5 days.

Store in the freezer

Once again, ensure that it’s cooled to room temperature.

Then, you can store it in either an air-tight container or a Ziploc/freezer bag, which makes the defrosting and reheating process easier.

Once frozen it will keep for up to three months.

(Visited 8,918 times, 22 visits today)