The Ultimate Bacon Mac and Cheese

Mac and Cheese is awesome. Bacon is awesome. So let’s combine the two and prepare them in the greatest and most indulgent way possible, shall we?

Sure… there may be some other bacon mac and cheese recipes out there, but let me tell ya – the essence of bacon is INFUSED throughout the whole recipe! More on that later…

So what do we start with? A half pound of bacon, shredded white cheddar cheese, whole milk, a pound of pasta, salt and pepper.

But PLEASE, if you’re gonna make, this do it right. No turkey bacon. No low fat cheese. No skim milk. Use the good stuff.

But I must mention how the bacon will be cooked – we are gonna BAKE it. Trust me, this is both easier and superior to frying.

But keep the bacon fat! We are gonna use some of that when we make our roux for the cheese sauce! Read below for the recipe 🙂

The Ultimate Bacon Mac and Cheese

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Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings: 6 -8

Author: Lauren Cobello

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound bacon
• 1 pound of macaroni noodles or anything really, cooked just under al dente
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp bacon fat from cooking the bacon
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 Tbsp chopped green onions
• 1 - 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 350.
• Line a cookie sheet (make sure it has a lip) with foil, and top with a cooling rack. I couldn't find a cooling rack, so I just took the grates out of my toaster oven and laid it across the cookie sheet.
• Lay the bacon on the rack side by side. Bake for between 15 and 20 minutes.
• While the bacon is cooking, you should also boil your pasta. Cook it just under al dente and set that aside.
• Now get your bacon out of the oven if it's done to your liking.
• Chop it up and set it aside for later - but keep that bacon fat! Pour it in a jar.
• In a large sauce pan, melt 2 Tbsp of butter with 2 Tbsp of the bacon fat over medium heat. If you want to really go crazy with bacon flavor, you could skip the butter and just use 4 Tbsp of bacon fat at this step. It's up to you 🙂
• Once the butter has melted and mixed with the bacon fat, add the chopped green onions. Mix them up for a few minutes to soften them.
• Add the flour and whisk like crazy until it's well blended.
• Add the milk. Slowly heat while whisking until is starts to bubble.
• Add 3 cups of the shredded cheddar, the salt and pepper, plus 1/2 cup of the chopped bacon. Mix it well until it's nice and smooth. Remove from heat.
• Add the pasta to the sauce pan and mix it evenly into the cheese sauce.
• Pour into a casserole dish, top with the remaining cup of shredded cheese and the remaining chopped bacon.
• Bake for about 30 minutes. Then enjoy!

Have you grabbed my freezer meal plans, yet? I might be biased but I think they are pretty amazing! They have saved our dinner hour for years now. Check them out!