Bacon Mac N Cheese is pure decadence. A creamy sauce of heavy cream, sharp cheddar, white cheddar and mozzarella cheese is melted together until smooth, folded with crispy bacon pieces and pasta shells. Every crevice of every shell is filled with a cheese sauce so good you’ll want to lick the spoon. Additional cheese is sprinkled on top and then baked until bubbly and perfect.

Macaroni and cheese has always been a comfort food for me. Still to this day, my mom is the mac n cheese queen, but this Bacon Mac N Cheese is a top runner! Crispy, salty bacon is the perfect companion to a decadent, gooey, cheese-packed mac n cheese base. Each bite will have you going back for more. Pure comfort food bliss.

Any shape of short pasta will work with this recipe, but shells are my top choice. There’s just not much better than a pasta shell filled with a creamy, cheesy sauce!

Bacon Mac N Cheese is a great recipe as a main dish, side dish or just to serve up a plate of comfort food! Once you make a homemade cheese sauce for your mac n cheese, it’s going to be hard to go back to the powdered cheese packet!

Not only is this a decadently delicious macaroni and cheese recipe, but it only requires a handfull of ingredients. Combining them all together makes one epic pan of mac n cheese!

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Bacon Mac N Cheese

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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5 from 1 review

Author: KJ & Company - Kate Poskochil
Total Time: 1 hour
Yield: 6-8 servings 1x

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Description

Bacon Mac N Cheese is pure decadence. A creamy sauce of heavy cream, sharp cheddar, white cheddar and mozzarella cheese is melted together until smooth, folded with crispy bacon pieces and pasta shells. Every crevice of every shell is filled with a cheese sauce so good you’ll want to lick the spoon. Additional cheese is sprinkled on top and then baked until bubbly and perfect.

Ingredients

Scale

1 pound bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups milk
8 oz mild cheddar cheese, shredded
8 oz monterey jack cheese, shredded
4 oz sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded
16 oz medium macaroni shells, cooked according to package instructions

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Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large, oven-safe sauté pan, cook the bacon pieces over low-medium heat until crispy, about 8-10 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a plate lined with a paper towel. Reduce the heat to low and remove additional bacon grease to leave roughly 2 tablespoons left in the sauté pan.
Whisk the flour into the bacon grease until smooth. Quickly whisk in the heavy cream and milk and continue to whisk until smooth. Whisk in all of the shredded cheeses, saving about a 1/2 cup of cheeses to sprinkle on the top later. Slowly bring the cheese sauce to a simmer, being careful to not allow it to boil.
Fold the cooked macaroni shells into the cheese sauce along with all but 1/4 of the bacon pieces to save for topping. Mix together until combined. Sprinkle the top of the macaroni with the remaining leftover cheese and bacon pieces and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown on top. Enjoy!

Notes

If you don’t have an oven-save skillet or sauté pan, you can prepare everything above in a sauté pan and then pour it into a 9×13 baking pan and then top it with the cheese and bacon and bake.
Any short pasta shape will work, but shells are my favorite for holding all that cheese sauce!
If your cheese sauce gets too thick, slowly add additional milk until desired consistency is achieved.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes

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Thanks for following and cooking along with me!

Bacon Mac N Cheese

Bacon Mac N Cheese