Cravings of a Lunatic

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Smoked Bacon Macaroni and Cheese

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Smoked Bacon Macaroni and Cheese is a delicious 4 cheese macaroni and cheese dish filled with smoked bacon. This dish was inspired by Patti LaBelle’s Over the Rainbow Mac n Cheese. Seriously delicious mac n cheese that is loaded with cheese, cheese and more cheese. Plus some bacon for good measure!

Smoked Bacon Mac and Cheese in a white dish with a red spoon

Smoked Bacon Mac and Cheese

Thanks for stopping by today. I have a delicious dinner recipe for you. Nothing beats a great mac and cheese recipe for dinner. Kids and adults love macaroni and cheese.

I’m a serious sucker for all things BACON! I cannot get enough of it. I keep packs of it in my freezer at all times. If you love bacon this recipe is perfect for you!

I also happen to be crazy about cheesy recipes! If you love melty cheese recipes this smoked bacon mac and cheese recipe is absolutely perfect for YOU!

This dish was inspired by Patti Labelle’s Over the Rainbow Mac n Cheese. If you have not tried hers yet you are really missing out. It’s beyond decadent, it’s filled with 10 kinds of cheese.

She does a version with lobster too which makes me wish I wasn’t allergic. I made a couple of small changes, more due to geography than anything else.

Smoked bacon mac and cheese scooped out onto a red spoon for a close up shot, casserole dish in the background.

Some cheeses can be hard to find here. Plus my daughter, mini-me, is picky about cheese. The apple does not fall far from the tree since I am too.

I had a blast making my mac n cheese. I don’t make it very often so I got a little carried away and made three versions to try out. I’m cool like that.

Needless to say, our freezer is well stocked with pasta right now. The perks of getting carried away. Mac and cheese freezes perfectly. Just add extra butter when reheating it!

Another tip for reheating macaroni and cheese is to do it in the oven. I hate microwaving leftover mac and cheese. It tastes better when it’s reheated in the oven, in my humble opinion.

Hope you love this version. It’s my favourite. What can I say, I’m a bacon lover!!

Smoked Bacon Mac and Cheese in a white baking dish

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5 from 3 votes
Smoked Bacon Mac and Cheese in a white bowl with a red spoon
Print
Smoked Bacon Macaroni and Cheese
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
45 mins
 

Smoked Bacon Macaroni and Cheese is a delicious 4 cheese macaroni and cheese dish filled with smoked bacon. This dish was inspired by Patti LaBelle's Over the Rainbow Mac n Cheese. Seriously delicious mac n cheese that is loaded with cheese, cheese and more cheese. Plus some bacon for good measure!

Course: Dinner
Cuisine: American
Keyword: mac and cheese, macaroni and cheese
Servings: 8
Calories: 844 kcal
Ingredients
  • 1 lb package of dried noodles
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 2 cups mild Cheddar cheese shredded
  • 2 cups sharp Cheddar cheese shredded and divided
  • 1 cup Mozzarella cheese shredded
  • 2 cups half-and-half
  • 1 cup Velveeta cheese cut into small cubes
  • 2 large eggs lightly beaten
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp white pepper
  • 1 pound smoked bacon cooked and chopped into pieces
  • 1 tbsp cold butter grated
US Customary - Metric
Instructions

  1. Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove from skillet and place on a plate lined with paper towels to help drain off any excess fat. Pat bacon dry. Cut into pieces. Set aside. 

  2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13 casserole dish with non-stick spray. Set aside.

  3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat, once it's at a rolling boil add a generous amount of salt. Toss in the noodles, and cook until tender, about 1 minute less than the package instructs. Don't overcook the pasta, you don't want it to be mushy. Remove from heat, drain the pasta and set aside.

  4. In a medium sized saucepan, melt 1/2 cup of butter. Stir in the cooked noodles. Then toss in all the cheeses, but reserve 1 cup of sharp cheddar.

  5. Mix the half-and-half and the eggs together in a bowl then add that slowly to the mac and cheese. Add a little at first so the heat of the pasta doesn't ruin the half-and-half or cook the eggs. Once you've added it all then mix well with a large spoon.

  6. Sprinkle with salt and white pepper.
  7. Transfer the mixture to the casserole dish that you had set aside earlier. Toss the rest of the cheese over top and add the remaining butter as well.

  8. Place in the oven and bake it until it starts to bubble up, and you can barely contain yourself from eating it right out of the oven. This should take about 30 to 35 minutes.

  9. Remove from oven. Sprinkle the chopped bacon over top.

  10. Serve with a big old cheesy smile!
Recipe Notes

You can use any kind of noodle for this recipe.

Half and half is used in this recipe but you can also use heavy cream. They are fairly interchangeable in mac and cheese recipes. 

If you prefer different cheeses you can always swap some of the ones I used.

I used Velveeta because it give a nice creamy texture to the mac and cheese. If you don't like it then you can add more sharp cheddar. 

Personally, I like the added touch of grating 1 to 2 tablespoons cold (or frozen) butter over top of the mac and cheese before placing it in the oven. Add the butter then the extra cheese to the top. It will make the mac and cheese incredibly creamy. 

Add the smoked bacon after baking the mac and cheese in the oven. Just toss it on top and stir, saving some to top the dish for presentation. 

Nutrition Facts
Smoked Bacon Macaroni and Cheese
Amount Per Serving
Calories 844 Calories from Fat 459
% Daily Value*
Fat 51g78%
Saturated Fat 30g188%
Cholesterol 209mg70%
Sodium 1723mg75%
Potassium 583mg17%
Carbohydrates 51g17%
Fiber 2g8%
Sugar 5g6%
Protein 45g90%
Vitamin A 1623IU32%
Vitamin C 1mg1%
Calcium 737mg74%
Iron 2mg11%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Smoked Bacon Mac and Cheese in a white bowl on a red and white napkin

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Comments

    • Kim Beaulieu says

      Would work beautifully with veggie bacon. I like bacon of all kinds. My daughter’s bestie is vegan so we do the vegan bacon often. It’s really good. Would be perfect in a vegan version of this recipe. xx

      Reply

    • Kim Beaulieu says

      Ha, I’m reading it going “I should likely go on a diet sometime in my life”. But then I think, “nah”. Thanks Amy. xx

      Reply

    • Kim Beaulieu says

      If it’s a wrong I broke the rules a lot this week.

      Thanks lady. That glitter spoon is one of my favourites. So cute.

      Reply

    • Kim Beaulieu says

      I had only ever had boxed growing up so now it’s a brave new world out there. So much fun. Thanks so much Annamaria. xx

      Reply

  10. Dionne Baldwin says

    OMG smoked bacon?! That is so good in mac and cheese. You totally have my attention. Again. It’s been so rainy here that some cheesy comfort food is really what I need. Thank you for making this for us!

    Reply

    • Kim Beaulieu says

      Me too. I’m such a bacon freak. I always have to make double the amount because I’m stealing it out of the pan as I go.

      Reply

  14. Joanne says

    TEN DIFFERENT CHEESES?! Whoa. I’m not sure I could even list ten different cheeses! Yours looks crazy cheesy even though there aren’t quite SO many as all that!

    Reply

  15. Simone says

    You’re the first blog that is teasing me with Mac n cheese. You see, I’ve never made it myself… How weird is that? The reason is probably that my husband is not a big cheese fan so I’d have to eat it all myself, but seeing this… You have me drooling early in the morning!! Although the ten cheeses from the original sounds like a bit of overkill… 🙂 I’ll stick to your version!

    Reply

    • Kim Beaulieu says

      I never made my own till last year. I always hated the stuff, but I’d only ever had the box stuff. Making your own is a game changer. Easy and delish.

      Reply

  18. Terra says

    Smoked bacon? Heck ya, sign me up!!! I love the Cappelleti noodles! Seriously, who wouldn’t want bacon and Mac n’Cheese right? Your four different cheeses all together in one happy dish look bloody fantastic:-) Hugs, Terra

    Reply

    • Kim Beaulieu says

      Thanks lady. I loved this mac n cheese. And I love different noodles, they are hard to find here so I scour stores in the city for ones I can’t find locally. xx

      Reply

  21. Erin @ Texanerin Baking says

    Whoa. This sounds incredible! Definitely saving this for later. I’m just about mac-and-cheesed out. 😉 Like you, I also made several versions!

    PS – None of the links after Mountain Mama Cooks work. They all direct us to one of your images. Just so you know. 🙂

    Reply

    • Kim Beaulieu says

      Thanks Erin. I had so much fun doing this event.

      I fixed all the links the first day so I’m not sure why they aren’t working for you. I just checked them again and they’re working for me. I spent a couple of hours fixing links the day we posted because so many weren’t working. Made for a long day.

      Reply

      • Erin @ Texanerin Baking says

        Haha. What?! I swear they weren’t working when I posted my comment! I even checked from two different browsers. CafeTerraBlog’s link had been strikethroughed (if that’s even a word) and they all pointed to an image. Bizarre! Happy it seems to have been a fluke. 🙂 And links not working? I better go through the ones on my post! I remember people not posting on time but I didn’t recall any of them not working (maybe because I’m bad and haven’t gone through them all 🙁 )

        Reply

        • Kim Beaulieu says

          Do you have broken link checker Erin? Email me for deets if not. It’s an amazing plugin, it notifies you when links are dead. Works awesome. I only know because I had thousands of broken links from a photo incident with G+ (never delete albums if you were ever on blogger, even if you’re not now). So now I check them weekly.

          I run so many group things that I’ve gotten used to clicking through all the links. But it could have been a glitch. If a plugin went wonky or my site got weird it could make it do weird things. I know I had an issue the other day where some of the pin it buttons were interfering with images. It’s never ending. Anyone who says blogger is a hobby and not time consuming is on crack, I swear. It’s a full time job.

          I think all of mine are correct now so just copy mine. Or email me and I’ll send you my html.

          I appreciate the heads up though. How would we ever know there are issues if people don’t speak up. I never mind peeps popping by to tell me stuff. Twice now I’ve had promosimple knock my ads completely off my page. Once for half a day, a very busy day, but luckily a friends notified me so I could fix it as soon as I got home. That was freaking horrible. I think I missed 20K is ad impressions by the time I fixed it. I hate promosimple so very much.

          xx

          Reply

  26. Cindy Chodor says

    Kim, I just found this recipe today and it looks amazingly! I hate to be picky, but I want it to be just right when I make it. Except for the ingredient list, I don’t see any further mention of the bacon! I just wondered if you mixed it into the pasta and cheese and then baked e whole thing, or did you add it on top and bake, or just add it on top after it finished baking? No matter what, bacon can only enrich Mac and cheese, but I want to get it right! Thanks for the recipe and the bacon info!

    Reply

    • Kim Beaulieu says

      Hey Cindy, I’ll pop in the post and check that immediately. Thanks for the heads up. The downside of working for yourself is not having an editor to proof read.

      Pop it in before you bake or after. I tend to add half before then save half for sprinkling over top with dishes like this.

      Reply

    • Kim Beaulieu says

      Ha, I don’t blame you. A lot of people feel that way. I hadn’t eaten Velveeta since I was a kid and my mom used to make us cheese & crackers with it, lol. But I figured what the hell, and went with it. If you can’t stomach using it I’d swap it for more cheddar. You could also give colby a try, I love it but it’s a bit hard to find in our town. Try giving it a kick with some Tex-Mex cheese, it’s a mix of Queso Quesadilla, Pizza Mozzarella, Cheddar, and Monterey Jack cheeses. I use that for making fundido and it melts beautifully. I have to admit I’m a sucker for Pizza Mozzarella. I tend to prefer white cheeses over all the orange ones out there. I don’t know why, maybe just a personal preference. Costco sells some fabulous pizza mozzarella. And their parmesan reggiano is to die for. I pop the rind in with my spaghetti sauce as it simmers and it gives it such a rich flavour.

      Reply

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