My twist on smoked mac & cheese

I’ve come up with a twist on mac & cheese that will now be my way to make smoked mac & cheese from here on out. Smoking the whole pan of mac & cheese was good but seemed like it only gave smoke to the top and would cause the noodles to absorb all the sauce to the point of being drier than I liked. My solution was to smoke my cheese sauce alone and then assemble the noodles and sauce at the end. A couple minutes under the broiler created what I think is the perfect smoked mac & cheese.

Have you ever added bacon to mac? Seems like an inevitable match. I was considering tossing the noodles in bacon grease prior to adding the cheese sauce. Then add the bacon at the very end to top the mac.

I have added crumbled bacon before. As for bacon grease, I think you would add it to your cheese sauce so that you could do it incrementally until you got the taste you wanted.

care to share your recipe for your cheese sauce? All your smoked food looks like it turns out great

biggill wrote:

Have you ever added bacon to mac?

I like to use the bacon grease as the base for a roux, that I make the sauce out of. Then add the bacon at the end. Haven’t done smoked Mac and Cheese tho, so this is going on the to-do list.

crappie55369 wrote:

care to share your recipe for your cheese sauce? All your smoked food looks like it turns out great

I’m a cook by sight kind of guy so I’ll do the best I can at converting it into quantities.

1 pound bag of large elbow noodles
1/2 pound American cheese
1/2 pound medium cheddar cheese
1/2 pound Colby jack cheese
4 oz. cream cheese
1 can Campbell’s cheddar cheese soup
2 cups half & half (If the sauce appears too thick, just add a little milk)
3 tablespoons butter (or bacon grease)
1 cup bread crumbs or cracker crumbs for topping

*optional
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dry mustard
crisp bacon bits

One of my recipes calls for butter to coat the noodles before adding the sauce. The roux makes good sense as well.

My Mac and Cheese comes out of a box….but then again I eat to live not live to eat….so what would I know about it. However, I would be willing to taste test your M&C and provide my unbiased opinion.

Superdave, I was inspired, to take my second shot at smoked mac-n- cheese yesterday, I can say that the step of smoking the cheese sauce added what was missing. Great tip!

So, where was the cheese in your ingredients? Now that’s a cheese sauce.

Still working on my sauce. Its very good but looking for a more ballance between a baked to a more saucy.

My try with roasted serreno peppers and bacon. Gotta say, turened out great but a bit low on the saucy side.

ps. I was going to use the Campbell’s chedder soup but I forgot it at the store, another good tip. Those soups are king adding to recipes.

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1hl&sinker wrote:

Still working on my sauce. Its very good but looking for a more ballance between a baked to a more saucy.

For mac & cheese that spends any time at all in the oven or smoker the assembled product has to be borderline soup. With the batch I made in this thread I made it just a tad on the wet side and only had it under the broiler for a few minutes. That gave me the creamy, gooey inside texture with the crisp crumb topping.

Dave – how long do you keep just the cheese in the smoker for the first smoke? I am going to give this a shot on the smoker this weekend and am going to go your route of smoking the cheese first and then adding the noodles and smoking it all together.

Jake, make the complete cheese sauce on the stove top and then put in the smoker for about 30 minutes. Stir at the 15 minute mark. Assembly the noodles and sauce after the 30 minutes. If you like your mac & cheese gooey, just put assembled mac & cheese under the broiler for a couple minutes to toast the cracker/bread crumbs.

Thanks Dave. So you dont put it back into the smoker after adding the noodles? Only into the oven?

Its up to you. The reason I did the experiment in the first place was because the extended time in the smoker made the noodles soak up all the sauce. I like more of a cheesy / creamy consistency to my mac & cheese. Smoking the cheese sauce gives plenty of smoke flavor to the dish.