With two kinds of creamy cheese, bacon, and crockpot convenience,
Slow Cooker Bacon Macaroni and Cheese is an absolute favorite at our
house. Give it a try, and I bet it will become a favorite at your house,
too!
In our family, we're total suckers for mac & cheese. Whether it's my Mom's classic baked macaroni and cheese, creamy 5-cheese stove top macaroni and cheese, or a less traditional version like smoked gouda mac & cheese, we go nuts over it all.
But you know the saying, "Bacon makes everything better?" Well, turns out even with a great thing, that saying's true. Because bacon makes even our very favorite macaroni and cheese just that much better!
The smoky flavor of bacon combines with smoked cheddar to bring fabulous flavor to this slow cooker Bacon Macaroni and Cheese. Join that great smoky-bacon flavor with crock pot convenience -- and you've got one super easy, super tasty side dish, for sure.
The smoky flavor of bacon combines with smoked cheddar to bring fabulous flavor to this slow cooker Bacon Macaroni & Cheese.
I've been asked before, what is the texture of slow cooker macaroni and cheese? Is it looser and creamy like stove top mac and cheese? Or more firm, like a baked mac and cheese?
This particular bacon slow cooker macaroni and cheese is more firm in texture, much like a baked macaroni and cheese. Because it includes eggs in its mixture, the finished cooked mac and cheese holds together in hunks when scooped. Which I must say, is the way we like our mac and cheese best.
It's an absolute favorite at our house, and gets devoured in no time. Give it a try, and I'm willing to bet it'll become an absolute favorite at your house, too.
Slow Cooker Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Ingredients
Two kinds of cheese go into the making of this super tasty dish. Shredded mozzarella brings great melty creaminess to this mac and cheese's firmer texture. And it's then combined with
smoked cheddar, which brings all kinds of great flavor.
When the smokiness of smoked cheddar is then paired with bacon? -- It's flavor heaven.
And worthy of absolute-favorite status, for sure.
To whip up a crock pot of slow cooker Bacon Macaroni and Cheese you'll need:
- Noodles - Basic elbow macaroni will do, but I recommend using a bit sturdier, more substantial noodle like cavatappi (also known as corkscrew macaroni) or rotini (spirals) to stand up to and support all the bacon deliciousness. The batch in this post's photos is made with cavatappi.
- Evaporated & whole milk - These milks make up the cooking liquid for the noodles, no water involved. The milks are absorbed by the noodles as they cook, which creates a nice rich base for the mac and cheese.
- Eggs - Bind the mixture together, creating a firmer-textured mac and cheese.
Shredded mozzarella brings great melty creaminess to this mac and cheese's firmer texture.
- Smoked cheddar cheese - Brings fabulous smoky flavor.
- Mozzarella cheese - Lends melty creaminess to the finished cook dish.
- Bacon - The flavor star of mac and cheese! For ease and convenience, I use packaged real bacon bits. They can be found in the salad dressings section of the grocery store, and offer fabulous dump-and-go ease when making this mac and cheese -- no time spent frying up and crumbling the bacon. Be sure to get real bacon bits, not the crunchy-type artificial bacon bits sold right alongside them. That being said, you can certainly fry up and crumble regular strip of bacon for this recipe, as well.
How to Make Slow Cooker Bacon Macaroni & Cheese
Making a pot of crock pot Bacon Macaroni and Cheese truly is really easy. You don't even need to cook the noodles first.
To whip some up, simply place all the ingredients in a slow cooker and give them a good stir to get them well combined.
Be sure to spray the crock pot well with non-stick cooking spray to minimize sticking. A little bit of sticking is inevitable, but a good dose of spray keeps most of the sticking at bay.
Cook on HIGH for 1 and 1/2 hours, stirring twice during that time to redistribute the ingredients.
Then turn the setting down to LOW and continue to let the slow cooker do it's thing for 30 minutes or so more until the pasta has absorbed all the liquid.
And then like
magic, -- slow cooker magic, that is, -- you've got a delicious pot of Slow Cooker Bacon Macaroni and
Cheese all ready to be served up and devoured.
And believe me, devoured this will be. With its two kinds of creamy cheese and fabulously smoky bacon flavor, Slow Cooker Bacon Macaroni and Cheese is pretty hard to resist.
Check out these other tasty slow cooker side dishes:
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Yield: about 12-14 servings
Slow Cooker Bacon Macaroni and Cheese
With two kinds of creamy cheese, bacon, and crockpot convenience, Slow
Cooker Bacon Macaroni and Cheese is an absolute favorite at our house.
Give it a try, and it will become a favorite at your house, too!
prep time: 15 Mcook time: 2 hourtotal time: 2 H & 15 M
ingredients:
- 3 c. uncooked cavatappi (corkscrew macaroni) or rotini pasta {about 8 oz.}
- 2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 c. shredded smoked cheddar cheese
- 1 (3 oz.) package real bacon bits {or 10 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled}
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
- 1 1/2 c. whole milk
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
instructions:
How to cook Slow Cooker Bacon Macaroni and Cheese
- Spray the bowl of a 4-quart slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Place pasta, shredded cheeses, bacon, eggs, evaporated milk, milk, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce in slow cooker; stir to combine.
- Cover and cook on High setting for 1 and 1/2 hours, stirring twice during cooking.
- Reduce heat to Low setting and cook 30 minutes longer until pasta is tender and all liquid is absorbed.
Adapted from Taste of the South: Southern Classics
You might also like these other cheesy side dishes:
This post is linked with Weekend Potluck, Meal Plan Monday.
Beautiful comfort food!
ReplyDeleteMac and Cheese plus bacon plus slow cooker = Yes please! I'm definitely trying this!
ReplyDeleteYes! Oh, you definitely should, Jaren. :-)
DeleteSlow Cooker recipes are the best! Love the combo of cheeses!
ReplyDeleteI've never tried making mac and cheese in the slow cooker! Totally need to try this idea!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great brand to partner with! Very cool! And I can SO get down with this mac n cheese. Loving this!
ReplyDeleteThis recipes combines so many of my favorite things! I'm definitely going to pin and stumble this. I found you through the Best of The Weekend Link Party!
ReplyDeleteSeriously, right? Bacon ... REAL cheese ... pasta ... and a slow cooker. All favorites!!
DeleteYum, this is something I could seriously devour! Love my crockpot, and I'll be adding this to my to make list for sure! Pinned :)
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a dish my family would love. And you don't have to cook the noodles first...so easy! Pinning. :)
ReplyDeleteHello Gorgeous! This looks incredible! Thank you so much for sharing it with us. Pinned and tweeted. I hope to see you tonight at 7 pm, so we can party with you! Lou Lou Girls
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness does this look mouth watering amazing! I love that it's in the slow cooker! PINNED! :-)
ReplyDeleteCathy@threekidsandafish{dot}com
This sounds and looks amazing! I'm thinking of taking this to a potluck lunch. About how many 1/3-ish cup servings do you think this would be? I have a hard time judging serving amounts when it comes to pasta...... Your photography is beautiful! Glad to have found you! :)
ReplyDeleteIf one were to double this recipe, how would cooking times be adjusted?
ReplyDeleteDid you ever get an answer to this? I am wanting to double this recipe as well.
DeleteOh boy; my family would LOVE this! It sounds so nice and simple to make too. Pinned.
ReplyDeleteWhat brand of cheese did you use? I haven't seen smoked cheddar in the stores around here, though I haven't looked in the special cheese section of a fancier store that I don't often go to.
ReplyDeleteSmoked cheddar is typically in the specialty cheese section of the grocery store -- the once that's usually in the deli area.
DeleteI tried this today as a trial run for Thanksgiving Tomorrow and glad I did. Maybe my crockpot runs hot, but mine got too hot and the cheese totally broke down. I didn't use reduced fat or low fat anything, regular full fat cheese that I grated fresh off the block. The first time I stirred it, it was looking good. When I went back to stir again, it was all broken down and grainy. Tasted good but texture was ruined. Next time I will try maybe 30-45 minutes oh high, then turn down to low. Like I said, maybe just my crockpot. it was SO simple to make. Next time I will add a little more pepper and maybe some Tony Cachere's seasoning to give it a little kick.
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving to you! My guess is you have a hot, fast-cooking crock pot ... crock pots can vary sooo much. I would definitely do as you suggested, with starting it with less time on HIGH. You may also need to reduce the total cooking time down a little bit, too. Hope that works better for you!
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