Smoked Mac and Cheese

Close up square image of mac and cheese on plate with bread.

Smoky, full of all the cheesy goodness, this Smoked Mac and Cheese is super easy with a tasty crunchy topping. Great for your spring or summer dinnertime meals.

Prep Time5

Cook Time1

Total Time1 5

Course: Main Course, Pasta, Smoker

Cuisine: American

Servings: large servings

Calories: 1012kcal

Author: Tornadough Alli

Ingredients

¾ pound elbow macaroni about 2.5 cups
6 Tablespoons salted butter
3 Tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
½ cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons ground mustard powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon coarse ground pepper
¼ teaspoon onion powder
3 ounces cream cheese softened
2 cups cheddar cheese freshly shredded
1 cup smoked gouda cheese freshly shredded

Topping:

¾ cup panko breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons melted butter
Optional chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions

Cook the macaroni in a salted pot of water until 1 minute shy of al dente. Drain pasta well.
Preheat your smoker to 225 degrees F.
While the macaroni cooks, in a 10-inch cast iron skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the flour and whisk continuously for 1 minute.
Then, add the milk in slowly while whisking followed by the heavy cream.
Add the mustard powder, salt, pepper, and onion powder and whisk. Continue whisking frequently until the sauce starts to simmer and thicken.
Reduce heat to medium-low and add the softened cream cheese. Mix until melted and combined.
Add both cheeses a small handful at a time, letting it melt in between each addition.
Add the pasta into the sauce and mix to combine.
Mix the breadcrumbs and melted butter together and top the macaroni with the mixture.
Place in the smoker, uncovered for 45 minutes-1 hour.
Remove from the smoker and serve hot.

Notes

The macaroni will continue cooking as it smokes so do not overcook the pasta or it will be soggy in the end.

If you don’t use salted butter add about ¼ teaspoon extra salt to the recipe or to taste.

You can use other cheese's in this recipe, see above on how to do that.

If you don’t cook your noodles in salted water, you will likely need a bit more salt in your sauce. I usually add about 1-2 tablespoons of salt to a large pot of water.

This can be frozen, see above on how to do that.

You can smoke this for up to 2 hours but the noodles take on the smoke flavor pretty fast so it will taste very smoky at 2 hours.

This can be baked instead of smoked, see above on how to do that.

Nutrition