Bacon & Jalapeno Mac & Cheese

File this delicious dish in the “where have you been all my life” file folder.  Holy smokes this is good.

I’ve cheated making macaroni and cheese almost my entire adult life.  Making it from scratch just took too long for this busy mom.  I am hereby apologizing to my children right now for this terrible motherly failure.  From scratch macaroni and cheese is a process for sure, but a damn good process!

The maiden voyage for this recipe was Father’s Day and it was amazing, even with our measuring mishaps.  I knew Sunday would be busy so I grated all the cheese on Saturday.  Instead of measuring the cheese by the cup like the recipe says, I thought I’d be smarter and measure it by weight.  To quote one of my favorite lines from Pretty Woman, “Big mistake.  Huge.”  We had so much sauce, so very much.  The macaroni noodles were swimming in the deep end of a sauce filled pan.  We quickly boiled more noodles and salvaged the mess.

This time I measured the cheese by the cup, not the weight and it was perfect.  A beautiful, perfect pasta to sauce ratio, and delightfully perfect dish.  I think that’s the right amount of superlatives to describe it’s perfectness.  So, learn from my lesson, measure the cheese by the cup!

Here’s some notes:

• It comes together pretty fast so you’ll want to have all your parts measured and ready to go.
• Two jalapenos give it a nice warm taste without too much heat.  You can leave some seeds in or add more if you’d like.
• You can make this ahead of time.  I make it a few hours early and store it covered in the refrigerator.  I wouldn’t make it the day before, though.
• You can bake it in your Traeger.

Let’s get cooking!

Use a fork to stir together the melted butter, panko bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese and set aside.

Shred your cheeses, measure and put in a bowl.

Seed and dice the jalapenos.  Measure and have flour and half & half ready.

Boil salted water and cook your pasta two minutes under al dente.  It will finish cooking in the oven. You don’t want mushy pasta at the end.

Cut 1/2 pound of bacon and cook in cast iron skillet until crisp, drain on paper towels.

Drain all but three tablespoons of the bacon grease.  I’m not good at eyeballing it in the skillet so I drain it into a small ramekin then measure back three tablespoons.

Add butter and jalapenos and sauté until they are soft, about one minute.

Add flour and whisk for 30 seconds.

Reduce heat, add half & half and whisk until lumps are gone and it’s nice and smooth.

Turn off the heat, add cheeses, salt and pepper then stir to combine.  Cheese may not completely melt right away and that’s okay.

From here you can add the cooked pasta to the cheese sauce in the cast iron, add the crumb topping and bake it.  My skillet is just a little too small so I finish it off in a baking dish.  I pour the noodles in the dish first then add the cheese sauce.

After I give it a good stir to combine, I add the crumb topping and bake it for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

If you make it ahead, the dish will be cold so I add 10 minutes, baking it for 30 minutes.

We freeze our leftovers in a square Tupperware for an easy and delicious side dish anytime.

Print recipe

Bacon Jalapeno Mac & Cheese

Recipe Credit:  Butter Your Biscuit

• 8 ounces pasta
• 1/2 lb. bacon
• 1 or 2 jalapenos, diced
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup flour
• 3 cups half/half
• 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded
• 1 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Panko topping

• 3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
• 3 Tablespoons butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook pasta two minutes under al dente.
3. Stir together topping ingredients and set aside.
4. Chop bacon into small pieces and cook until crispy.  Drain on paper towels.
5. In the same skillet, drain all but three tablespoons of bacon fat.  Add butter, diced jalapenos and cook a minute or two until soft. Add flour and whisk together about 30 seconds to cook flour.  Reduce heat, add half/half and whisk until smooth, without clumps.
6. Turn off heat, add cheeses and bacon and whisk until combined.  Add cooked pasta, salt and pepper to taste to the cheese sauce.
7. Pour mixture into baking dish, or leave in leave in cast iron skillet to bake if it fits.
8. Bake for 20 minutes until top is golden.