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Bacon Mac and Cheese
Bacon mac and cheese is creamy, cheesy, and loaded with crisp, salty bacon for an easy comfort-food dinner that’s hard to resist. Tender macaroni is folded through a rich cheese sauce, then finished with plenty of bacon for extra savoury flavour in every bite. It’s simple, satisfying, and perfect for weeknights when you want something hearty, familiar, and very firmly in the category of food that makes everything feel a bit better.
Bacon Mac and Cheese
My mac and cheese with bacon is everything I want in comfort food. It’s rich, creamy, and loaded with crispy bacon for that perfect salty crunch. I use a simple roux-based cheese sauce, plenty of sharp pecorino and gouda, and just the right pasta shape to hold all that gooey goodness. It’s quick to make, endlessly satisfying, and ideal for weeknights, weekend cravings, or feeding a hungry crowd. If you love easy baked pasta recipes, this one’s an absolute keeper.
Ingredients
- 400g macaroni
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 100g bacon bits, diced bacon, or bacon lardons
- 50g butter
- 50g plain flour
- 1 1/2 cups full cream milk
- 1 tsp chicken stock paste
- 1/4 tsp garlic salt
- 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 75g Gouda, grated
- 50g Pecorino, grated
- Cracked black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and fry until golden and crispy, about 10-15 minutes. Set aside.
- In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk continuously until bubbling, then continue to whisk for another 2-3 minutes, or until the roux just starts to colour.
- Increase the heat to medium and slowly whisk in the milk until the sauce is smooth and creamy.
- Whisk in the chicken stock paste, garlic salt, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Add the crispy bacon, Gouda, and Pecorino and stir until the cheese is fully melted and the sauce is well combined. Season generously with cracked black pepper.
- Cook the macaroni according to the packet instructions. Reserve about 1/2 cup of starchy pasta water before draining.
- Drain the pasta and stir through the cheese sauce, adding a little pasta water as needed to loosen the sauce to your preferred consistency.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
- This is proper mac and cheese. Rich, cheesy, and deeply savoury with crispy bacon running through every bite. It's comfort food at its most unapologetic.
- Cooking the roux until it just starts to colour before adding the milk is the step that gives the sauce its depth. It eliminates the raw flour taste and adds a subtle nuttiness to the bechamel.
- Add the milk slowly and whisk continuously. Rushing this step is how you end up with a lumpy sauce. Low and slow is the way.
- Gouda melts beautifully and adds a creamy, slightly sweet flavour. Pecorino brings a sharp, salty punch that balances the richness. The combination is far more interesting than a straight cheddar sauce.
- Grate your own cheese rather than using pre-grated. Pre-grated cheese has anti-caking agents that prevent it from melting smoothly and can make the sauce grainy.
- Chicken stock paste and Worcestershire sauce add a deep, savoury umami backbone that takes this sauce well beyond a basic bechamel. Don't skip either of them.
- Cracked black pepper is a key flavour here, not just a seasoning. Be generous.
- The starchy pasta water is your best friend for loosening the sauce without diluting the flavour. Add it a splash at a time until the sauce coats the macaroni perfectly.
- This mac and cheese is best eaten fresh while the sauce is still silky and the bacon is crispy. It thickens as it sits.
- Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat gently in a pan over low heat with a splash of milk to loosen the sauce.
- Not suitable for freezing as the cheese sauce can split and become grainy after defrosting.
What I Cook With
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 595Total Fat: 30gSaturated Fat: 15gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 13gCholesterol: 70mgSodium: 1078mgCarbohydrates: 53gFiber: 5gSugar: 6gProtein: 27g
Please note, this nutrition information is to be used as a guide only. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.
Serve this with
- Serve with my Garlic Bread for full comfort-food mode. The crisp, buttery bread is ideal for scooping up the creamy cheese sauce and smoky bacon bits left at the bottom of the bowl.
- Pair with my Honey Roasted Carrots for a sweeter contrast. Their caramelised edges work well against the salty bacon and rich cheese while adding something a little lighter to the plate.
- Add steamed broccoli or green beans with lemon for freshness. Something simple and green helps cut through the richness without competing with the bacon and cheese.
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When Inspiration Hits
Ever had one of those mornings where, despite being really tired and achey, inspiration hits? And not inspired by anything new, per se. But the inspiration to cook something you’ve been meaning to for a long time? That’s me with this Stove-top Bacon Mac and Cheese recipe. It had been sitting in the back of my mind for weeks, maybe even months, and it finally demanded my attention. You know that feeling, right? When a dish you’ve made many times suddenly calls to you with new purpose. I wanted it to be better than it’s ever been, and it finally is.
Now, I have of course made this many times before (just like most recipes from The Archives), but it was always missing that certain je ne sais quoi. It was always ok, but never great. However, when I found the beef stock paste I used for my red wine ragu, I knew that the chicken stock paste would turn my bacon mac and cheese recipe from eh to excellent. It’s the kind of simple but deeply flavourful change that completely transforms a dish without altering its essence.
And you know what? It is all the difference in this mac and cheese recipe. In the past, I have experimented with chicken stock pots, but the flavour was never quite there. And stock pots tend to have dehydrated veggie bits in them, which we do not want in a creamy pasta sauce! Honestly, stock paste is one hundred percent changing my recipe game. If you can find it in your local supermarket, get some! And if you want, just use 1/3 of a stock pot in this recipe and ignore the dehydrated veggie bits and my complaining.
Officially Autumn and a Little Bit Home-sick
Australia follows the meteorological, rather than an astrological, calendar when it comes to the seasons, meaning we are officially in Autumn! Something I am very grateful for. I am not a fan of Aussie summers! And given my love of comfort food, we all know this means lots of cosy and comforting recipes are on their way. With the heat easing off and the mornings turning crisp, I find myself reaching for dishes like this Stove-top Bacon Mac and Cheese more than ever. It feels like a hug in a bowl, and lately, I’ve needed those more than I care to admit.
You may have noticed from my past few posts that I am tremendously homesick for the UK. I miss the sense of community! I miss how friendly everyone is. And I miss the weather, the cosy pubs! Yeah, there are cosy pubs here in Adelaide, but I think Adelaide has shown me everything I am missing about home – all the things I took for granted. There’s something about sitting with a plate of cheesy pasta that brings those memories flooding back. It’s not even the food itself, but the act of preparing it and the sense of ritual it brings.
Adelaide is like little England, but only in hints. So it’s a subtle reminder of everything I left behind, and rather than making me feel comfortable, it just gives me the drive and passion to get back home. So, the plan over the next wee while is to save as much money as possible in every way I can. And with winter approaching here, and my first real winter back in Australia (thanks Brisbane…) it’ll at least be nice to cosy up and play make-believe that I am snuggled up somewhere in the UK. I of course wouldn’t be moving back to Scotland. I never got to spend as much time in England as I wanted to, so that will definitely be the goal… But let’s just wait and see how we go.
Uh, What About This Recipe?
Oh yes! I suppose I should talk about this bacon mac and cheese recipe a little bit more. Um, there’s not really much to say! I use Gouda because I feel like it really compliments the bacon bits the best. And, the Worcestershire sauce is a cheeky little addition that adds a hint of umami to the sauce. The Worcestershire sauce along with the chicken stock paste is what really elevates this mac and cheese sauce. It’s the kind of combination that makes your tastebuds do a little dance without overpowering the comforting base.
And of course, don’t feel like you need to use macaroni in this recipe – use whatever pasta you love the most! In fact, this would probably be really good with a fettuccine or pappardelle! I should have thought of that myself, truth be told. I do love a pappardelle! It’s wide and flat and absolutely clings to sauce in a way that just makes sense. I’m already planning to test it again with a new pasta just to see how the flavour holds up. That’s the beauty of recipes like this – there’s room to play.
You know those people who think all pasta is the same? I am not one of those people! For example, I am not a fan of penne. Never have been, never will be. But, I love rigatoni! And macaroni! I love conchiglie, but will only use that in pasta dishes with seafood, because that’s how my brain works. I mean, you can’t have seashell-shaped pasta with beef or chicken! Anyway, as we all know though I am a celiac (yes, all my recipes are made using gluten-free ingredients) so I am limited in my pasta options. But this bacon macaroni cheese? Absolutely perfection no matter what pasta you use.
Frequently asked questions
Why Gouda and Pecorino rather than just cheddar? Cheddar is the default but it’s not the most interesting choice. Gouda melts beautifully into the béchamel and adds a creamy, slightly sweet flavour that makes the sauce feel luxurious rather than just cheesy. Pecorino brings a sharp, salty punch that balances that richness and stops the whole thing from being one-note. The combination produces a sauce that is considerably more complex than a straight cheddar version.
Why does the roux need to cook until it starts to colour? Cooking the butter and flour paste for two to three minutes until it just starts to turn golden eliminates the raw flour taste and adds a subtle nuttiness to the finished béchamel. A pale, undercooked roux produces a sauce that tastes floury and flat. The extra couple of minutes of cooking makes a noticeable difference.
My sauce is too thick after the pasta goes in. What do I do? Add a splash of the pasta cooking water, which you should reserve before draining. The starch in the water loosens the sauce without diluting the flavour, and helps it cling to the macaroni rather than sitting in a thick clump around it.
Ingredient breakdown
Macaroni
The classic shape for mac and cheese because the hollow tubes trap the sauce inside as well as coating the outside, which means you get cheese sauce in every single bite. Cook it according to the packet instructions and drain it directly into the finished sauce rather than letting it sit and clump in the colander. Reserve a splash of the cooking water before draining in case the sauce needs loosening after the pasta goes in.
Bacon
Fried low and slow in the olive oil until properly golden and crispy before anything else happens, which is the prep step that makes the bacon worth including. Crispy bacon distributed through the sauce gives you a salty, crunchy contrast in every bite. Bacon bits, diced bacon, or lardons all work equally well here. The fat rendered during frying stays in the pan and adds flavour to the base of everything that follows.
Olive oil
Just enough to get the bacon frying without sticking. The bacon will render its own fat as it cooks and take over from there, so a small amount of oil is all you need to get started.
Butter and plain flour
Combined over medium-low heat to form the roux, which is the structural base of the béchamel. Whisk continuously until bubbling, then keep going for another two to three minutes until the roux just starts to colour. This step is what eliminates the raw flour taste and gives the finished sauce a subtle nuttiness that a pale, undercooked roux doesn’t produce.
Full cream milk
Added to the roux slowly and in a thin stream, whisked continuously the whole time. Full cream milk gives you a richer, more substantial sauce than reduced fat versions. Add it too quickly and you’ll get lumps. Add it slowly with constant whisking and the sauce will come together smoothly every time.
Chicken stock paste
Stirred into the sauce with the garlic salt and Worcestershire sauce, adding a concentrated savoury depth that takes the béchamel well beyond a plain cheese sauce. It’s a small amount that does disproportionate flavour work and is worth keeping in the fridge as a permanent fixture.
Garlic salt
Seasons the sauce and adds a quiet garlic warmth that distributes evenly throughout rather than sitting in pockets the way fresh garlic would. It does the double job of seasoning and flavouring in one ingredient.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds a complex, tangy, umami depth that you wouldn’t necessarily identify by name in the finished dish but would absolutely notice if it was missing. It works alongside the chicken stock paste to give the sauce a savouriness and complexity that a plain béchamel doesn’t have.
Gouda
Grated fresh and stirred into the hot sauce until completely melted. Gouda melts smoothly and adds a creamy, slightly sweet flavour that forms the gentle, luxurious base of the cheese sauce. Pre-grated won’t melt as cleanly because of the anti-caking agents, so grate it yourself.
Pecorino
The sharp, salty counterpoint to the Gouda, grated fresh and added at the same time. Pecorino has a more assertive, complex flavour than Parmesan and adds a punch that stops the sauce from being too mild and one-dimensional. The combination of the two cheeses is what makes this sauce genuinely interesting rather than just creamy.
Cracked black pepper
A generous amount, not just background seasoning. Black pepper is a primary flavour in this sauce and should be present and noticeable in every bite. Crack it directly into the sauce after the cheese has melted and don’t be conservative about it.
