Mac & Cheese Bacon Bites

Submitted by Food.com

"No forks needed."

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 8 ounces elbow macaroni
• 24 slices precooked bacon
• 1⁄4 cup italian panko breadcrumbs
• 1⁄4 cup chopped chives

directions

1. Cook the pasta for 4 minutes less than the package instructions. Drain and set aside, reserving 1⁄4 cup of the pasta cooking water.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and then add the flour. Whisk together, cooking until the flour resembles wet sand and begins to smell nutty and fragrant. Add the milk, whisking until there is no lumps. Bring to a boil and cook for one minute, stirring often.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese. Season generously with pepper and add salt to taste (this will depend on the saltiness of your cheese.) Add the pasta and fold together until the pasta is coated, add 1 tablespoon of the pasta cooking water, if necessary, to loosen.
5. Lightly grease a muffin tin and line each cup with a piece of precooked bacon to come up sides of cup. Spoon mac and cheese into each of the cups and then top with some Italian panko breadcrumbs.
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and allow to cool 5-10 minutes to settle into cups before removing and serving.

Reviews

[Jim S.]

15 minutes to cook the bacon at 450F so the bacon is cooked and still bendy. Butter in the bottom of the muffin and cupcake tins. Standard favourite family mac and cheese recipe. Easy, fast, and a crowd pleaser for the young adults at the table. Dad's cooking using Genius Kitchen recipes worked again! Jim in Canada

 

[Christopher M.]

Amazing, my boy loves mac and cheese and the wife loves bacon. I added some paprika to my mac and cheese, cause I like it that way. Even so, without I'm sure it would have been good.

 

[Lavender1638Fawn]

I would not have thought of this had I not seen this. A great idea & a 'budget-conscious' one thinking of Christmas Buffets & New Year Parties ahead. Made at a friends house, she on the Aga with bacon & me on the gas cooker with veggy bacon! I had to fry my veggy bacon on high heat briefly to crisp it but still leave it pliable. Mine were the best because friend ignored the last important bit about letting them settle - the bacon sticks more together in that time so it stays rigid & doesn't let the filling collapse downwards. Macaroni Cheese was thought of as an 'old-person's' meal until Jamie Oliver revived it (a little) but I see it a lot on US websites. I say 'all power to the cheese'!! Some 'filled bacon nests' look like an open flower, some like an open jacket potato, but it's great to have this variant. I shall include them for my New Years Eve get-together (if I haven't eaten them all first).

 

[Heather P.]

For some reason I can not get any of the movies to play