The Best Easy Smoked Mac and Cheese

Smoked mac and cheese is a smoky, rich, cheesy, decadent meal, unlike anything you’ve ever eaten. It’s a crowd-pleaser and show-stopper in one!

Serves: 6-8 Time: 1 hour 15 minutes Cookbook: Traeger Online

Homemade mac and cheese is one of our all-time favorite dishes. The cheesy goodness, the blend of different cheeses, customizable mix-ins and spices – you just can’t get mac and cheese like that anywhere else. So when we heard about smoked mac and cheese, we just knew we had to try it!

To find the best recipe for this one, we turned to the undisputed leader in producing smokers for the home and professional chef alike: Traeger. They provided us with a basic (but oh so glorious) smoky mac and cheese recipe that forms the perfect canvas to further customize the mac and cheese of your dreams.

The smoky flavor on this mac and cheese is out of this world and completely blows every other mac and cheese we’ve ever had out of the water. It’s perfectly creamy, savory, rich, and frankly downright amazing. This instantly became our favorite mac of all time.

Can’t wait to get cooking? Jump to the recipe card at the end! Or keep reading for some pro tips on this great recipe.

Jump Ahead:

• ❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
• 🧀 Ingredients Needed to Make Smoked Mac and Cheese
• 🍴 Equipment You’ll Need in the Kitchen
• 🥄 How to Make Smoked Mac and Cheese
• ♾️ Variations on Smoked Mac and Cheese
• ❓ Smoked Mac and Cheese: Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

An Updated Classic: If you like classic mac n cheese, you’re going to looove this version! Smoking this dish is a fun way to mix up the menu and we promise, put it on the dinner table and it will disappear!

Binge-Worthy: This is the perfect side dish to serve a crowd or main dish for a family meal. Just resist the temptation to eat the entire pan before you put it on the table!

Unique: Smoked macaroni is unlike anything you’ve ever eaten. Its rich smoked flavor elevates the mac and cheese to another dimension.

Delicious: This mac has the creaminess of classic comfort food, the great flavor of a restaurant-worthy dish, and the perfect texture throughout.

Ingredients Needed to Make Smoked Mac and Cheese

• Shredded Cheese: You can choose any type of cheese that melts well for this. Popular options include mild cheddar cheese, sharp cheddar, gouda, pepper jack, and swiss cheese.
• Elbow Macaroni: Macaroni is the perfect type of pasta for mac and cheese. Other types that work in a pinch include bowtie and shell pasta.
• Milk: Whole milk, half-and-half, and or heavy cream will give you the creamiest sauce. Lower-fat milk and plant-based milk can also be used – it just won’t be as creamy.
• Flour: You want all-purpose flour for this recipe.
• Panko Bread Crumbs: Bread crumbs will form a nice crunchy topping for your mac and cheese. You can find these at nearly any grocery store.
• Unsalted Butter: Always go for unsalted butter when making recipes.
• Wood Chips: Wood chips or pellets are an essential component of this smoker recipe since you can’t very well do any smoking without them. Choose a mild wood like apple or cherry for a more subtle taste or mesquite or hickory for a more bold smoke flavor.
• Hot Sauce: Pick your favorite hot sauce to blend into your cheese sauce and add a nice kick.
• Kosher Salt: You’ll “salt to taste” so have some salt on hand.
• Black Pepper: Black pepper is a wonderful flavor enhancer and is used “to taste” in this recipe.

Equipment Needed In the Kitchen

Weber Grill

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2.5 Quart Baking Dish

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Mixing Bowls

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3-Quart Saucepan

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Strainer

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• Grill or Smoker: You can make smoked mac and cheese using a charcoal grill, a pellet grill, a pellet smoker, a traeger grill, and so on. We used a Weber grill and it turned out great!
• Heat-Proof Dish: The mac and cheese will go directly on the grate in your grill or smoker, so use something heat-proof. We used the baking dish featured here. You can also use a large cast iron skillet, a large skillet that is oven-proof, or an aluminum pan.
• Mixing Bowls: Have a large bowl to hold the drained pasta, or to prep ingredients and have them handy.
• Medium Saucepan: A 2.5- or 3-quart saucepan is the ideal size for cooking the macaroni, making the roux, and combining it all together.
• Strainer: You’ll want a strainer to drain the pasta. A standard colander is perfect.

How to Make Smoked Mac and Cheese

So just how do you make smoked mac and cheese? It’s probably easier than you think!

Set up your smoker

First up, set up your smoker. We used our Weber grill so for us the process was:

1. Take out 1 cup of wood chips and start soaking them in cold water.
2. Add a handful of charcoal to the charcoal chimney.
3. Light coals and let them go until red hot.
4. Place hot coals on one side of the kettle.
5. Place 1/2 cup soaked mesquite wood chips on coals.
6. Close lid and get up to 90 degrees F.

The process may be different for you depending on whether you have a grill like we did, a Traeger smoker, or another smoker. Follow the manufacturer’s directions to get it up to 90 degrees. You want a cold smoke for this first part.

Cold smoke the cheese

When the temp on your smoker is up to 90 degrees, place the shredded cheese in an oven/heat-safe dish and place it on the grill on the opposite side of the coals for indirect heat.

Close the lid and let it smoke for a good 30 minutes.

Make the macaroni

When there is 15 minutes left on the clock, it’s time to make the macaroni. Package directions may differ, but generally:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.
2. Add the pasta and bring the water back to a boil.
3. Boil for 6 minutes. You’re looking for a texture just under al dente because the pasta will continue cooking when it smokes later.
4. Drain the cooked pasta in a strainer and set to the side.

Make the cheese sauce

Once the cheese has smoked for 30 minutes, remove it from the grill and set it to the side.

Get the same pot you used to cook the macaroni and put it on medium heat. Add the butter and keep it on the heat long enough to completely melt and become foamy.

Then, add your flour a little at a time to the melted butter while whisking continuously. You want the flour to completely dissolve into the butter, so whisk until there are no lumps and the mixture is perfectly smooth.

Keep it on medium heat and whisk until the butter/flour mixture turns golden brown. This takes around 4-5 minutes.

Now pour in the 2.5 cups of milk a bit at a time, whisking continuously to prevent burning. When it starts to thicken after about 3-5 minutes, remove it from the heat.

Add the smoked cheese to the sauce and stir until the cheese is completely melted and fully incorporated.

Taste the cheese mixture and add salt, pepper, hot sauce, or your favorite mix-ins like crumbled bacon or green chilis to taste.

Prepare the mac and cheese

When your cheese sauce is ready, add the cooked macaroni noodles and fold them in to thoroughly coat each noodle with sauce.

Finally, turn out your fully coated noodles into a heat-safe baking dish. Sprinkle panko topping or extra toppings of your choice on top of the mac and cheese.

Smoke the mac and cheese

If you thought the sauce had a nice smoke flavor when you tasted it, just wait until the whole dish gets smoked!

Add three handfuls of coals to the live coals and bring your smoker up to 360 degrees F. Then place another 1/2 cup of soaked wood chips directly on the coals.

When the temp reaches 360, place the baking dish on the opposite side of the coals for indirect heat. Smoke for 30 minutes, then remove the dish and get ready to have the best meal of your life!

Note: If your dish is coated in smoke residue (like ours was!), it will come off when you wash it.

Variations on Smoked Mac and Cheese

This is a perfect “base” mac and cheese recipe – meaning you can vary this up in a million different ways to suit your own tastes and flavor preferences. Here are some of our favorite ways to enhance this recipe even more.

Extra Cheesy Smoked Mac and Cheese: Instead of one cup of shredded cheese, smoke two or three cups of your own cheese blend. Different types of cheese that pair well together include cheddar cheese and gouda cheese, Monterey jack and colby jack, smoked gouda and parmesan, and pepper jack and cream cheese. Follow the rest of the recipe as written.

Gouda Mac: Use at least one cup of smoked gouda (or more!) and smoke it again for an even richer flavor. Follow the rest of the recipe as written.

Bacon Smoked Mac and Cheese: What’s better than smoked mac? Bacon smoked mac! Fry up 8-10 strips of your favorite bacon until crisp. Crumble it up, then mix the crumbled bacon in with the macaroni and cheese sauce just before smoking the entire dish.

Spicy Smoked Mac and Cheese: If you like your mac and cheese on the hot side, add diced green chiles, cowboy candy, or even a pinch or two of cayenne! Add these mix-ins to the cheese sauce then mix it into your pasta!

Flavor-Packed Mac: Add 2 teaspoons of garlic powder and 1 teaspoon of mustard powder to the cheese sauce. Then, add smoked meat like bacon or pork shoulder into the mac along with the cheese sauce before smoking the entire dish.

Smoked Mac and Cheese: Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

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