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Smoked Mac and Cheese takes the creamiest cream cheese sauce, bathes it in real wood smoke, and buries it all under crisp buttery panko, and when I pulled this skillet off the pellet grill last Sunday afternoon, Lizzie was hovering with a fork before I could even snap a photo. If you love our crispy fried mac and cheese, this is the smoky backyard cousin that steals the show at every cookout.
It is rich enough to anchor a whole cookout table but easy enough for a regular weeknight, just like our easy homemade chili mac and cheese, only this one tastes like it came out of a barbecue joint.
Smoked Mac and Cheese Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 40 minutes
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 60 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- 🍽️ Serving: 10 servings
- ⚡ Calories: 870kcal
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Creamy, smoky, and rich with a buttery crunch on top
- ✋ Difficulty: Easy, on par with our copycat Chick Fil A mac and cheese
Quick Answer
Smoke a cream cheese and heavy cream sauce in a cast iron skillet at 180 degrees for 30 minutes, then whisk it smooth and pour it over undercooked elbow macaroni tossed with shredded cheddar and mozzarella. Spread everything back into the buttered skillet, top it with butter toasted panko breadcrumbs, and smoke it on the grill at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, until it is bubbling and the top is lightly browned. Pull the skillet and serve it hot.
Jump to:
- Smoked Mac and Cheese Quick Look
- Quick Answer
- Why This Recipe Works
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Key Ingredients
- Variations and Substitutions
- How to Make Smoked Mac and Cheese
- Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Serving Ideas and Suggestions
- Smoked Mac and Cheese FAQs
- Other Recommended Comfort Food Recipes
- Smoked Mac and Cheese
Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- Low and slow smoke first. Smoking the sauce alone at 180 degrees lets the cream soak up real wood flavor without ever getting hot enough to break or curdle.
- Cream cheese is the stabilizer. It melts into the heavy cream and forms a silky sauce that stays smooth on the grill instead of turning greasy like a straight cheddar sauce can.
- The pasta is undercooked on purpose. Pulling it 2 minutes early means it finishes cooking in the sauce on the grill, so you get tender noodles instead of mush.
- Cold pasta grabs the cheese. Rinsing the pasta cold before stirring in the shreds keeps the cheese from clumping early, so it melts evenly through every bite during the bake.
- Two cheeses, two jobs. Sharp cheddar brings the flavor and mozzarella brings the stretch, which is how you get those glorious cheese pulls.
- The panko is toasted separately. Toasting the breadcrumbs in butter on the stove first guarantees a deep golden crunch, because the humid heat of a grill will never crisp raw panko on its own.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- You get true barbecue smoke flavor with zero fancy technique, and the smoker does most of the work while you boil noodles.
- It is the ultimate cookout partner, holding its own right next to a rack of fall off the bone BBQ ribs.
- One 12 inch skillet feeds a crowd of 10, and it reheats beautifully for lunches all week.
Key Ingredients
Every ingredient here earns its spot in this Smoked Mac and Cheese, and most of them are probably sitting in your kitchen right now.
- Elbow Macaroni: All those little curves catch and hold the smoky sauce. Medium shells work just as well if that is what you have in the pantry.
- Heavy Cream: The backbone of the sauce. It smokes without breaking and gives you that rich, spoon coating texture that milk just cannot match.
- Cream Cheese: The secret to a sauce that stays silky on the grill. It is the same trick that makes our cheesy meatloaf so ridiculously moist.
- Sharp Cheddar and Mozzarella: Shred them yourself from the block. Cheddar carries the flavor, mozzarella delivers the stretch, and fresh shreds melt smoother than any bagged cheese.
- Panko Breadcrumbs: Toasted in butter until deep golden, they give every scoop that crackly top, the same crunch that makes our cheesy fried chicken impossible to resist.
See recipe card for exact quantities.
Variations and Substitutions
This skillet is endlessly customizable, so make it your own.
- Swap the cheese: Smoked gouda doubles down on the smoke, pepper jack brings heat, and gruyere makes it taste fancy.
- Lighten it up: Whole milk or half and half both work in place of the heavy cream, the sauce will just be a touch thinner.
- BBQ mac: Stir a few spoonfuls of easy homemade BBQ sauce into the finished sauce for a sweet and tangy twist.
- Buffalo chicken mac: Fold in shredded chicken and extra hot sauce, inspired by our slow cooker buffalo chicken sandwiches.
- Add a protein: Crispy bacon, chopped brisket, or pulled pork folded in before the bake turns this side dish into the main event.
- Turn up the heat: A pinch of cayenne in the sauce or sliced jalapenos on top before baking wakes the whole skillet up.
How to Make Smoked Mac and Cheese
- In a well seasoned 12 inch cast iron skillet, combine the heavy cream, 4 tablespoons of butter, the cream cheese, dry mustard, smoked paprika, black pepper, salt, and hot sauce.
- Place the skillet on the grill grates of a 180 degree smoker, close the lid, and smoke for 30 minutes with super smoke on, if available.
- Meanwhile, boil the pasta in kosher salted water for 2 minutes less than the package says, drain, rinse with cold water, and stir in the cheddar and mozzarella.
- Whisk the smoked sauce until smooth, pour it over the pasta and cheese, and fold with a spatula until every noodle is coated.
- Toast the panko breadcrumbs with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a small skillet, stirring until golden brown, and bump the grill up to 350 degrees.
- Lightly grease the skillet, add the mac and cheese, and top with the toasted panko. Smoke for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, until bubbling and lightly browned. Serve hot.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Shred your own cheese. Bagged shreds are coated in anti caking starch that can make the sauce grainy. Two minutes with a box grater is worth it.
- Stick with mild wood. Apple, cherry, or pecan keeps the smoke sweet. Hickory or mesquite can turn dairy bitter fast.
- Do not skip the cold rinse. It stops the pasta from cooking and keeps the cheese shreds from melting into clumps before the bake.
- Keep the first smoke at 180 degrees. Any hotter and the cream can break. You want smoke, not heat, in that first 30 minutes.
- Make it a barbecue feast. This skillet was born to sit next to oven baked pulled pork sandwiches or a perfectly grilled marinated sirloin steak.
- Rest it 5 minutes. The sauce thickens as it sits, so give it a short rest off the grill before you scoop.
Serving Ideas and Suggestions
This is the side dish that quietly becomes the main event at every barbecue. Serve it alongside classic southern comfort like southern collard greens and savory mashed sweet potatoes and watch it disappear before the meat does.
For a full southern spread, pile a scoop next to crispy fried chicken without buttermilk, pour some sweet tea, and call it Sunday supper done right.
It also pulls game day duty like a champ. Set the skillet out with crispy air fryer chicken wings and crispy popcorn chicken and you will not have leftovers to worry about.
Smoked Mac and Cheese FAQs
Smoke the sauce at 180 degrees for 30 minutes so the cream absorbs smoke without breaking, then raise the grill to 350 degrees and smoke the assembled skillet for 30 minutes, until it bubbles and the top browns. The low temperature stage is where all the smoke flavor happens, and the hot stage browns the top and brings it all together.
Mild fruit woods like apple and cherry are the best choice, and pecan or a mild blend works beautifully too. Dairy soaks up smoke fast, so strong woods like hickory or mesquite can push the sauce from smoky to bitter in the same 30 minutes.
Yes. Smoke the sauce and assemble the whole skillet up to a day ahead, then cover and refrigerate it. When you are ready to eat, add the toasted panko and cook it on the grill at 350 degrees, adding about 10 extra minutes since it starts cold.
Grainy sauce almost always comes from pre shredded cheese or too much heat. Bagged shreds are dusted with starch that stops them from melting smoothly, and cream that gets too hot during the smoke can separate. Shred from the block and keep that first smoke at 180 degrees.
Refrigerate leftovers in a covered container for up to 4 days. Reheat gently on the stove or in the microwave with a splash of milk to bring the sauce back to creamy, and stop as soon as it is warmed through.
You can get close in the oven. Bake it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes and lean on the smoked paprika, or add a few drops of liquid smoke to the sauce. You will miss some of the true wood smoke depth, but it is still a fantastic pan of mac and cheese.
Once the skillet is scraped clean, keep the good times rolling and try our best sheet pan pizza for your next family night in.
Smoked Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 16 ounces elbow macaroni or medium shells
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter divided, chilled
- 3 cups heavy cream
- 8 ounces cream cheese cubed and chilled
- 16 ounces sharp cheddar cheese freshly shredded
- 16 ounces mozzarella cheese freshly shredded
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt plus more for the pasta water
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce
Instructions
- Heat the smoker to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Use a mild wood such as apple, cherry, pecan, or a blend. Turn on super smoke if your smoker has it.
- In a well seasoned 12 inch cast iron skillet, combine the heavy cream, 4 tablespoons of the butter, cream cheese, dry mustard, smoked paprika, black pepper, salt, and hot sauce.
- Place the skillet on the grill grates, close the lid, and let it smoke for 30 minutes at 180 degrees with super smoke on, if available.
- While the sauce is infusing with smoke, bring a large pot of kosher salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook for 2 minutes less than the package directions say. Drain the pasta, rinse with cold water, and return the cold pasta to the pot.
- Add the cheddar and mozzarella cheese to the cold pasta and stir it all together until combined.
- Remove the sauce from the grill and whisk the sauce until it is smooth. Pour the smoked sauce on top of the pasta and cheese. Stir with a spatula to bathe the noodles in it.
- Increase your grill temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Clean the cast iron skillet and lightly grease it. Pour the macaroni and cheese mixture into the skillet, spreading it evenly to the edges.
- In a small skillet, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to the panko breadcrumbs and stir vigorously over the heat until the panko is golden brown.
- Sprinkle the toasted panko evenly over the top. Place the skillet on the grill grates and smoke for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, until the mac and cheese is bubbling and the top is lightly browned. Pull the skillet and serve hot.
Notes
Nutrition
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This is a joy to make and everone loves it. Enjoy!