Breakfast Mac & Cheese is a delicious mashup of cheesy macaroni and your morning bacon and eggs…but don’t save it just for breakfast, it makes a cozy brinner as well!
This yummy breakfast mac and cheese is a melange of cheesy pasta and crisp bacon, anchored in the center by a barely set egg.
This is one of those dishes where looking at it through the lens just wasn’t cutting it for me, I needed to dig right in. No time for setting a scene or arranging backdrops and accessories, I left it right there on the oven tray. Heck, I barely got the thing in focus. It’s the stuff foodie dreams are made of, and the stars don’t align like this every day, so I know you’ll excuse me from my artistic duties just this once…and really it’s a win win situation, I get to eat, and you get the recipe for an indulgent variation on mac & cheese. And then you’ll get to eat. I think that’s fair.
what you’ll need for breakfast mac and cheese
Breakfast mac and cheese is a classic macaroni and cheese enriched with bacon and eggs…
- bacon
- elbow pasta
- butter
- flour
- milk
- sharp cheddar cheese
- eggs
- salt and fresh cracked black pepper
breakfast mac & cheese step by step
- Cook your bacon until crisp.
- Make your mac and cheese.
- Divide mac and cheese among 4 oven safe bowls or use individual cast iron skillets like I used.
- Top generously with crumbled bacon.
- Make an indentation in the center of each and crack an egg into the indentation.
- Bake until the egg is barely set.
- Top with ore crumbled bacon and fresh cracked black pepper.
The EASIEST way to cook bacon ~ bake it!
Breakfast mac and cheese starts with a good amount of thick cut bacon and the easiest and neatest way to cook bacon is on a baking sheet in the oven.
- Preheat your oven to 375F.
- Lay the bacon out in a single layer on a baking sheet and cook it until it’s just the way you like it.
- For this recipe you want to get it crisp enough to crumble.
I know you’re going to love this breakfast mac and cheese, that’s not in question, but I do wonder whether you’ll want to eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Or maybe a romantic midnight feast. As you know I ate mine the minute it came out of the oven, no idea what time it was.
A big YUM 🙂
more breakfast for dinner and dinner for breakfast recipes
- Breakfast Pasta Carbonara
- Mushroom and Egg Breakfast Pastries
- Breakfast Burritos
- Eggs Benedict Quiche with Hollandaise Sauce
- Kedgeree
- Breakfast for Dinner! The Best Brinner Recipes Ever
Breakfast Mac and Cheese
Equipment
- 4 oven safe bowls or individual skillets
Ingredients
- 6 slices thick cut bacon, cooked and chopped or crumbled. Reserve 3-4 Tbsp of the fat
- 2 cups dry elbow pasta
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 Tbsp flour
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 cups finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- black pepper
Instructions
- Set oven to 400F
- Cook the pasta in lots of well salted water just to the al dente stage. Drain and toss with the reserved bacon fat.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour. Cook for about a minute, and then slowly pour in the milk, stirring or whisking constantly to combine all the flour into the milk. Continue heating and stirring until the mixture thickens, this will happen just as the milk is getting to the boiling point.
- Take the pan off the heat and add the cheese, a little at a time, stirring to melt.
- Add the cooked pasta and half the bacon crumbles to the sauce, tossing to combine well. Divide the mixture between 4 individual oven safe skillets or bowls.
- Make an indentation in the center of each serving with the back of a large spoon for the egg. Crack an egg into each. Put the bowls on a baking sheet and bake until the eggs are just set, about 17-20 minutes or so, depending on how you like your egg done.
- Grind some fresh black pepper over each bowl, and scatter the rest of the crumbled bacon around the egg just before serving.
I expect the best from this recipe so give 5* on faith, and would add that when I bake mac/cheese for dinner I allow for leftovers and slice a thick slab, pan brown both sides, and use as a base for egg and bacon. Just a shortcut that helps me. Definitely I am one of your mac/cheese addicts!
I made this for the family for dinner last night and there wasn’t a speck left! Thank you Sue for making this difficult period so much tastier for us!
Looks delicious but confused. Recipe calls for 4 bowls and an egg in each but then it makes 2 large portions so instead of 4 I’m using 2 larger bowls with 8 pieces of bacon per bowl and one egg in each? I know this is silly question -maybe it’s the amount of bacon used that’s throwing me off – 16 slices? Anyway, making it ASAP!
I just clarified that Janie, it feeds 4, or 2 super hungry folks 🙂
I would like to make this in 2 large 9×13 casseroles to feed 20 people. Any ideas on amounts of ingredients?
Thank you!
CB
I think i would double the mac and cheese recipe for one 9×13 pan, Cyndy. Good luck!
What a brilliant idea! And you know that calorie laden breakfasts actually help in losing weight as it’s the best time of day to eat all those calories?
Leftover mac and cheese was always favorite breakfast..so why not just plan to START the day right??? Looks wonderful-thanks!