Mac and Cheese Bites

Oh. My. Goodness. These are SO amazing! Crowd pleaser, check.

I can’t describe how much I love these things, and they definitely go quick when hosting a party. They are for sure a treat! I am all about balance and I like to think of this as my happy appetizer, haha.

These bites are so cheesy and delicious. If you are vegetarian you can opt-out of the bacon. I also LOVE using chick fila sauce to dip these in, I make the sauce but you can definitely just buy it too. I make the sauce a day before so it is one less thing I have to think about while doing this.

Recipe Below:

These mac and cheese bites feed about 10 people.

Mac and Cheese Ingredients

• 1 32oz of velveeta cheese, cubed

• 1 12oz of evaporated milk

• 1 16oz of elbow noodles

• Dash of dry mustard

• 1 1/2 Mexican blend cheese

• 1 1/2 cup of milk (2%)

• 4 tablespoons of butter, melted

• Pepper to taste

Mac and Cheese Bites Ingredients

• Mac and cheese (recipe above), chilled

• 1 lb of bacon, cooked and crumbled

• 2 cups of Mexican cheese blend

• Italian blend or parmesan panko blend

• 2 cups of buttermilk

• 2 eggs

• Peanut oil, for frying

• Flour

• Cayenne pepper

• Parsley to garnish

• Parmesan to garnish

• Chick Fila Sauce to dip

  • 1/4 cup of mayo

  • 1 teaspoon of yellow mustard

  • 1 tablespoon of barbecue sauce (normal)

  • 1 tablespoon of honey

Directions:

For the mac and cheese, cook the elbow noodles to al dente in boiling water with salt. Once the noodles are done, drain and transfer to crockpot. Add all the other ingredients in, cook on low for about an hour or so until cheese is nice and melted.

Once the mac and cheese is done, it needs to chill. I usually make this the day before so it has the night to chill. Once the mac and cheese is ready, add the bacon and cheese. Mix well. Once that is all mixed you need to start breading.

In one bowl add the flour and cayenne pepper. In another add the buttermilk and egg, whisk. Then in another add the panko. Form mac and cheese in balls, I use an ice cream scooper to help form these. Put in flour, egg, then panko. Then egg again and panko. Set onto wax paper. Once mac and cheese balls are formed, they need to chill for at least 20 minutes.

In a frying pan add the oil and turn heat to medium-high. Oil needs to be 375 F max. Once the oil is ready pull out mac and cheese balls and begin to fry. Fry to a golden brown, takes a couple of minutes, then pull out, salt and sit on paper towel.

You will need to bake these when done to make sure everything is melted inside so pre-heat oven to 350 F. Once you have a batch ready put in oven. I like to check about every 5 minutes to make sure they aren’t overcooking and are melted enough.

Once the are done, garnish and dip into chick fila sauce.