A no fuss mac and cheese that is totally over the top with fatty fried bacon and hotdog bites. It’s like dive-bar food but made at home!
Mac and cheese is already a pretty decadent dish but sometimes you just wanna put a magnifying glass on that decadence. This bacon hotdog mac and cheese recipe does all that and without being bougie! I mean I am asking you to fry off bacon and hotdogs together. Nothing about hotdogs is fancy. NOTHING. But that is what makes them so dang good ya know?
There are many ways to make Mac and cheese but this one is special because it uses the evaporated milk method. I really like evaporated milk because it is inexpensive, shelf stable, and makes it easy to create a really creamy sauce. That first point is really big with me. I don’t wanna dump on other recipe creators but I am so freaking tired of mac recipes that literally ask me to spend $50 (or more!) at the cheese section. It is wack and I will not stand for it.
My resistance to expensive a$$ mac recipes probably comes from growing up in a huge family (2 parents and 6 kids is already 8 people but we always had extra family members staying with us so you do the math on that!) where it was unreasonable to spend so much on a single meal. Even now as a working adult I wouldn’t feel comfortable spending so much on a recipe. So this recipe is a happy medium between the cheapness of the ubiquitous blue box we all know and the tastiness of homemade mac.
This bacon hotdog mac and cheese uses less than 10 ingredients. Bonus: it takes under 25 minutes to make and will completely satisfy you and anyone else you feed it to. My boyfriend and I both have large appetites (we’re the kind of people who would rather eat fewer but larger meals as opposed to more frequent but tiny meals) so we split this dish in 2. This could easily serve 4 as long as you also serve something on the side like a slaw, salad, etc.
Some other basic yet delicious recipes:
Chinese Orange Sauce and Turkey Meatballs
Fried Bologna and Omelette Ciabatta Breakfast Sandwich (Can you see the trend? I absolutely love cheap deli meats!)
Bacon & Hotdog Skillet Mac and Cheese
A no fuss mac and cheese that is totally over the top with fatty fried bacon and hotdog bites. It's like dive-bar food but made at home!
Ingredients
- 8 ounces elbow noodles (2 cups)
- 4 slices bacon
- 3-4 hotdogs
- 1 can evaporated milk (12 ounces)
- 4 ounces cheddar cheese (1½ cups grated)
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- ¼ teaspoon EACH: black pepper, garlic powder
- small pinch cayenne pepper powder
- 1 teaspoon mustard any flavor works!
Instructions
-
Fill a pot with water and a big pinch of salt. Bring to boil, add the elbow noodles and cook for 10-12 minutes. Drain and set aside.
-
Dice the bacon and chop hot dogs into large bite size pieces. In a 10 inch cast iron skillet (or another pan) fry off the bacon and hot dogs over medium heat. When bacon is crispy and the hot dogs are seared remove them from the pan. Pour out excess oil and save for a later use (heads up: it will taste very bacon-y). Don't bother wiping down the skillet.
-
Lower the heat and add the cooked elbow pasta and the evaporated milk. Add the grated cheddar cheese as you stir. Add the salt and seasonings. Once the cheese is fully melted there should a creamy sauce. At this point add the mustard. Top the mac and cheese with the cooked bacon and hotdogs. Serve it hot and while the sauce is just a bit loose, it will continue to thicken up as you serve it and eat it. Enjoy!