A mac and cheese bar is the perfect way to serve a crowd while keeping everyone’s food preferences in mind. Whether you’re hosting traditionalists who love classic mac and cheese or adventurous foodies who crave unique twists on their comfort food, a customizable mac and cheese bar caters to all tastes.
Imagine a table filled with trays of creamy mac and cheese surrounded by bowls of crispy bacon, fresh veggies, and flavorful sauces – ready for everyone to customize to their perfect bowl. While creating a mac and cheese bar feels like a huge undertaking, with a little bit of prep you will have a party that your friends will talk about for weeks.
What is a Mac and Cheese Bar?
A mac and cheese bar provides eaters with a selection of cheesy pastas with their choice of toppings for a build your own adventure. Your guests can personalize their meal with different meats, vegetables and herbs, sauces, and other fun ingredients. With numerous topping options, guests can customize their mac and cheese to their exact preferences, ensuring a delicious meal.
Carnivorous guests can pile on bacon and pulled pork without inconveniencing vegetarian attendees, while spice lovers can crank up the heat as others keep it mild. Whatever their preferences, a DIY mac and cheese bar offers a delicious one-of-a-kind experience.
How to Make a Mac and Cheese Bar
Mac and Cheese
The heart of a mac and cheese bar is the cheesy pasta. Realistically, you could just make one giant pot of pasta. However, a selection of pastas gives your guests even more variety to choose from.
The Pasta
Note: This article contains affiliate links to products that I love and use to make mac and cheese in my own kitchen. When you click links here and make a purchase from retailers like Instacart or Amazon, I receive a commission at no additional cost to you. For more information, see my Affiliate Link Policy.
Your pasta choice is an important decision when making mac and cheese. For ease of both eating and serving, I tend to err on the side of smaller size noodles. Bucatini has a fabulous bite, but the mechanics of eating it and getting it to your plate is difficult. Especially in a social setting. Something that you can more easily spear with a fork is ideal here.
To make things easy on your guests, aim to use a different pasta type for each of your sauces. It’s much easier to direct someone to the gouda sauce by indicating it’s the cavatappi pasta than trying to describe the color of the sauce or which pan it’s in.
Penne is a sturdy tube-like pasta that holds up against thick sauces. It maintains its texture, making it a great option for mac and cheese that is easy to eat with a fork. Order it here for a quick and stress free setup.
Rotini is spiral shaped noodle with lots of ridges that will hold onto sauce, packing every bite with flavor. Grab it online to simplify your prep
Farfalle with its bow shape is adored by many, but it’s not my favorite. It doesn’t seem to hold onto sauce as well and it’s not the easiest to spear with a fork.
Cavatappi is a corkscrew shaped pasta that combines the best of fun and structure. It’s a great option for one of your pastas and is as delicious as it is fun. Stock up on it here to make your mac and cheese bar stand out.
No matter which pasta you choose, make sure to cook it in well-salted water. When you think you’ve added enough salt, add some more. This will provide the perfect base for your mac and cheese.
The Sauce
The Mac and Cheese Theory divides cheese into two categories. Opener cheeses offer a bold first impression while closer cheeses leave a lasting finish. For example, cheddar’s flavor hits you at first bite, while Parmesan takes a few seconds to develop. Combining both opener and closer cheeses ensures each bite offers as much cheesy flavor as it can.
Base mac and cheese sauce
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons Flour
- 3 tablespoons Butter
- 3 cups Whole Milk
- 1 cup grated Opener Cheese (like Gouda or cheddar)
- 1 cup grated Closer Cheese (like Asiago or Parmesan)
- 1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon, chicken (or onion if you’re serving vegetarian guests)
- Salt to taste
Directions
- Heat a pot of water until it’s at a rolling boil.
- Well salt the water. If you think you’ve added enough, add more.
- Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- Pre heat your milk in the microwave for 45 seconds – just enough to take the chill out of it.
- Melt butter over medium heat until it becomes foamy.
- Mix in flour.
- Cook it for a minute while stirring constantly to eliminate the raw flour taste.
- Slowly add warmed milk to the butter mixture 1/4 cup at a time. Whisk it continually until combined.
- Once all of the milk is added, add bouillon and cook for a few minutes while whisking it. Do not let it boil. You will feel the sauce start to thicken. It’s ready for cheese when you rub a small amount between your fingers and it feels silky, not gritty.
- Remove from heat and stir in your cheese until it’s melted and mixed into the sauce.
- Once the cheese is incorporated, use a cooked noodle to taste your sauce. If it doesn’t taste cheesy enough try adding a little more salt to bring out the flavor.
- Combine pasta and sauce.
Want to mix things up? Try using a cheese with spicy inclusions like this sriracha jack or a smoked Gouda to really take it up a notch.
Toppings
A successful mac and cheese bar lies in the variety of toppings you offer. There are 5 main categories of toppings. I like to aim for at least two toppings from each category, but there really isn’t a set rule here. Just grab what looks fun at the store. You really can’t go wrong here.
Crunchy Toppings add interesting textures while including a pop of flavor. I love to hit up the salad toppings for crispy mac and cheese toppings. There are so many fantastic options. Crispy onions compliment a variety of cheeses so well. Crispy jalapenos add a hit of spice and crunch perfect for adding some heat. Another great crispy topping option is crushed chips. Toasted panko is easy to make and adds an impressive crunch without overpowering the other flavors.
Meat Toppings help your pasta feel more complete. Bacon is fatty and hearty and adds an extra crunch. You can flavor grilled chicken with any number of spices. Garlic and herb is always a fantastic choice, or you can go with something that has a little more of a kick.
Produce Toppings add a pop of freshness. Chopped green onion is bright and fresh and full of flavor. I also like to slice an onion into strips and sauté it in a few tablespoons of butter until it’s soft and translucent. It’s not quite caramelized, but it helps bring out the sweetness and slightly mellow the sharp onion flavor.
Cheese Toppings despite the fact that your dish is already full of cheese, it’s fun to include shreds of cheese for your guests to sprinkle across the top of their creations.
Another cheese topping is parmesan crisps. They offer a punch of cheesy flavor and crunch.
Sauces and Spreads: Unlike other topping options, sauces and spreads will not give you texture benefits, but it ads a punch of flavor. Buffalo sauce, bbq sauce, whole grain mustard, and onion confit are fabulous options for your mac and cheese bar. I love checking for new savory jams to add another layer of flavor.
Put Your Mac and Cheese Bar Together
This is the fun part! Lay out your pasta, toppings, and plenty of dishes and let your guests dig in!
Chicken, sauteed onions, buffalo sauce, and parmesan shreds would make a spectacular buffalo chicken mac and cheese. Bacon, whole grain mustard, parmesan crisps, and chips would be a fun combination.
It’s amazing to see what creative combinations everyone comes up with. We even tried a bowl loaded up with everything and it was fabulous. The perfect way to celebrate the best holiday.
