Crock Pot Mac and Cheese

A two tone blue ceramic bowl of macaroni cheese in front of slow cooker, grated cheese and a glass jug of milk.

4.68 from 84 votes

This is a dump-and-go crockpot mac and cheese recipe, ie dump the ingredients into a slow cooker (including dry pasta) come back in a few hours and the macaroni cheese is ready to eat!

Prep Time2

Cook Time3

Total Time3 2

Course: Family Dinner Ideas

Cuisine: New Zealand

Keyword: Crockpot mac and cheese, slow cooker mac and cheese, crockpot macaroni, crock pot mac and cheese, crockpot mac n cheese, macaroni cheese

Servings: servings

Calories: 678kcal

Author: Stacey

Equipment

Slow cooker

Ingredients

500 grams pasta, dry (elbows, penne, or shells)
3 cups grated/shredded cheese 230 grams (200g Colby or cheddar + 30g parmesan), freshly grated
2 teaspoons onion powder
3 cups milk 750 ml
1 cup cream 250 ml
Corn flour slurry (1 teaspoon cornflour + 1 Tablespoon milk (combined into a slurry) (This is optional )

Instructions

(Optional) Rinse the pasta under cold water and drain well.
Add pasta, onion powder, grated cheese, to the slow cooker. Mix well.
Pour in the cream followed by the milk and optional corn slurry. gently stir. Most of the pasta should be submerged, some won't be, thats ok.
Cook on LOW for 3 hours or HIGH for 1–1.25 hours.
Stir occasionally if you can. The final stir 15 minutes before serving is important so that any of the macaroni on the top gets the chance to soak up some of the cheese sauce.
Taste: Add extra warm milk (if the sauce has become too thick) or reserved cheese if needed before serving.
Serve

Notes

Tips

Trust the process it does work!
Please know making mac and cheese in your slow cooker is delicious but it may not be picture perfect, I think that's ok though, but you may get a more perfect result.
No, that this is not the healthiest of mac and cheese, but what it lacks in health factor it makes up in ease! I usually use this recipe as a side dish as an alternative to mashed potato.
The first time you make it I would be home when you do, this is because all slow cookers are a little different when it comes to cooking times.
Use your favorite cheeses
I store the leftover mac and cheese in the fridge for up to 4 days and heat it in the microwave as required.

Ingredient notes and substitutes

Dry pasta: In this recipe, you can use most small shapes of dry pasta (macaroni, penne, shells, spiral). Unfortunately, gluten-free pasta does not work in this recipe.
Cream: This can be left out and you can just use extra milk
Cheese: You will need grated cheese but you can use your favourite. I use a combination of colby for its meltiness and parmesan for its flavour.
Seasoning: I like to use onion powder in my mac and cheese, but other flavourings are salt and pepper, a little mustard.

Nutrition

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