November 4, 2019

Pulled Pork Topped Mac and Cheese

Name: Pulled Pork Topped Mac and Cheese
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 20 min
Ingredients: 3 tbsp butter; 3 tbsp flour; 2 cups milk; 1/4 cup heavy cream; 3/4 cup shredded gouda; 3/4 cup shredded white cheddar; 3/4 cup shredded gruyere; 1 lb elbow noodles; 1/8 tsp nutmeg; 1/4 tsp onion powder; 1/4 cup bbq sauce; 2 cups pulled pork

Jump to Recipe

Mac and cheese doesn’t just have to be for kids…this recipe elevates the original noodles and cheese to a dish you will be proud to place on the table. It is the ultimate comfort meal and companion recipe to the Pulled Pork Tacos I recently shared.

To start we make a creamy cheese sauce that blends three amazingly rich and smooth cheeses: white cheddar, gouda, and gruyere. Next we toss some al dente whole-wheat elbow noodles, and finally, top it off with slightly sweet bbq pulled pork. A delicious dinner perfect for a cool November evening.

And the best part? If you are following my plan for three meals in one week that all use the same pork roast (Pulled Pork Tacos from earlier and Stuffed Acorn Squash coming soon) then the meat is already cooked and ready to go!

Note: If you these three cheese don’t sound tempting to you, you could always swap the mac and cheese recipe below with my Easy Stovetop Mac and Cheese recipe.

Ingredients for Three Cheese Mac & Cheese

White Cheddar Cheese
Gruyere Cheese
Gouda Cheese
Whole Wheat Elbow Noodles
Butter
Milk
Cream
Flour
Leftover Pork Roast
BBQ Sauce

How to Make a Creamy Cheese Sauce

The trick to a great mac and cheese is a smooth and creamy sauce. If you have tried to make homemade mac and cheese in the past and your sauce has turned out grainy there could be a few reasons for this.

Number one: you used a pre-shredded cheese blend. While these blends are time savers, they are not ideal for sauces and pasta. The reason being that the cheese shreds are actually coated with a preservative to keep the shreds from sticking together. This substance is usually some form of plant fiber (like cellulose) and while it’s not necessarily harmful to you…it can mess with the consistency of your sauce.

To be on the safe side you should always shred cheese meant for sauces or soups from a block.

The other reason your sauce didn’t work well could be that you didn’t create a roue first. I have addressed this before in previous pasta recipes, but I will do so again here. A roue is basically a mixture of fat and flour that is slowly cooked prior to the liquid being added. This base is what helps thicken the sauce and keep it creamy.

For this recipe, you will start with melting butter then adding flour and cooking for about two minutes. It is important that during this time you watch the mixture closely and stir almost continuously to make sure it doesn’t burn. Next, you will slowly add your milk, then cream. Once the sauce begins to reduce and thicken you can add the cheese.

After the cheese has melted you add your noodles and you are moments away from delicious pulled pork topped mac and cheese.

How to Reheat and Season BBQ Pulled Pork

While your noodles cook and sauce thickens you will want to prep the meat for the topping of the mac and cheese. This is seriously such an easy process. Just take some of the leftover meat from the roast used in the Pulled Pork Tacos and shred it into bite-sized pieces.

Next, place it in a skillet over medium heat and add some bbq sauce. Stir gently every few minutes until the pork is warmed through.

The final step is to place this tender meat on top of the mac and cheese and you have a wonderful meal that both kids and adults are sure to love.