Gruyere Bacon Mac and Cheese
Mac and cheese is always better when crisp bacon goodness is involved, especially in this easy stovetop, no-fuss 30 min dish from start to finish!
Macaroni and cheese is my favorite kind of comfort food. It’s a carboholic’s absolute weakness involving creamy, stringy cheesy goodness. But I realized that I’ve found something better than mac and cheese. It’s mac and cheese with bacon. And not just any kind of bacon – it’s crisp, bacon bits tossed right in and then leaving some extra on the side for that beautiful garnish. But let’s be real here. We both know you’ll be eating those bacon “garnish” bits first.
But let me tell about this bacon first. I used Jones Dairy Farm bacon in this recipe, the one with the iconic farmhouse on their packages signifying their commitment to creating natural, wholesome products. And although many developments have been made in food technology for the last 120 years making production faster and cheaper, Jones Dairy Farm continued to stay true to their roots, keeping their products away from fillers, binders, MSG, allergens, glutens, artificial ingredients or preservatives.
I absolutely love their authenticity, and you know I love bacon, so you could imagine how thrilled I was when they ask me to be a brand ambassador. So once a month, be on the lookout for a new pork recipe that the whole family will love, like this mac and cheese here.
Now this is a simple, no-fuss stovetop mac and cheese recipe that takes 30 minutes from start to finish. There’s no baking involved and no fancy breadcrumb topping either. I usually like to add that crunchiness to my mac and cheese but the bacon takes real good care of that on this one. And plus, you don’t want those breadcrumbs to take away from that salty, crisp, smoky bacon topping!
Gruyere Bacon Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 8 ounces elbow macaroni
- 6 slices Jones Dairy Farm Sliced Bacon, diced
- 2 ½ cups heavy cream
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 1 ¼ cups shredded gruyere cheese
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well and set aside.
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
- In a medium saucepan, combine heavy cream, garlic and thyme over medium heat. Bring to a slight boil and reduce by half, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in cheeses, a handful at a time, until smooth, about 1-2 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in pasta and bacon until well combined.
- Serve immediately, garnished with bacon, if desired.
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Disclosure:This post is sponsored by Jones Dairy Farm. All opinions expressed are my own.
I absolutely love the aroma and taste of Gruyère cheese! However, there are only two of us and after trying to reduce this recipe (which is absolutely wonderful), I didn’t do a good job reducing. Can you help please? Thanks!
Alright peeps made this tonight and just let me tell ya.. It is the best home made mac n cheese ever!! My husband, son ,mother in law and absolutely Loved it.!!I will be keeping this recipe forever!!
I just made this for supper last night. Oh. My. Gosh. This was RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING! The grocery store only had smoked gruyere, but it played perfectly with the bacon. We changed up the pasta because Publix had a BOGO on Barilla pasta, and we found a Collezione Regional Specialties pasta called bucatini. It was perfect! I just wanted you to know. 😀
This looks delicious! Any tips on how to make this for a potluck? As in keeping it warm without getting mushy! Thanks!
Shannon, you can try keeping this warm in a slow cooker on the WARM setting, stirring occasionally. Hope that helps!
I had the best meal of my life in November 2014…we were in Les Gruyere, Switzerland. I was starving…and had to have their Mac & Cheese. It was like this recipe minus the bacon and No garlic, no thyme…but rather onion that seemed shaved. It was AWEsome. Now…I cannot have it any other way! And…using the imported Gruyere!!!
is therE a way to make this with milk instead of cream
You can certainly try substituting milk but without further recipe testing, I cannot speak for how much this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish. Using a substitution may also result in a mediocre outcome.
I ended up using your skinny fettuccine alfredo recipe as the base and it worked well 🙂 I can’t have a lot of cream due to an intolerance.
I should make these for my dad! He enjoys bacon cheese so much! Thanks for posting these. 🙂
Is heavy cream the same as heavy whipping cream. I cant find anything that just says heavy cream in my grocery. Thanks!
They are actually different, particularly in milk-fat content, but whipping cream is a great substitute for this recipe.
OMG! Was looking for a rainy day kind of meal. Pinned this months ago and just made it tonight. YUM. Such creamy goodness and so easy. Now I just want to put it on the BBQ for 20-30 minutes to get some good smokiness.
Chung-Ah,
I love your recipes and have pinned many of them! I just made the Gruyere Bacon Mac and Cheese tonight and it was to die for! My hubby also liked it…ALOT!
Kitty
This looks great! I’m a huge mac n cheese fan, but prefer it baked. Would the instructions stay the same and then just pop it in the oven as I would normally do?
Yes, that should be just fine. I’d even broil it for 2-3 minutes to avoid overcooking the mac and cheese.
I’m thinking about making this for dinner tonight. Is it enough to be a main dish by itself or what would you recommend serving with it?
You can serve it as is or with a light salad.
I made this last night with a few minor changes and it was fabulous! I used a smoked gruyere and added some shallots. I will definitely be making this again.
Do you dice the bacon before cooking? Can’t wait to try
Elizabeth, please refer to the ingredients. It states, “6 slices Jones Dairy Farm Sliced Bacon, diced”.
Hi Chung Ah I am new to your website. This Mac and cheese looks delicious. I do have one question about it though. Do you use grated Parmesan in the shaker can or freshly grated? Or does it matter?
Shelley, I always use freshly grated Parmesan in all of my recipes.
I made this a few weeks ago, it was amazing! Perfection! Thank you. The flavor was out of this world.
I noticed that when I reheated it, it was very greasy. Can I make this dish ahead of time? Like for a potluck. Thank you again 🙂
I’m so glad you had a chance to give this a try! As for reheating, we never had any leftovers to reheat! In my experience, mac and cheese is never the same as a leftover.
O.M.G(oodness)………..This looks amazing!! I’ll be making this tomorrow night! 🙂
Mac & cheese is already awesome and then you went and added bacon…oh yeah!!
Ummm yum. I’m all for bacon mac & cheese! 🙂
What a great twist on a classic! Love it.