This creamy crock pot mac and cheese with Velveeta is everything good Southern comfort food ought to be: rich, cheesy, ridiculously easy, and perfectly capable of making grown adults fight over the last spoonful. Sharp cheddar gives it plenty of flavor, Velveeta keeps the sauce silky smooth, and the uncooked macaroni goes straight into the slow cooker. No boiling, no babysitting a pot on the stove, and no complicated cheese sauce requiring an apprenticeship with a European chef.
It's one of those church potluck recipes that results in you bringing home an empty crockpot. Which, frankly, is the highest compliment a casserole can receive.
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🥰 Is this crock pot mac and cheese recipe for you?
This creamy slow cooker mac and cheese is for you if:
- You love rich, creamy mac and cheese with plenty of actual cheese flavor, not something that tastes vaguely of orange.
- You'd rather dump uncooked macaroni into the crockpot than stand over a pot of boiling water.
- You need an easy, crowd-pleasing side dish for holidays, potlucks, or family dinners.
- You believe Velveeta has a perfectly respectable place in Southern cooking, regardless of what the food snobs have to say.
- You want homemade comfort food without turning Tuesday dinner into a competitive cooking event.
The best part, though? It's such an easy recipe. Like, easy enough you could tell your blindfolded husband how to make it... and the result would still be perfection.
🧾 Ingredients
Nothing unusual here, just a handful of grocery store staples ready to turn into the creamiest, cheesiest crockpot mac and cheese you've ever met.
- Elbow macaroni: Goes in uncooked. That's right, we're skipping the boiling water and the extra pot because we've suffered enough.
- Sharp cheddar cheese: Brings the bold, tangy cheese flavor. Mild cheddar is perfectly pleasant, but we're not here for perfectly pleasant.
- Velveeta: The secret to that gloriously smooth, creamy sauce. Cheese purists may clutch their pearls elsewhere.
- Butter: Adds richness because apparently three kinds of dairy weren't quite enough.
- Evaporated milk: Helps make the sauce rich and creamy without turning dinner into a complicated dairy experiment.
- Condensed cheddar cheese soup: Adds another layer of cheesy goodness and helps everything come together without making a separate sauce.
- Black pepper: Just enough to balance all that richness and remind the cheese who's in charge.
📖 Recipe
Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese
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- 1 pound elbow macaroni, uncooked
- 8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 cup Velveeta cheese, cubed
- ¼ cup butter, cubed
- 3 cups evaporated milk
- 21 oz Campbell's Cheddar Cheese condensed soup, 2 10.5 oz cans
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste
Instructions
- Spray crock pot with no-stick cooking spray.
- Add the elbow macaroni to the crock pot.
- Combine the evaporated milk with the cheddar cheese soup, and black pepper. Mix until it's nice and smooth. Pour it over the macaroni.
- Top with half of the shredded cheddar, the Velveeta cheese, and the cubed butter.
- Stir until it's good and mixed up.
- Top off with the remaining shredded cheese.
- Cover with the lid.
- Set on low and cook for 4 hours.
Notes
- I don't really recommend pasta swaps here. The elbow noodles are thick enough to withstand a longer cook time in the crock pot. Thinner noodles don't hold up as well.
- Shred your own cheese! It'll melt better and give the macaroni and cheese a perfectly creamy texture. The anti-caking agent in pre-shredded varieties can leave your mac and cheese tasting gritty.
- If it will be staying at "keep warm" for more than an hour or two go ahead and add about ⅓ cup evaporated milk extra. This will help it not dry out.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
This recipe has been tested several times. If you choose to use other ingredients, or change the technique in some way, the results may not be the same.
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🔪 How to make crock pot mac and cheese
No boiling pasta, no making a cheese sauce, and no dirtying every pot in the kitchen. Just a few simple steps between you and a bubbling crockpot full of cheesy happiness. Here's how it's done.
- Add the uncooked macaroni to your slow cooker. Yes, dry. Put that pasta pot back in the cabinet.
- Pour in the evaporated milk and cheddar cheese soup. Give everything a good stir.
- Add the Velveeta, half the cheddar, butter, and pepper. Stir until everybody's acquainted.
- Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, cover, and cook until the macaroni is tender and the cheese is gloriously melty.
Some crockpot recipes are strictly "set it and forget it," but this mac and cheese needs a little supervision. Slow cookers have minds of their own, and older models may cook the pasta faster than you'd expect. Start checking for doneness at the four-hour mark, giving the macaroni a quick taste now and then. As soon as it's al dente, switch to Warm. Keep the lid-lifting to a minimum, though. Every peek lets heat escape, and we're checking dinner, not conducting a home inspection.
😱 What can go wrong (and how to fix it)
🧀 Mushy macaroni: Slow cookers aren't particularly interested in following schedules. Start checking the pasta early and switch to Warm as soon as it's tender. Leave it too long and you'll have cheesy mashed potatoes with an identity crisis.
🧀 Dry, thick mac and cheese: The pasta keeps absorbing liquid as it sits. Stir in a splash of warm milk to loosen things up, especially if it's been on Warm for a while.
🧀 Grainy cheese sauce: High heat can make the cheese separate and turn grainy. Stick with Low, and don't crank up the temperature because dinner is running late. Cheese does not respond well to threats.
🧀 Unevenly cooked pasta: Make sure the macaroni is well coated with the liquid mixture before cooking. Dry noodles sticking up above everything else are not going to magically cook themselves.
🧀 Burnt edges: Some slow cookers run hotter than others, especially around the sides. If yours tends to scorch things, start checking earlier and avoid leaving the finished mac and cheese sitting on the heat.
👩🍳 FAQs
Yes, as long as your slow cooker is large enough to hold everything comfortably. Don't pack it to the brim, and start checking the macaroni early. A bigger batch may need a little extra cooking time.
In older recipes, condensed milk often means evaporated milk, since both have had some of their water removed. For this mac and cheese, use unsweetened full fat evaporated milk, not sweetened condensed milk. The sweetened kind belongs in fudge and pies, not anywhere near your macaroni.
📚 Related recipes
There's a reason mac and cheese has been showing up at Southern Sunday dinners, church potlucks, and holiday tables for generations. This creamy crockpot version gives you all that cheesy, old-fashioned comfort without boiling a single noodle. Just keep an eye on the cooking time, because there's a fine line between perfectly tender macaroni and something you could use to patch drywall.
First published July 12, 2022.
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