Both macaroni and cheese and slow cooked beef brisket are excellent on their own. So, when combined into a creamy cheddar baked brisket mac and cheese, it's a total match made in heaven!
If you've never tried the two paired together, you don't know what you're missing! Combined, you get an ultra rich and cheesy, hearty and smoky dish. Plus, when you top it all off with a drizzle of homemade BBQ sauce, it's truly next level.
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📋 About the Recipe
- This brisket mac and cheese is primarily made up of 3 main components: the creamy cheddar mac and cheese, the slow cooked BBQ brisket, and the barbecue sauce drizzled over top. It's rich, cheesy, smoky, and wonderfully tangy all combined in one dish!
- The macaroni and cheese utilizes freshly shredded cheeses, like cheddar and gruyere, which create a lusciously smooth, homemade cheese sauce that coats the pasta ever so perfectly.
- The beef brisket is rubbed in a flavor-packed mixture of spices, slow cooked in a crockpot or slow cooker, and becomes fall apart fork-tender.
- I prefer to pair both with my homemade pomegranate BBQ sauce, a Kansas city style sauce that provides the best combination of smoky and sweet flavor. The sauce gets drizzled on top after baking.
- If you have leftover brisket from dinner the night before, you can opt to use it up by solely making the macaroni, topping it with the leftover brisket, and baking it all together for a whole new meal the next night!
- This recipe is also incredibly easy since your slow cooker does most of the work for you. If you've never made brisket or macaroni and cheese from scratch before, there's no need to worry! Don't let the cooking time intimidate you and just simply plan ahead for best success.
🛒 Ingredients
For the Slow Cooker Brisket
For the Creamy Cheddar Mac and Cheese
A few notes about the brisket ingredients:
- Beef brisket - the brisket becomes fall apart tender in the slow cooker. It's meaty, smoky, and adds a hearty element to the rich and cheesy mac and cheese.
- Smoked paprika, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, brown sugar, salt, and pepper - each of these spices combines to create a BBQ spice rub for the brisket. It's slightly sweet, smoky, salty, and flavorful.
- Apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce - these combine to provide acid to the beef. The acidity helps break it down, making it fork-tender and easily shreddable.
- Ketchup - this is the base of the sauce. It prevents the brisket from drying out, while creating a tomatoey, thick sauce.
- Unsweetened applesauce - this may seem like an unusual element to add to meat, but it helps keep the beef juicy and flavorful as it cooks for 8 hours.
A few notes about the mac and cheese ingredients:
- Pasta (fusilli, rotini, cellentani, cavatappi) - a hearty, robust pasta is preferred for this dish. The 4 listed here are great options. Since they are spiraled, their curves hold tightly onto the cheesy sauce, while their shape remains thick enough to not fall apart under the heavy meat and cheese.
- Unsalted butter - butter adds a rich flavor to the sauce, while also thickening it. It is a key element in creating a luscious creamy mac and cheese.
- Flour - the flour combines with the butter to create a "roux." Roux's are the base of many thick sauces. It is essential for a rich and decadent sauce that sticks to pasta.
- Whole milk, heavy whipping cream - along with the cheese, these dairy products add creaminess to the sauce as well.
- Sharp cheddar, gruyere - there are many different combinations of cheeses you can use for a delicious macaroni. However, I prefer the combination of a sharp and tangy cheddar with a nutty and salty gruyere to help counteract the richness of the other ingredients.
- Smoked paprika, salt, pepper - these add additional flavor to the dish. The smoked paprika in the macaroni and cheese matches the flavors incorporated in the brisket, while the salt and pepper enhance all of the other flavors overall.
📓 Instructions
For the Slow Cooker Brisket
1. Trim off any excess fat from the brisket. Set it aside.
2. In the base of a slow cooker or crockpot, add unsweetened applesauce, ketchup, ½ cup brown sugar, water, apple cider vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine.
3. In a small bowl, combine smoked paprika, chili powder, cumin, ½ tablespoon brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper to make a BBQ dry rub.
4. Using your hands, pat the spice rub on all sides of the brisket. Use all of the rub so the meat is heavily coated.
5. Place the brisket in the slow cooker and cover it with the sauce. Slow cook for 8 hours on high or 10 hours on low.
6. When brisket is done, carefully remove it from the slow cooker. Allow it to cool slightly before using two forks to shred the meat until it breaks apart into fine, long strands. Set it aside.
For the Creamy Cheddar Mac and Cheese
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Boil pasta on the stovetop in salted water 1 minute less than instructed on the package.
3. While the pasta is boiling, shred the cheeses and prepare a baking dish by spraying it with nonstick spray. Set the cheese and baking dish aside.
4. When the pasta is done, drain it and drizzle some olive oil over top to keep it from sticking. Stir to coat each noodle in oil. Set pasta aside.
5. In a large dutch oven or high sided cast iron skillet, combine butter and flour over medium-low heat to make a roux.
6. Cook the butter-flour mixture until it becomes golden brown and bubbly.
7. Turn the heat to low. Carefully whisk in milk, heavy cream, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper.
8. When thick and fully combined, turn off the heat. Whisk in half of each type of cheese, reserving the other half for later.
9. Add cooked pasta to the creamy cheese sauce and stir to fully coat each noodle.
10. Add half of the pasta to the baking dish, then sprinkle the rest of the shredded cheese over top. Add the rest of the pasta on top of the cheese.
11. Top off the mac with the shredded brisket. Bake the brisket mac and cheese in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and the brisket is slightly dark and caramelized.
12. Garnish with finely chopped chives and a drizzle of your favorite BBQ sauce.
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
Both the brisket and the mac and cheese can be great on their own. For example, enjoy the macaroni as a delicious side dish, or the brisket on a bun with a scoop of coleslaw as part of a pulled BBQ brisket sandwich.
Instead of brisket: you can use pulled chicken or pork:
For chicken - Use the recipe below, substituting the brisket for 3 boneless chicken breasts. Slow cook for 3 to 4 hours on high, or until the chicken is cooked through and shreds easily with a fork.
For pulled pork - Use the recipe below, substituting the brisket for 2 to 3 lbs of pork shoulder. Slow cook for about 5 hours on high, or until the pork is cooked through and shreds easily with a fork.
❄️ How to Store Homemade Mac and Cheese
To store: Homemade brisket mac and cheese is generally best served fresh from the oven. However, if you have leftovers, you can allow the macaroni to cool completely before scooping it into an airtight container.
Place the container in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
To freeze: You can also freeze homemade macaroni and cheese in individual serving-sized containers for easy lunches on the go or in a large pan for a quick reheat-able weeknight dinner.
Freeze up to 3 months.
To reheat: To reheat macaroni and cheese, microwaving is not recommended, as the cheese tends to separate and becomes greasy.
Instead, place refrigerated or frozen mac in a preheated 375 degree F oven and cook until warmed through in the middle, anywhere from 20 minutes if refrigerated to about an hour if frozen.
🔍 FAQs
Mac and cheese is a carb-centered, fairly heavy dish. To help lighten it up a bit, you can serve it alongside fresh vegetables and dip, a garden salad, kid friendly veggie fries, or roasted or steamed broccoli.
The cheese you use will affect the final flavor of the dish. Depending on your tastes, you may like sharp cheddar for a slightly tangy bite, gruyere for a nutty flavor, cream cheese for decadence, goat cheese for a more elevated feel, or parmesan for added saltiness.
However, no matter what kind of cheeses you choose, ALWAYS use fresh cheese that you shred by hand yourself. Prepackaged cheeses will not melt as smoothly, which will cause your cheese sauce to clump instead of becoming rich and creamy.
Everybody has a different definition of the word "healthy." For this recipe, I like to focus on the fact that it is homemade, using the freshest and best ingredients possible.
Therefore, although this brisket mac and cheese is carb and fat heavy, it is a healthier approach to your typical store-bought or non-homemade mac.
With true-to-form ingredients, like fresh blocks of cheese, whole milk, and real sweet cream butter, you eliminate many of the preservatives and additives included in artificial cheese powders.
Additionally, both the macaroni and the beef brisket, are made by YOU, which means you ultimately get to decide how much sugar, salt, and anything else that goes into it.
💭 One More Tip
As an added bonus, this recipe provides more than enough to feed a crowd. When served with other dishes, you may get 10 to 12 servings from it.
It's perfect for those summer backyard barbecues, potlucks, or Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day weekend celebrations.
It's also a great dinner in the winter when you need something hearty, warm, and comforting or when you're craving something barbecued and meaty but it's too cold to fire up the grill.
🍴 Related Recipes
Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!
📖 Recipe
Creamy Cheddar Baked Brisket Mac and Cheese
Equipment
- slow cooker or crockpot
- large dutch oven or high sided oven-safe skillet (cast iron preferred)
Ingredients
For the Slow Cooker Beef Brisket
- 2 lbs beef brisket trimmed and fat removed
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup ketchup
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup water
- 3 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 to 2 tablespoon smoked paprika
- ½ tablespoon chili powder
- ½ tablespoon cumin
- ½ tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
For the Creamy Cheddar Mac and Cheese
- 1 lb dried pasta rotini, fusilli, cellentani, or cavatappi preferred
- olive oil for drizzling
- 4 cups freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese (about 0.75 lb block)
- 2 cups freshly shredded gruyere cheese (about 0.5 lb block)
- 4 tablespoon unsalted butter
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 3 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt plus extra for seasoning water
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
For the Slow Cooker Brisket
- Trim off any excess fat from the brisket. Set it aside.
- In the base of a slow cooker or crockpot, add unsweetened applesauce, ketchup, ½ cup brown sugar, water, apple cider vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine.
- In a small bowl, combine smoked paprika, chili powder, cumin, ½ tablespoon brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper to make a BBQ dry rub.
- Using your hands, pat the spice rub on all sides of the brisket. Use all of the rub so the meat is heavily coated.
- Place the brisket in the slow cooker and cover it with the sauce. Slow cook for 8 hours on high or 10 hours on low.
- When brisket is done, carefully remove it from the slow cooker. Allow it to cool slightly before using two forks to shred the meat until it breaks apart into fine, long strands. Set it aside.
For the Creamy Cheddar Mac and Cheese
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Boil pasta on the stovetop in salted water 1 minute less than instructed on the package.
- While the pasta is boiling, shred the cheeses and prepare a baking dish by spraying it with nonstick spray. Set the cheese and baking dish aside.
- When the pasta is done, drain it and drizzle some olive oil over top to keep it from sticking. Stir to coat each noodle in oil. Set pasta aside.
- In a large dutch oven or high sided cast iron skillet, combine butter and flour over medium-low heat to make a roux.
- Cook the butter-flour mixture until it becomes golden brown and bubbly.
- Turn the heat to low. Carefully whisk in milk, heavy cream, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper.
- When thick and fully combined, turn off the heat. Whisk in half of each type of cheese, reserving the other half for later.
- Add cooked pasta to the creamy cheese sauce and stir to fully coat each noodle.
- Add half of the pasta to the baking dish, then sprinkle the rest of the shredded cheese over top. Add the rest of the pasta on top of the cheese.
- Top off the macaroni with the shredded brisket. Bake the brisket mac and cheese in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and the brisket is slightly dark and caramelized.
- Garnish with finely chopped chives and a drizzle of your favorite BBQ sauce.
Storage
- To store: Homemade brisket mac and cheese is generally best served fresh from the oven. However, if you have leftovers, you can allow the macaroni to cool completely before scooping it into an airtight container.Place the container in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.To freeze: You can also freeze homemade macaroni and cheese in individual serving-sized containers for easy lunches on the go or in a large pan for a quick reheat-able weeknight dinner.Freeze up to 3 months.To reheat: To reheat macaroni and cheese, microwaving is not recommended, as the cheese tends to separate and becomes greasy.Instead, place refrigerated or frozen mac in a preheated 375 degree F oven and cook until warmed through in the middle, anywhere from 20 minutes if refrigerated to about an hour if frozen.
Notes
- Both the brisket and the mac and cheese can also be served on their own.
- Instead of brisket: you can use pulled chicken or pork:
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Stacy
I never thought of pairing these two together until I tried it at my favorite BBQ restaurant. The combination of brisket and mac and cheese is to die for! This recipe is just as delicious and easy too!
Alana Lieberman
Thank you! It's definitely a favorite over here too!
Lori
For all you brisket lovers out there, like me, that never know what to do with leftover brisket!!
My kids love mac n cheese so what better way to introduce them to brisket????I loved this meal... Thanks, Alana.
Alana Lieberman
So happy you enjoyed this recipe! And great idea to repurpose your leftover brisket too.