Crock Pot Mac and Cheese with Uncooked Pasta has excellent taste, creamy texture, and tender pasta in one of the easiest recipes you can make for dinner tonight—no boiling for you.
🧀Ingredients
Elbow macaroni
Milk
Butter
Cheese
Pantry ingredients—dry mustard, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper
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Featured Comment from John:
"5 stars—Great recipe, fantastic flavor. I doubled it and followed your advice and really kept an eye on the dish at the end."
This Mac and Cheese has a wonderfully creamy, cheesy taste and tender pasta that the whole family will love, even picky kids. Free up the oven and stovetop space using your crock pot during holiday cooking, like Thanksgiving or Christmas.
No need to boil—add the dry pasta uncooked. You cook the pasta in spicy milk in the crock pot until nearly done, drain any fluid, add cheese, and let it melt to creamy goodness.
There is no can of soup, it has easy clean up, and you can use any size crock pot, even as small as 2 quarts.
👨🍳How to make Crock Pot Mac and Cheese with Uncooked Pasta
This recipe will fit in a 2-quart or larger crock pot.
Add 2 cups milk, 1 cup standard macaroni, ½ teaspoon dry mustard, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon each of pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and 1 tablespoon of butter to the crock pot.
Cook on low until the pasta reaches al dente. Stir well one hour into the cooking and check the texture, then recheck every 30 minutes or more frequently until done—about 2 hours for most crock pots and pasta. But crock pots and pasta vary, and your time may vary. DO NOT COOK BY TIME.
Drain any free fluid when the pasta is al dente, and mix in 1 cup of shredded cheese—sharp cheddar is recommended.
Continue on low until cooked the pasta is tender—about 5-15 minutes.
This is the crock pot after the meal. My wife scooped it into bowls within 30 seconds of her first bite. I think she liked it.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
✔️Tips to make it right every time
♨️The Crock Pot
- This fits well in most crock pots 2 quarts or above. Even a double recipe will fit in a 3.5 qt crock pot. You can use bigger as long as the milk completely covers the pasta in the first part of the recipe.
- Large crock pots with small amounts of ingredients may cook faster, so be careful.
- This should usually be done on low. This is NOT a recipe you should cook on high, cut the time in half, and ignore. The endpoint is the pasta becoming al dente, not an amount of time.
🍝The Pasta
- My instructions are to use standard dry pasta.
- If you want whole wheat or gluten-free pasta, you MUST pay attention to the pasta's endpoint, which is just al dente. More than that will make mush. The time of cooking WILL be different.
- If using non-standard pasta, you should usually be OK if you check the pasta more frequently, stop at al dente, and discard the excess fluid.
🍝The Cheese
- Many kinds of cheese should not be cooked for long periods. But by adding the cheese near the end, it will deliver its creamy goodness.
- American-made pre-shredded cheese that we all buy does not like long or high heat. It is waxier than block cheese, and it just won't take it and will separate some.
- I'm stuck on sharp cheddar cheese. Almost any cheese, like Velveeta, American, Colby jack, gouda, and gruyere, can work.
- I'm sure a better cheese like a block of Cabot would do better, but are you going for a $10 cheese for this?
- Feel free to vary the cheese type.
Serving
Kids love mac and cheese, so combine it with Baked Chicken Legs, Chicken Legs on the Grill, Baked Chicken Tenders, Grilled Chicken Tenders, or Burgers on the Grill.
Mac and Cheese Recipes
Check out some other mac and cheese recipes. Start with my Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese, One-pot Stovetop Mac and Cheese, Baked Mac and Cheese, and Roadhouse Mac and Cheese.
Storage of leftovers
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 days or freeze for 2-3 months.
❓FAQs—Trouble Shooting
There are hundreds of different pasta, some requiring more or less fluid. The amount of fluid is for standard elbow macaroni and is usually correct for most standard pasta.
Once your pasta is al dente, you are done with the free liquid. So, you MUST drain any excess fluid. Don't worry about getting every drop of the liquid out. Just use a cup and remove the liquid you can easily remove before adding the cheese.
Your pasta is mushy from cooking too fast, or you cooked too long. You need to look for al dente and stop cooking.
If using non-standard pasta, you should usually be OK if you check the pasta more frequently, stop at al dente, and discard the excess fluid.
Some cheap cheese will separate quickly. Get better cheese, and do not cook it too long.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
📖 Recipe
Crock Pot Mac and Cheese with Uncooked Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 cup Elbow Macaroni
- 2 cups milk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon dry mustard
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup cheese of your choice - I used sharp cheddar
Instructions
- Add 2 cups milk, 1 cup standard macaroni, ½ teaspoon dry mustard, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon each of pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and 1 tablespoon of butter to the crock pot. You can use a crock pot as small as 2 quarts, but be sure the pasta is covered with milk. Larger crock pots cook smaller recipes faster.
- Cook on low until the pasta reaches al dente. Stir well one hour into the cooking and check the texture, then recheck every 30 minutes or more frequently until done—about 2 hours for most crock pots and pasta. But crock pots and pasta vary and your time may vary. DO NOT COOK BY TIME.
- Drain any free fluid when the pasta is al dente, and mix in 1 cup of shredded cheese—sharp cheddar is recommended.
- Continue on low until cooked the pasta is tender—about 5-15 minutes.
Your Own Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- This is not a dump-it-in-and-go shopping recipe.
- I suggest a standard dry pasta. If you use whole wheat, gluten-free, or other standard pasta, you must be aware of the endpoint being the pasta cooked to al dente and not longer.
- You may have some free liquid when the pasta reaches the al dente stage. You need to remove the extra fluid. Do not try to cook the extra fluid off. Get most of it spooned out, you don't need to get every drop,.
- Use the cheese of your choice. I always like some sharp cheddar here. Add the cheese at the end of cooking so you don't adversely affect the texture of the cheese.
- This will fit in a 2 qt. crock pot as written. A double batch will fit in a 3.5 qt or bigger.
- You can use bigger crock pots, but the pasta needs to be covered by the fluid, and remember that small recipes in large crock pots will cook faster.
- The bigger batch you have, the more extra liquid you will have. That is fine since we are cooking to the pasta al dente point. Just drain the extra fluid.
- I have closed the comment so this recipe. There were so many comments, and I felt everything was covered. I have modified the recipe some with that input over the years.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Originally published January 13, 2013. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
