Trisha Yearwood's Slow-Cooker Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

A dinner that includes a dish like macaroni and cheese is always a welcome sight for hungry family members. Macaroni and cheese can serve as a satisfying side dish, or as the star of the meal with the addition of chunks of country ham or broccoli spears.

Trisha Yearwood, the host of the Emmy-award winning Food Network show Trisha’s Southern Kitchen, has a recipe that you can start in the slow cooker when the kids get home from school and be ready to serve when homework is done: Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese.

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Ingredients Needed for Trisha Yearwood’s Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese

Cooking spray
8 ounces elbow macaroni, cooked
1 (12-oz) can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper
2 large eggs, beaten
Two 10-ounce bricks sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (about 5 cups)
Dash of paprika

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When to Add Pasta to Slow Cooker

The only ingredient that gets cooked outside of the slow cooker in Yearwood’s Crock Pot mac and cheese recipe is the pasta for the macaroni and cheese. It is always recommended that when you are adding cooked pasta to other ingredients to be baked in the oven, or in this recipe in the slow cooker, to boil the pasta just shy of al dente. The macaroni will continue to absorb the liquid from the wet ingredients during the cooking time. Boiling the pasta and pulling it from the water before it is fully done will keep the pasta from becoming too soft when it cooks in the slow cooker—you want your finished macaroni and cheese to have some bite to it.

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Yearwood’s recipe uses whole milk in addition to evaporated milk. Evaporated milk has less water than regular milk so it can lend a creaminess to a dish without adding any extra water, which can weigh down ingredients and create a dense and soggy texture. Be sure and check that you are purchasing evaporated milk, and not condensed milk (which is sweetened), as the labels look very similar. The taste of each item is extremely different as evaporated milk is a concentrated milk flavor and condensed milk has a sweetness that makes it a good ingredient for baked items like desserts.

Yearwood’s recipe also uses a generous amount of cheese for a rich version of macaroni and cheese and uses two whole eggs to bring a custard-like base to the dish. All the ingredients are added to the slow cooker and stirred together. Watch this video of Yearwood making this mac and cheese and get the recipe below, which is ready to serve in about three hours cooking time in the slow cooker.

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Yearwood reserves a bit of the cheese to be sprinkled on top of the ingredients in the slow cooker that forms a crust on the top and around the edges for each serving of macaroni and cheese. She also includes a sprinkling of paprika, which she tells viewer is a signature topping for Southern dishes that people share with others at social gatherings.

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Get this recipe in the slow cooker after school and enjoy a delicious macaroni and cheese when the clock says it’s time for dinner!