Breakfast Mac and Cheese
When I first made breakfast mac and cheese, I sort of threw everything I liked about breakfast into a baked mac and cheese with lots of eggs. It came out good but the eggs sort of get lost and all the breakfast meats overpower everything else. To refine the recipe, I decided to just use ham, use a stove top version of mac and cheese, and top it with some eggs tots, and bread. At the last minute I realized it had an eggs benedict vibe, so I threw some hollandaise on top!
The inspiration for this recipe
Of all the Mac and Cheeses I’ve made on this website, there has yet to be one suitable for breakfast! I was very aware of this fact and planned to make a breakfast mac and cheese for a while, but kept putting it off. Normally when I finally have time to make breakfast on Sundays, I want it to be as simple as frying up an egg and making some toast. Also breakfast mac and cheese needs to be eaten on a lazy day for brunch when you can happily go in and out of a food coma for the next several hours.
Start with the stovetop mac and cheese
Ham and onions in the pan with some butter.
Stir cornstarch into the evaporated milk, then add it to the pan to simmer and thicken. This has been my easy foolproof stovetop mac and cheese method for the past few years.
Finally, remove from heat, add the cheese, then the pasta. This can hold on super low heat until you are ready to use it. I like to cover it and remember to stir every 5 minutes or so.
Make the easy hollandaise
I have been doing this super easy version of hollandaise for a while. Yolks, mustard, lemon, and hot sauce in the bowl, then whisk in boiling hot butter.
Build the breakfast mac and cheese bowls
The creamy pasta is ready to go!
And so are all the toppings. I just baked the tots a bit higher than the package instructions For the toast, I cooked the bread in a pan with some butter.
Mac and cheese in first, then the breakfast toppings. Eggs, toast, tater tots, and hollandaise!
Serve the breakfast mac and cheese
With breakfast foods like this, I always say you gotta dig in quick! It tastes infinitely better fresh off the stove. In fact – all these separate things are easy to make but I found the biggest challenge of this recipe to be getting them all hot and ready at the same time. Thankfully, you can keep the breakfast mac and cheese warm on the stove and the tots and bread warm in the oven.
Twists on this recipe
Of course, you could use sausage and/or bacon for your breakfast mac and cheese. I have been on a ham kick lately so I was loving these flavors! You could also skip the hollandaise if you want a quicker and easier version of this.
For more details on making hollandaise sauce, check out this recipe.
For more great mac and cheese mash-ups check out my mac and cheese fries, or my spanakopita mac and cheese!
Breakfast Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
Mac and cheese
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 6 ounces ham diced
- 1/2 small onion diced
- 12 ounces evaporated milk
- 1.5 tablespoons corn starch
- 4 ounces cheddar chese grated from a block
- 4 ounces jack cheese grated from a block
- 8 ounces cavatappi or elbow mac
Hollandaise
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce
- 1/2 cup boiling hot butter
Toppings
- crispy tater tots
- toasted and buttered bread
- over easy fried eggs
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add in the ham and onions. Saute for about 8 minutes to soften the onions.
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add in the pasta.
- Whisk the corn starch into the milk until fully combined. Pour into the pan and stir. Continue to stir and bring to a simmer as it thickens. Remove from heat.
- Add in the cheeses and stir until they mostly melt. Strain the pasta and reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking liquid. Add the pasta to the sauce immediately and stir to combine. Add in any of the pasta cooking liquid needed to thin the sauce out a bit. Hold this over low heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until it's time to eat.
- Add the yolks, mustard, lemon, salt, and hot sauce to a bowl and whisk. Slowly whisk in the super hot butter and continue to whisk to form the hollandaise sauce.
- Prepare all the toppings – fry the eggs, toast the toast, and make the tater tots. Cut the toast into smaller toast points.
- Serve the mac and cheese and top with the eggs, toast, tater tots, and drizzle some hollandaise on top.
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Thanks for the giveaway.
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PS How many eggs in your recipe above? I don’t see a number or the eggs listed in the ingredients section. Thanks!
Thanks, Amy, it was there, but sort of hidden so I made it more visible.
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P.S. This looks (as always) AWESOME.
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