Macaroni and Cheese Mock-i Rolls

Mac and Cheese Sushi Roll

I had a really funny idea to make “sushi” out of mac and cheese last week, and I tried it out over the weekend. I think these would be a neat finger food to pass around at a party. The cool thing is you can make them way ahead of time, so it frees you up to just reheat at the party. I like the idea of foods that look fancy, but are really something that everyone is familiar with. I called them “mock-i” rolls,


Good old blue box mac and cheese.
If you make boxed mac and cheese once a week like I do, you know that 2 boxes = half cup milk, half cup butter. To make it sticky to hold up like sushi rice, you need to add an extra ยผ cup or so of both ingredients.
Cook the pasta for only 4 or so minutes. You dont want it quite fully cooked, but almost there. Strain it out and put it back in the pan at a low heat. Add in the butter, milk, and good old cheese packets. Feel free to add a handful of any other cheese at this point to dress up your mock-i rolls. Stir and heat this on low for about 10 more minutes until it’s dry and sticky.
Look how sticky it is! This is what you want. Take this off the heat and leave it for about an hour to come to room temperature.

Take your sushi roller and cover it in plastic wrap. Take your time at this step and it will be easier to roll.

Now you just go ahead and make your sushi.

This is some taco meat I had left over from Thursday (It was the weekend after all).ย  You can always just use seasoned ground beef.ย  Dry this real good because extra moisture is not your friend in this mock-i roll.

Sriracha is the best with boxed mac and cheese. I have said it before and I will say it again. From a mountaintop.

I packed a little too much mac and cheese into the first try.

Looks good right? But you can’t just cut it like this. Instead, as you unroll it, leave the plastic wrap on it.

See? Like this.ย  Make sure this is nice and tight!

Throw this into the freezer for an hour and a half to 2 hours. You don’t want it frozen solid, but you do want it pretty tight and frosty.

There ya go! The reason you have to freeze it is because if you don’t, when you cut it it will fall apart.

These things still crack me up and I have looked at these pictures 15 times since last weekend.

Lay them out on the serving tray still ice cold. At this point, you can leave them on the counter for a few hours, or even put them in the fridge. When you are ready to use them, put the whole tray into the oven at its lowest setting. They only need 5 to 7 minutes. You don’t want them to be hot, but they should be slightly warmer than room temperature. If you leave them in the oven too long, they may become fragile to pick up! So be careful.

Garnish with some more sriracha and serve!





It was my first time making them, so they were SLIGHTLY too fragile to pick up with chopsticks. I feel confident that if I made them again though I could make them stronger.ย  I would use the same method but probably put some cheddar in to melt and then firm up.ย  I would also cook them less in the boiling water so more of the starch got into the mix with the cheese packets.ย  One option I did not want to do but would probably help, is to beat an egg and pour it into the mac and cheese when it is at room temp before rolling.ย  Then when you put them in the oven later, you would have to bake them longer to be sure the egg was cooked and set, but it probably would firm up enough to seal these more.

These were definitely fine to pick up with your fingers though!ย  They tasted exactly how they look.ย  Like mac and cheese with ground beef and sriracha!

31 Comments

  1. I bet you could even throw hot dog slices in the middle…. or roll them in some bread crumbs after…. like tobiko.

  2. mmm.. those would be good fried.. fried mac and cheese is so good.. yet so bad…
    all this after yesterday about me saying something healthy…

  3. I’ve never stated HOW MUCH I would pay for these items… just that I would in fact, pay for them.
    Do you guys even have money in Bermuda? I figured transactions were in coconuts or something…

  4. not gonna lie, this is slightly disturbing–but yet i clicked on it anyways…maybe thats more disturbing…hmmm…but i admit it’s quite creative! boy i love sushi ๐Ÿ™‚

  5. These are great! They definitely made me smile, espeically, the boxed back and cheese. This is real American sushi : )

  6. I have to agree with Mallory. This is like a delicious trainwreck that I can’t look away from. Totally something that they would charge $20 for at some restaurant! I think you’re onto something ๐Ÿ˜‰

  7. THIS. IS. BRILLIANT. I needed sentence fragments at how blown away I was at this idea. Not only will I make these, I will be wrapping 90% of the things I make in a sushi fashion.

  8. Dan, I am SHOCKED that a gourmet like you has even eaten blue box Kraft mac n cheese. LOL! This is a brilliant idea and looks easy to make. My daughter would go nuts for these.

  9. I totally posted this in the Trashy_Eats community I belong to at livejournal.
    Its surprising too because most of your recipes are so *not* trashy, this is a nice surprise!

  10. What a cool creative and inspired mind you have. These put a BIG smile on my face. I’ll probably try them when friends come over. Could probably even try them as “meat stuffed macaroni balls…season meat Italian or Mexican style. Sky’s the limit when you’re having fun!

  11. These are amazing! I’m part of a Japanese culture club in my area, and I will definitely be making these for our next meeting!

  12. These are awesome!!! I tried my hand at some and used some chicken and buffalo sauce instead of beef and Siracha, good stuff.

  13. I’m making these for a party tomorrow night with hot dog in the middle. As much as I’d love to be able to do the prep work tonight, I want to roll them in crushed chips. Wanted to do cool ranch doritos, but I already have some jalapeno kettle chips. I’m just worried about the chips getting soggy if I made them too far in advance. Thanks for the great idea!

  14. As a thought experiment (potential real world thing), would one actually consider using actual sushi grade tuna or smoked salmon instead of ground beef? I think that would be truly revolutionary in the foodie world! Minds would truly be blown then!

  15. Pingback: How to make 12 different dishes out of your 12 pack of quarantine KD

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