Macaroni and Cheese for a Crowd
Want to make homemade macaroni and cheese for 20 or even 50 people or more? This is your recipe! Few dishes please old folks and young peeps alike like creamy, traditional macaroni and cheese. This recipe makes a large batch for 20 to 25 people, which you can then double for 50 to 60 people. Cooking in batches ensures proper seasoning and consistency, allowing large scale preparation of consistently delicious cheesy mac.
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Why this recipe works
Making creative mac and cheese recipes is one of my favorite things on my primary blog, Erica’s Recipes, but there is no love like the love I have for my Basic mac and cheese recipe. I love it, my family loves it, and when I make it for a LOT of people, they love it too.
When I scale up my basic recipe for dozens of people, however, there are a few tweaks I find I need to make to have it come out the way I want. Tweaks such as salting the pasta water, adding more American cheese, adding more milk, etc.
Why make in batches
Whether cooking macaroni and cheese for 20 people, or 50 people, or even 75-100 people, I recommend cooking in batches for 20-25 people (as laid out in the recipe card below).
- This volume lets you get the sauce nice and tasty, especially for seasoning.
- This volume is still small enough to make the sauce while the pasta is cooking, including getting the cheese mostly melted. A larger batch can result in a ton of unmelted, gummy cheese.
- These volumes are manageable. I can lift a large pot of water and sling 2 lbs of pasta at a time.
Main courses to serve with large batch mac and cheese
A large batch of macaroni and cheese is great to make as a vegetarian main dish, but I do prefer to keep it as a side for meat of some kind. Here are my favorites that are also easy to scale up for a crowd:
- Pulled chicken. On the occasion I made this recipe for a Church dinner, it was served with Mojo pulled chicken sliders. Also, buttered corn and homemade cole slaw YUM.
- Roast pork loin. Pork loin is relatively affordable and easy to roast to feed a crowd up to 50 to 60 people. It’s even easier if you get them already in marinade, then just roast at 400 degrees F to an internal temperature of 155 degrees F. Rest 5-10 minutes, slice, and serve.
- Meatloaf. Large scale meatloaf takes a bit of elbow grease to mix and form into logs in hotel pans for baking, but this old-fashioned dish is a hit every time.
- Chicken quarters. Chicken quarters can be oven roasted or, even better, grilled if you are able and always so good with macaroni and cheese. Regardless of cooking method, cook to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
- Burgers. Can’t go wrong with juicy grilled burgers and mac and cheese.
Always cook meat to temperature! This is especially important when cooking for a lot of people – we don’t want to get anyone ill.
Be sure to check out my Broccoli Cheese Casserole for a Crowd, which can be assembled up to a day in advance. Also, if you are new to quantity cooking, my 12 Essential Tips to Cook for a Crowd is a great place to start.
Macaroni and Cheese for a Crowd
Equipment
Ingredients
For the mac and cheese
- 32 oz elbows macaroni pasta
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 gallon whole milk, plus additional 2-3 cups to adjust consistency
- 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 4 tsp kosher salt, plus more to salt the water for the pasta (see Notes)
- 5 slices American cheese
- 32 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
For the topping
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 6 oz Ritz crackers, crushed
- 1 handful chopped fresh, flat-leaf parsley for garnish, if desired
Instructions
Make the topping
- Combine the melted butter and crushed crackers in a bowl. Set aside.
Cook the pasta and make the sauce
- Bring a very large pot of water to a boil (see Notes). Add a handful of salt.
- Heat oven to 400℉.
- Separately, in a large pot, melt the butter. Add the flour and once bubbly, cook a minute to make a roux.
- Add the pasta to the boiling water. Stir to ensure pasta doesn’t sink and stick to the bottom. Cook to al dente according to package directions.
- While pasta is cooking, whisk in the milk to the roux. Cook until the milk starts to steam, stirring constantly. Occasionally, also stir the pasta again to ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Once the milk starts to steam, add the Dijon, salt, and cheeses. Stir until cheese is at least half melted and the mixture thickens a bit. Turn off the heat.
- Add additional milk to adjust for consistency (~2 cups). This will ensure the mixture stays creamy while cooking and serving because the pasta will thicken it further. You want the sauce to be the consistency of hearty soup: not thin broth and not thick chowder, but in between. Like a bechamel.
- Taste for seasoning! This is KEY. You want to taste SALT at this point. If you don’t, your mac and cheese will be bland once the pasta is added.
Assemble and bake
- Drain the pasta and add to the cheese sauce. Pour all into a hotel pan (see Notes).
- Top with the butter-cracker mixture.
- Bake at 400℉ for ~30 minutes or until golden on top and bubbly around the edges. Garnish with chopped flat-leaf parsley, if desired, and serve.
Notes
- If a very large pot is not available, use to large, regular kitchen pots and simply divide the pasta between the two. This does not have to be exact since the pasta will all end up in the sauce.
- Hotel pans are the large pans seen in large-scale buffets. They are generally 12 x 20 inches in dimension, and 2.5 to 4 inches deep. If not available, divide the mac and cheese between 2 (13 x 9 inch) pans or bake dishes. Note that 2 (13 x 9-in) pans may cook faster than 1 (12 x 20 inch) pan.
- I don’t generally add salt to water for cooking pasta, but I do when large scale cooking as extra insurance against a bland outcome.
I am going to make this for a baptism this weekend. Can this be assembled in advance and baked day of?
Hi Amy – yes this mac and cheese can be assembled in advance, refrigerated overnight, then cooked the day of. Remember to only cook the pasta to al dente and add extra liquid (1 cup per batch, so 1/2 to 1 cup milk per 8 oz pasta) so ensure it stays creamy.
When making ahead and putting in the refrigerator overnight.I will take it out and get it room temperature so I don’t have to cook it for long. Do I have to add more milk then or is the milk already added one putting it together enough??
Hi! As long as you added enough milk for it to be super creamy when you assembled, you should be good. The pasta will absorb a LOT of liquid overnight, so you want it pretty loose to compensate for that.
Hi! For the additional milk, when you say “one cup per batch” does that mean one additional cup total, or one additional cup per 8oz of pasta so 4 additional cups total? Thank you so much!
Amelia, 1 batch is 1x the recipe written in the recipe card. So if making in advance, add 1 additional cup milk for the 1x recipe (32 oz pasta). Does this make sense?
Amazing! Thank you!
how big is each serving?
Hello Chris – when serving mac and cheese as a side dish, a typical serving is a good 1/2 cup. In hotel pans, it’s pretty easy to divide roughly into 20 servings too. Hope this helps!
Hello! I’m looking to make a batch of around 100 SIDE portions of this recipe. How many pans should I use? I didn’t see any details of if the one you used was 20 main portions, or 20 side portions.
Hi Ariane, the portions are side portions.
Thank you for this recipe and the advice to make it in batches.
I made two batches for a church luncheon and it was a hit!
I will be returning to your blog again and again because there are always crowds to feed.
I’m looking forward to your future content.
Awesome Susan! So glad to hear!
Are you melting the slices of American cheese in with the cheddar ??
Yes Doug, the American cheese is added with the cheddar.
Can the American cheese be omitted and more cheddar added in its place?
Yes it can. It may not be as creamy, but yes the American cheese can be omitted.
In the recipe it says “divided” after the sharp cheddar cheese. Why or how is it “divided”?
Thanks.
Hi Erika – yeah “divided” shouldn’t have been there. It was a holdover from a previous version. Recipe card is fixed now thanks!
The recipe says 1/2 gallon of milk. That seems like a lot. Is that accurate ?
Hello Jaime, this is a large batch recipe that calls for 2 lb of pasta. So the half gallon of milk is accurate. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Can I use heavy cream rather than milk? And if so would I use the same amount? Also I plan to make the night before, bake and then transfer to a nesco as I need to travel an hour and then it’s at a half day event.. any suggestions?
Hi Vicki – Using cream in place of milk is something I often do. It does help keep the mac and cheese creamy, especially when making in advance. I have not replaced ALL of the milk with cream though, because I worry about the cream separating and the whole thing becoming too oily. I wouldn’t replace more than half of the milk with cream. If you are making a day ahead, then reheating, doing this will be better to keep it creamy.
Will the sauce survive two nights in the fridge before reheating for a noon feast 40 hours after making?
Hi Phil – I’m sorry but I have not done that so I can’t make any promises. I’d be afraid of the sauce separating to be honest.
Thank you so much for the recipe, I own a food truck and a small pizza shop in the winter and we have just started doing Sunday dinners, so I was looking for a big batch Mac and cheese recipe, I’ve X’ed this by 3 I’ll let you know how it goes.
Hi Erica,
I’m thinking of trying this recipe for my sons birthday party. I have a few questions:
1. Do you know if this would hold up well in a buffet chaffing dish? I would put a few pans in the chafing dishes after cooking them in the oven at home and driving to the venue (about 10 minutes away).
2. Would making 1.5 of this recipe still fit in the equivalent of a hotel pan size?
3. Are there any different instructions you would give for the recipe if I didn’t add the crumb topping?
Thanks! 🙂
Hi Molly, if making 1.5x this recipe, use a hotel pan and a 13×9 baked dish. I wouldn’t put it all in one pan. I wouldn’t make any other changes if not adding the crumb topping. And it should do fine in a chafing dish as you describe!
To feed 50 servings how much uncooked macaroni do I need
Hi Ruth – for 50 people, 64 to 80 ounces of dry pasta is needed (2 hotel pans). If feeding older people, 64 oz will do it. If feeding teens or families, I would go with 80 oz. Servings can be adjusted in the recipe card.