Mac&Cheese Bacon Bowl

Nigh time snack?
Time for a late night snack? Here`s one juicy simple dish to cook up after the kids are put to bed and you are about to watch a new release on Netflix.

Cooking time: approx 2 hours

You need:

Build the bowl
Mix the minced meat with pepper and worcestershire sauce as you would mix it to make burgers. Divide the meat into 2 equal parts and make 2 “bowls” out of the meat. If you brush a small bowl with canola oil and fill it with minced meat. Use the bottom of a glass with a slightly smaller diameter than the bowl and press down in the middle. Then you will get a bowl of ground beef about the same as the picture below. Don’t think too much about the shape, it will work out! Now is also a good time to fire up the grill or oven at about 110-120 degrees Celsius

Brush the bowl
Brush the whole bowl with a little more worcestershire or a BBQ sauce of some kind before filling the entire bowl with your favorite mix of mac & cheese along with some ham and chopped jalapeno / chilli. You can of course buy ready to go packages, but of course I recommend that you make it yourself! Once you’ve filled the bowl, sprinkle an extra layer of grated cheese on top and wrap the entire bowl with bacon strips. (Tip: use some toothpicks without taste to hold the bacon in place)

Fire it up
Put the finished meat bowls on the grill, preferably with a little smoke from fruit tree wood (apple, cherry, plum etc ..) I used my pellet grill with apple pellets for these. Make sure the grill holds 110-120 degrees, until the meat reaches a core temperature of about 65 degrees Celsius. Be sure to stick the probe into the meat and not into the mac&cheese mixture so you get the correct reading of temperature!

Crank up the heat
Once the meat has reached the desired core temperature, the time has come to raise the temperature to 180-200 degrees Celsius. Remove the bowls from the grill, brush them well with glaze / BBQ sauce, and place a slice of cheddar cheese on top. I used the same glass I made the mold to find the right diameter of the cheese slice (this is for visual purposes only)

Allow the sauce to settle with the bacon a little extra, before removing them from the grill and allowing them to rest a few minutes before serving, serve with the rest of your mac & cheese mix. Eat in the living room while you watch your favorite series and take the dishes in the morning !!