Buffalo Mac and Cheese
on Jul 14, 2023, Updated Mar 28, 2025
This post may contain affiliate links! For more info, check out our privacy policy.
This Buffalo Mac and Cheese recipe is SO easy and can be made in one pot, in under 30 minutes. Also, this recipe is less than ten ingredients. It comes together quickly and is truly SO delicious. I absolutely love making this when I’m in a pinch, and want something super creamy, delicious, and satisfying.
The flavors from the buffalo with the creaminess from the mac and cheese are just perfect and taste amazing! Option to serve alongside some carrots, celery and ranch, also! Another mac and cheese favorite is our Creamy Mac and Cheese with Sage Breadcrumbs.
Recipe Ingredients
Macaroni: We are using cavatappi pasta for this recipe, but you can really use any pasta you prefer for this, like traditional elbow macaroni noodles as well.
Ranch dressing: This adds a nice creamy touch, as well as a nice texture and tang to the mac and cheese. I think some blue cheese dressing would also work here, as well.
Buffalo Sauce: Or hot sauce! You can either use a store-bought buffalo sauce, or a hot sauce, such as Franks Red Hot, for this!
Butter: To help get that sauce nice and glossy!
Milk: What’s special about this recipe is that we are cooking the pasta straight into the milk, with no water. This way we’re giving the pasta so much flavor with the milk. This also means that we won’t need to make a roux, which is usually done with flour.
Cheese: We are using sharp yellow cheddar cheese and monterey jack cheese. You can also use other cheese such as mozzarella cheese, or blue cheese.
Spices: garlic powder, and onion powder, as well as salt and pepper! Smoked paprika, or paprika would also work well here if you’d like.
*Feel free to add in some shredded chicken or leftover rotisserie chicken to make this a buffalo chicken mac and cheese!
How To Make Buffalo Mac and Cheese
Cook your pasta in the milk
In a deep large pot or Dutch oven, add your milk and uncooked pasta on medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is al dente and the milk has almost absorbed into the pasta. You don’t really want to bring this to a boil, so just a light and gentle simmer while the pasta absorbs with the milk.
Add the remaining ingredients
Add in your ranch, buffalo sauce/hot sauce, add in your butter to melt, shredded cheeses, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper into the pasta/milk mixture.
Stir until all the cheese melts and the sauce is mixed throughout. Serve in your bowl of choice!
To bake in the oven
This is a creamy mac, so you can eat it as is. But if you want, you can bake it. Pour the finished mac and cheese in a baking dish and sprinkle over some more shredded cheese. Bake until golden brown (about 10-15 minutes in a 400 degree oven.
Buffalo Mac and Cheese FAQs
To save for leftovers, place any mac and cheese in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to reheat and serve, either in the oven, stovetop or microwave.
Any salads would work great to serve with this mac and cheese, or if you want to keep in the buffalo theme, you can make our Baked Buffalo and Orange Chicken Wings.
More Pasta Recipes
If you do make this Buffalo Mac and Cheese recipe, leave a comment and give this recipe a rating, we would love to hear what you think! Don’t forget to tag us on Instagram, we love to see what you’re making! If you’d like to stay in touch and get the latest in your inbox, sign up for our Newsletter. We can also be found on YouTube, Facebook, and Pinterest!
- 1 pound pasta of choice, we used cavatappi, macaroni works too
- 1/2 cup ranch
- 1/2 cup buffalo sauce, or hot sauce
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 8 cups whole dairy milk
- 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
- 2 cups monterey jack cheese, shredded
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- In a deep large pot or dutch oven, add in your milk and uncooked pasta on medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is al dente and the milk has almost absorbed into the pasta. You don’t really want to bring this to a boil, so just a light and gentle simmer while the pasta absorbs with the milk.
- Add in your ranch, buffalo sauce/hot sauce, add in your butter to melt, shredded cheeses, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper into the pasta/milk mixture.
- Stir until all the cheese melts and the sauce is mixed throughout.
- To bake in the oven: This is a creamy mac, so you can eat it as is. But if you want, you can bake it. Pour the finished mac and cheese in a baking dish and sprinkle over some more shredded cheese. Bake until golden brown (about 10-15 minutes in a 400 degree oven.
- *To save for leftovers, place any mac and cheese in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to reheat and serve, either in the oven, stovetop or microwave.
One Pot 30-Minute Buffalo Mac and Cheese
Equipment
Ingredients
Instructions
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
this recipe rocks it was delicious. i tweaked the amount of milk and ended up using around 4 cups, and i added a little more buffalo sauce cause i love spicy. everyone in my house loved it 🙂
So glad you enjoyed, thank you for your review!
Really good. I veganized this with full fat oat milk, vegan chz shreds, Daiya blue chz (they make a ranch and would probably be better but couldn’t find it) salad dressing. I had vegan butter but skipped it to try to make it healthier. It would probably be better with the butter which of course everything is. I also only used 4C mlk, 1/2 the buffalo sauce, 1/2 the chz, and 1/4 C blu chz dressing. It was plenty saucy and spicy like that for me. I also added steamed broccoli and chopped green onions for nutrition. I would use the basic recipe w/o buffalo sauce when I am craving macN chz