 okay so you might be wondering what makes this the ultimate smoked mac and cheese well if you've seen our previous video my wife and i put five of the most popular recipes for smoked mac and cheese to the test and this recipe is kind of a frankenstein made with all our favorite parts of the popular recipes we think we've got the perfect cheese sauce everything cooks together in one dish and maybe most importantly of all we have a super crunchy crispy topping this has pancetta or bacon it's got this kind of like brown butter and olive oil this is like nutty flavor and it's super crunchy super golden brown and you do that in a pan separately so you don't have to worry about browning this on your smoker which isn't always easy to do so i think it's our ultimate smoked mac and cheese it's one of the best it's better than all the five we nothing against those recipes but it's the best of all of them combined into one so i'll show you how to make this you'll have to make it try it out let me know what you think see if it's the ultimate if it's not if you have a better recipe i would love to try it as well so let me know down in the comments hope you enjoy the recipe starts with one pound dry weight of pasta elbows macaroni and we'll use four ounces of gouda or gruyere and colby jack or cheddar we've tried them all they're all good that's a chipotle gouda i'm using there and then you'll add eight ounces of cream cheese and four tablespoons of butter i like to cut it up just to create a bit more surface area and then we'll add a tablespoon of your favorite barbecue rub this will be rich and pretty salty so you can get away with using a sweeter rub i'm using killer hogs all purpose seasoning there keep it light when you first start maybe a tablespoon you can always taste and season how you like a little bit later then we'll add two cups of whole milk and four cups of half and half we tested like seven versions and found that's the perfect amount for a rich and creamy sauce while having enough liquid in there to cook the pasta and not make it too thick throw this on a smoker at 225 if you're using a traeger and have super smoke use that add a little bit more smoky flavor into it and cook it for about 90 minutes this is after about 45 minutes or an hour you'll see there's still quite a bit of liquid in the pan don't worry it's going to cook off and this is exactly what you need to make sure the pasta cooks and that sauce stays nice and creamy and not like a casserole we kind of found all five of the popular recipes we tried turned into a bit of a casserole instead of like a creamy mac and that's what we were going for then it's time to make your topping when you have about 15-20 minutes left on the cook I used pancetta bacon works great you just want to dice it up cook it drain the pan then you'll add a tablespoon of olive oil and four tablespoons of butter let the butter fully melt and I like to cook it a little bit until the foam kind of subsides almost like you're making brown butter and you really do get some of that brown butter flavor in here those kind of caramel nutty notes which is really nice and you'll add a cup panko breadcrumbs to the pan this won't take long just a couple minutes and when it's starting to turn golden brown on the bottom give it a stir press it back out flat and then keep stirring until you've got an even golden brown color on this and then mix it with your cooked pancetta or bacon and once the mac has been on for about 90 minutes this is what it should look like nice creamy not very really no liquid to be seen in the bottom of the pan and at this point you're ready to throw your topping on cook it for about 30 more minutes it'll pick up a little bit more smoke but it's really just so that topping will kind of meld and get to know that cheese sauce on the top there that way it's not completely just crumbly when you go to scoop it out and there you have it our ultimate smoked mac and cheese I'm really happy with this one I think you enjoy it and I can't wait to hear what you think be sure to let us know in the comments if you make this and we'll throw a link in the description below to a printable recipe and be sure to check out our original video testing all five of the popular recipes if you'd like some more smoked mac inspiration see you next time