Mac & cheese is my absolute favorite side dish for Thanksgiving. It’s comforting, indulgent, and loaded with everything delicious. Whether it’s baked or not, it doesn’t matter to me — mac & cheese will take up most of the space on my plate.
The viral Tini’s Mac & Cheese has long been the go-to recipe for most Thanksgiving home cooks, and while it’s classic for a reason, this year might be the time to try a new recipe to spice up the holiday feast.
If you’re in charge of bringing mac & cheese to Thanksgiving this year, consider trying one of these unique variations that honor the nostalgia and tradition of the classic dish while adding a new spin on it.
Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese
Trader Joe’s is famed for their frozen butternut squash mac & cheese, but you can make your own from scratch pretty easily as well if you have the time.
Recipe developer @justine_snacks on TikTok starts making her butternut squash mac & cheese recipe by hollowing out her butternut squash and roasting it in the oven for about half an hour.
While the butternut squash is roasting, she grates three different types of cheeses — this creator uses Gouda, cheddar, and parmesan, but you can use whichever cheeses you prefer.
Once the butternut squash is thoroughly roasted, she purees the squash with a bunch of seasonings, including sage and garlic powder, and tosses cooked pasta into it. Add in the cheese, and you’ve just made your own butternut squash mac & cheese at home.
White Cheddar Mac & Cheese
While white cheddar isn’t a complete deviation from the classic mac & cheese — which usually combines cheeses like regular cheddar, Gouda, and mozzarella — it’s a somewhat more elevated approach to the dish with what I think is a more sophisticated flavor.
This recipe by @heresyourbite on TikTok combines layers of bacon and the white cheddar mac & cheese for a mouthwatering baked mac & cheese that will probably be gone within the first 10 minutes of Thanksgiving dinner.
If you’re not a fan of baked mac and cheese or bacon, you can just make the white cheddar mac & cheese by itself in the pot and serve it as is for a thinner, creamy consistency. Pro tip: add in gruyere cheese for more depth.
French Onion Mac & Cheese
I’m not a huge fan of onions in food, but even I can’t resist the appeal of French onion soup — it’s flavorful and comforting, which are two qualities that mac & cheese also possesses, making perfect sense for them to be combined into a French onion mac & cheese.
This recipe posted by @zachs.foods on TikTok has 1.4M likes, and it’s popular for a reason.
The creator starts by caramelizing his onions until they’re a dark brown color. He adds in garlic, rosemary, thyme, and beef broth before incorporating his pasta into the mix, letting it simmer in the mixture for about ten minutes.
Next, the cheese. The creator adds in milk, shredded gruyere and cheddar, and bacon to finish off the French onion mac and cheese. For more texture, you can add more cheese to the top of the dish and bake for a cheesy crust.
French onion soup is always a crowd favorite, so this French onion mac & cheese might be the dish that your family asks you to bring for Thanksgiving every year once you make it.
Lobster Mac & Cheese
This last mac & cheese variation is probably the most expensive, but it would be a crime to not include it in the lineup because of how appetizing it looks. This recipe for baked lobster mac & cheese by @thesecarbsdontcount on TikTok is a one-pan wonder sure to be the talk of the Thanksgiving table.
To start, the creator cooks lobster in a pan with butter. Once the lobster is cooked, it gets set to the side in a bowl, and a roux gets made in the same pan the lobster was cooked in to soak up any remaining lobster juice flavor into the sauce.
Once the roux is made, the creator adds in milk, spices, and cheese — cheddar, gruyere, mozzarella, and parmesan are some of the cheeses you should consider using — until a creamy cheese sauce forms.
Add in your pasta of choice and the lobster, and you’ve just made an easy but showstopping lobster mac & cheese that’s sure to impress the family.