I love a mac and cheese ball almost as much as I love a good gooey mac and cheese. My favorite thing to do as a cook is to repurpose an ingredient or a recipe or even a leftover into something it wasn’t already. Mac and cheese balls are by no means something new, but I feel like only recently have we been repurposing our mac and cheese into other recipes like “balls”. The reason this works so well is due to the comfortability of frying them. Don’t worry, because of how much cheese sauce is in here, the mac won’t dry out. Think of it as a hyper concentrated ball of cheese sauce. They will be best right out of the oven, but you can also reheat in the microwave for a quick easy bite.

Let’s talk about how these come to be. This is a labor of love, but I promise it’s less work than you think. Cheese sauce, cooked pasta, tossed together, chilled, crush potato chips, beat eggs, dredge, hold, fry, and enjoy! Nine steps. It’s all about prep.

Start with your mac and cheese. If you’re just looking to try and make these or even make these for a party, BUY THE MAC AND CHEESE. Costco has a great version, Home Chef has a great version, even Bob Evans has a good mac. If you want to take the task of making your own, follow the recipe and make the mac a day ahead of time. This will save you a lot of struggle. My method is to make it the day before and serve a little bit with my dinner that way I can enjoy the fruits of my labor and know what task stands ahead of me tomorrow.

You can even scoop the mac and cheese into balls the day ahead and optionally stuff them with more cheese like what we’re doing. Use any cheese you’d like here, I like gooey mozzarella for maximum cheese pull.

Today’s the day you are breading the balls! You can use a three step breading process with flour, eggs, and panko OR you can skip the flour, use eggs and for added crunch and flavor, fry them up in potato chips. A gluten-free friendly way of making these extra tasty. Use one hand to roll the balls in egg and one hand to roll the egg balls in potato chips. This way keeps everything less messy and helps you get them all done easier.

Fry these up before the party starts and keep a batch warm in the oven while the first batch is out. Serve it up with your preferred dipping sauce like marinara or ranch.