Buffalo Cheeseburger Macaroni
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Buffalo Cheeseburger Macaroni, it’s like Hamburger Helper, but so much better! This meaty, cheesy pasta dish is so delicious and made in under 45 minutes for a quick and easy dinner recipe!
From Buffalo Chicken Cheesy Penne to Buffalo Taco Spaghetti to Buffalo Chicken Cheesy Tortellini, there’s a reason I’ve been called “The Queen of Buffalo Sauce”!
Cheesy pasta recipes with buffalo sauce are totally my jam! It’s quick, easy comfort food with a kick!
How to make Homemade Cheeseburger Macaroni
To make this homemade cheeseburger macaroni recipe, there’s really just four simple steps.
- Cook ground beef with onions and garlic.
- Combine cream cheese, buffalo sauce, beef broth and spices to make the sauce.
- Add the sauce and macaroni noodles to the ground beef, cover and cook on low for 15 minutes.
- Stir in blue cheese dressing and parmesan cheese, then serve immediately.
How many calories are in the recipe?
This cheeseburger macaroni recipe is 844 calories per serving. To lighten up on the calories, I use Litehouse OPA Greek Yogurt Blue Cheese Dressing which is 61% lower in calories than regular blue cheese dressing!
Not a fan of blue cheese? You could also substitute ranch dressing to add that extra creaminess at the end of the dish!
What goes with cheeseburger macaroni?
If you really want to go all in on the buffalo cheesy goodness, serve this Buffalo Cheeseburger Macaroni with Buffalo Cheddar Biscuits, or keep with the blue cheese theme and serve the cheeseburger macaroni with a wedge salad.
Tools & pantry items used to make this recipe:
Try these other easy recipes with buffalo sauce!
- Buffalo Chicken Bake
- Buffalo Cheeseburger Tater Tot Casserole
- Zucchini Boats with Buffalo Chicken
- Buffalo Cauliflower Tacos
- Buffalo Chickpea Buddha Bowl
Buffalo Cheeseburger Macaroni
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ cup diced onions
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 lb ground beef
- 8 oz cream cheese
- ½ cup buffalo sauce
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 tsp paprika
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 2 cups uncooked macaroni pasta
- ¾ cup Litehouse OPA Blue Cheese Dressing
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, add the onions and saute 3-4 minutes, add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add the ground beef and cook through.
- In a separate pan over medium heat, add the cream cheese, buffalo sauce and beef broth. Allow the cream cheese to melt and whisk all of the ingredients together.
- Once the cheese has melted into the sauce, add the paprika, black pepper and kosher salt. Whisk all of the ingredients together and bring the sauce to a boil.
- Once the ground beef is cooked through, drain off any grease then add the macaroni noodles and sauce to the skillet with the ground beef.
- Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Once the noodles are tender and the sauce has reduced, stir in the blue cheese dressing, sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and serve.
Video
Nutrition Facts
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27 Comments on “Buffalo Cheeseburger Macaroni”
I know I’m late the party but I found this recipe somehow and I’ve made it many times! I love it!!
Very salt would try 1 cup water and 1 cup beef broth versus 2 cup of beef broth. Possibly no additional salt added. The flavor is very good if you can taste past the salt.
This was a HUGE hit when I tried this recipe. I added some diced celery in the beef mixture and chose to drizzle the bleu cheese dressing over each bowl right before serving. Some like more, some less so this worked well for my family. I will be making this weekly. Might need to double it as there were no leftovers! Thanks for sharing such a delicious and easy to prepare meal!!
Oh Joyce, that makes me so happy to hear! I love when my recipes become weekly favorites 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing!!
This is a good recipe! We doubled it for leftovers and a large family, and it turned out well. We used a different kind of pasta, but it worked well!
This was a terrific take on mac n cheese! Super loved it. The only hold up I found was that the cheese sauce was not enough to coat the noodles/beef. Granted, I didn’t meticulously measure the beef and noodles, so they were probably slightly over 1lb and 16oz. But, it was nowhere near the picture of everything basically floating in the cheese sauce. I made another batch of it and that seemed to work out pretty well.
Hi Sean, I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! I’m sorry to hear about the lack of cheese sauce, but glad to hear you were able to make it work!
I’m looking to make this tonight but am looking to substitute the blue cheese dressing as i know that wouldn’t go over well with my crowd…any suggestions?
I would recommend ranch dressing instead of blue cheese. Enjoy!
An unusual mix of flavors but comes together so well! I had precooked ground beef, so it came together quickly. We like spicy and fit the bill perfectly
So glad you enjoyed it Gail! Thanks so much for sharing!
This is A-mazing! I did add carrot and celery (like what you would get along side your buffalo wings). My macaroni was cooked just fine using your directions and al dente without having to cook separately. Just for extra flavor, I added Worcestershire to the beef mixture. I also did 1/2 cup of the bleu cheese dressing and 1/4 cup of the ranch to have the flavor of both. Lastly, I stirred in the Parmesan to add another depth of flavor instead of only garnishing. I contemplated adding chives as a garnish since that’s what I had on hand from my herb garden. Do you think parsley would work better as a garnish?
Deeeeelicious! I didn’t think it would thicken initially, but it did. I cooked the pasta (used bowties; that’s all I had on hand) almost all the way through before adding to the sauce. Also added a few big squirts of siracha for added heat and flavor, and mixed the parmesan right into the sauce. Used ranch dressing, as the S.O. won’t touch blue cheese. Will definitely make again!
Awesome Lisa! Thanks so much for sharing! A girl that adds sriracha to a buffalo sauce dish, is my kind of girl! All about that heat and flavor 😉
Made this and it was so creamy and delicious! I did cook the macaroni till almost done before adding to the rest of the ingredients ( the texture is way different if you do that). Added extra buffalo sauce…will definitely be making this again!! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
I will make this over the weekend, and add spinach, and report back on how the kids liked it.
Can’t wait to hear back Chuck! Enjoy!
Has anyone tried adding celery?
This was so good. Made 4 large portions. Super easy and delicious. Can’t wait to make it again.
Thanks Nicole! So glad you enjoyed it 🙂
This tasted great, but it took significantly longer than 15 minutes for me to get the noodles to soften to the point that they were edible. It might be better to cook the noodles first and then blend everything.
Hi Kiki! So glad that you enjoyed the dish. Sometimes cooking times will vary based on your stovetop. Cooking the noodles before, then adding them in would work as well!
What is buffalo sauce?
Buffalo sauce is also called Wing sauce. You can find it in the condiment aisle. It’s a kind of hot sauce used for chicken wings, but you can use it in other recipes as well, like this one.
Thanks for the response Mari! Great description 🙂
I replaced the buffalo sauce with ~2 tablespoons of sriracha. I prefer the sweet chili flavor over the tangy buffalo sauce, but it still had a nice heat to it
That’s awesome, glad you added your own little twist and enjoyed it 🙂 I’m also a big fan of sriracha!