This queso mac and cheese is super easy to make, picky eater approved, and loaded with 27 grams of protein per serving thanks to a chipotle seasoned ground beef. Pair it with a side salad, roasted vegetables, or just an extra serving or two and everyone will be full and happy. And this dish reheats really well, making it a great recipe to double for meal prep!
I’ll run you through the recipe below and cover ingredient substitutions as we go. You’ll also find a printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Step 1: Cook Banza elbows or your choice of pasta in salted water.
Banza makes chickpea based pasta that’s gluten free and a bit higher in protein. It is one of my go-to pasta substitutes, and I’ve used it in recipes like my BBQ chicken mac n cheese and cajun sausage pasta bake. You may also like the Goodles that I used in my green chile ground beef mac n cheese and Crockpot beef chili mac.
Two tips for cooking the pasta for your queso mac and cheese:
- Cook the pasta for about 4-5 minutes and let the time in the queso ground beef finish it off. This will prevent overcooking the pasta.
- If you start the pasta right before cooking the beef, the timing should be perfect. If you for whatever reason get sidetracked and need to drain the pasta before the beef is ready, drizzle a little oil over the drained pasta to prevent sticking once it cools.
Step 2: Cook extra lean ground beef with a chipotle pepper spice blend.
I know you’re wondering, so yes, you can probably skip the olive oil if you use a nonstick skillet. That would save some calories for more cheese to partially makeup for the lost flavor from cooking the beef and spices in oil.
The only other ingredient notes I have here would be on the white pepper and kosher salt. If all you have is black pepper on hand, that’s perfectly fine. And if you’re using table salt instead of kosher, cut the amount in half.
If you’re new to my recipes and have never heard my spiel about allowing your ground beef to develop a crust before fully cooking, check out my sweet chili ground beef or hamburger steak recipes to learn more about cooking ground beef like a pro.
Step 3: Add hot sauce to the cooked ground beef.
Since the recipe calls for ground chipotle chili powder, it only makes sense to stick to the chipotle theme with hot sauce. But if you have trouble locating this blend of Cholula, any hot sauce will do. The hot sauce is in the recipe to both deglaze the pan (help you scrape off any crispy bits stuck to the pan) and add flavor. So keep it in!
If you wanted to really up the spice level, though, you could use canned chipotles in adobo like in my chipotle beef sweet potato nachos or milder diced green chiles like in my green chile mac and cheese with chicken.
Step 4: Add queso to the ground beef.
Trader Joe’s queso is kind of a magical ingredient that has 165 calories per jar. If you’re making a shopping run, you’ll want to grab an extra jar for my queso mac and cheese with ground beef.
That said, you can use any jarred queso for your mac and cheese, but you’ll need to adjust the nutrition information slightly. Also, there’s always the option to make your own cheese sauce like in my chicken bacon ranch mac and cheese or cajun mac and cheese recipes.
Bonus tip: If you want extra cheesy queso mac and cheese, you could try extending the queso by mixing it with a bit of chicken broth like in my chicken fajita pasta bake.
Step 5: Add cooked pasta to the queso and ground beef.
Be gentle folding everything together. Even if you slightly under cook, sometimes chickpea pasta can be a delicate flower.
Step 6 (optional): Top with your choice of cheese and broil to melt.
In the photo above, you’re looking at shaved cheddar with crushed chipotle pepper on top before broiling. The recipe calls for monterey jack, however, since it’s much better for melting. You can skip this step, but it’s a grate idea not to.
Well, that’s it. In case I missed anything about this queso mac and cheese, you can ask a question in the comments below or join my free Facebook group to get some help from the 12,000+ home cooks there. And when you try this recipe, don’t forget to come back and let me know how it turned out!
Queso Mac and Cheese with Spicy Ground Beef
Ingredients
- 1 lb Lean Ground Beef, 96/4
- 1 Tbsp 16g Olive Oil
- 2 tsp Ground Chipotle Chili Powder
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 tsp White Pepper, or black pepper
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/4 C 60g Chipotle Cholula Hot Sauce (or your choice of hot sauce)
- 8 oz Banza Pasta Elbows
- 12 oz jar Queso Dip, I used Trader Joe’s
- 3/4 C 84g Shredded Monterey Jack, optional topping
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil to cook the pasta. Cook the pasta for 2-3 minutes less than instructed on its packaging.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with the olive oil. Once hot, add the ground beef.
- Mix the spices in a small bowl and add to the top of the ground beef. Stir the ground beef and continue cooking until no pink remains.
- Add the chipotle Cholula and cook until no liquid remains, about 30 seconds.
- Reduce the heat to low and add the queso. Stir to fully incorporate before adding the cooked pasta.
- Top with cheese and place under a high broil in your oven for 3-5 minutes to melt the cheese. (Or you could stir in the cheese with the queso before adding the cooked pasta.) Top with crushed chipotle peppers and fresh cilantro, if desired.
Does the nutrition information include the shredded cheese?
It does!
This was absolutely delicious! Didn’t have chipotle Cholula on hand but Frank’s Red Hot worked fine. Used Aldi’s salsa con queso since I’m not blessed with a TJ’s. New favorite and will absolutely make again soon.
This was absolutely delicious! Didn’t have chipotle Cholula on hand but Frank’s Red Hot worked fine. Used Aldi’s salsa con queso since I’m not blessed with a TJ’s. New favorite and will absolutely make again soon.
Just made this tonight for my husband and I, it is sooo good especially the spice. Will definitely make it again!!
This is my husband’s current mac and cheese obsession. I love the heat it has, lately I have been doubling the beef while cooking and saving it as taco filling for the next night.
Where can you go wrong with queso, pasta and ground beef?! This was once again an easy, delicious and flavorful meal. I’m a wimp and can’t handle heat so I only used about half of the recommended serving of hot sauce (just right). I did not have ground chipotle chili powder so I used a regular chili powder instead (only 1 tsp). I could eat the TJ’s queso with a spoon and the macros are amazing! Try this dish!
This recipe was so good! To make it like a meal prep, I doubled the meat and the elbow noodles and spices. Also used a Mexican style cheese blend on top when we broiled it. Makes a perfect dinner for us to eat on all week!
This was so good! Made it last night within an hour and it was delicious! I used some Mexican style mix blend of cheese to top it off with. Made this into a meal prep and doubled the meat, elbows, and spices.
My family loves this recipe! This weekend I used turkey instead of ground beef and it is amazing. I made it for friends who don’t watch what they eat and they wanted the recipe. Thank you this hits the spot! 😋
I’ve been making this with Venison and it’s so quick and easy to throw together. I’ve also added some additional veggies a couple of times and it’s all gone so well