The Costco Mac and Cheese tray is one of our “go to” dishes when we have football parties at our house. I do not particularly like the meal but we have a few friends that love anything that looks/smells/tastes like cheesy carbs and they absolutely love the stuff.
I buy them the Mac and Cheese from Costco instead of making it from scratch simply because it means less dirty dishes for me to deal with. If you doctor the Mac and Cheese up a bit then it does make for a great side dish.
This review will cover everything you need to know about this meal including, how to cook, improvement suggestions, serving suggestions, calories and cost.
Cooking Instructions
The label on the tray gives the following cooking instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Remove plastic lid from tray.
- Cover tray with aluminum foil.
- Place foil covered tray on a baking sheet.
- Place baking sheet in oven on a center rack.
- Bake for 60 minutes until an internal temperature of 165F is reached.
Please note that sometimes the Mac and Cheese comes in a tray made from plastic and must be transferred to an oven safe tray before baking. If your warehouse is using the plastic trays then will be marked with a large red sticker.
Flavor
The “Mac” in the Mac and Cheese is actually a cavatappi noodle instead of a traditional elbow macaroni noodle. The cavatappi pasta has more ridges and swirls than elbow macaroni which makes it better and holding and soaking up the cheese sauce.
The pasta is tender and cooks past the “al dente” stage which is just fine by us. The sauce is a basic alfredo that is topped with shredded cheddar cheese. Basically you get mushy pasta in a rich, creamy sauce.
Overall the meal is fine but a bit boring which means your kids will love it.
You can serve the pasta with a rotisserie chicken and a salad and it will be an easy-peasy weeknight meal.
Costco Mac and Cheese (Kirkland Signature)
Ingredients
- 1 tray Costco Mac and Cheese
- 1 Rotisserie Chicken
- 1 package Green Salad
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Remove plastic cover from the Mac and Cheese and replace with aluminum foil.
- Place foil covered tray onto a baking sheet.
- Bake the Mac and Cheese for one hour until an internal temperature of 165F is reached.
- Let the Mac and Cheese cool for 5 minutes.
- Serve with rotisserie chicken and salad for an easy and delicious weeknight meal.
Improvement Suggestions
The Costco Fanatic Facebook groups had a lot of suggestions on how to make the pasta more flavorful for folks who want something more than a bland Mac and Cheese. Some of the suggestions are as follows:
- Add a cup of half and half before baking to make it creamier.
- Stir in a jar of alfredo sauce before baking.
- Add bacon crumbles!
- I like to add some garlic powder and cayenne pepper.
- Top it with some bread crumbs first.
- Add blue cheese crumbles!
Our favorite suggestion was:
Add bacon, half and half and parmesan cheese. Mix everything together and then scoop the mix into individual muffin tins before baking. The pasta will be much more flavorful, have crispy edges and looks amazing when served as an individual portion.
Calories
A single serving of the Mac and Cheese is one cup and has the following nutritional information:
- Calories = 270
- Fat = 15g
- Cholesterol =45mg
- Sodium = 420mg
- Carbohydrates = 22g
- Protein = 14g
This is a tray of pasta covered in cheese sauce so none of these numbers should surprise anyone.
Price
The Mac and Cheese tray is Item Number 40506 and is found in the refrigerated deli counter.
The meal costs $3.49 per pound. There are usually about four pounds of food per tray so expect to pay around $15.
You could make you own Mac and Cheese for a little less than what Costco is charging but you won’t save that much and will have a big pile of dirty dishes to deal with afterwards.
Other Take and Bake Options from Costco
To learn more about the other Take and Bake meals offered by Costco please see the following reviews.
- Costco Chicken Pot Pie (Instructions, Calories, Review)
- Costco Yakisoba Stir Fry (Instructions, Calories, Review)
- Costco Beef Chili (Instructions, Calories, Review)
- Costco Chicken Enchilada Bake (Instructions, Calories, Review)
- Costco Chicken Salad (Instructions, Calories, Review)
- Costco Korean BBQ (Instructions, Calories, Review)
- Costco Stuffed Peppers (Instructions, Calories, Review)