Chefs take bite-size pieces of juicy fried chicken and heap it on top of their regular mac with a spicy buffalo sauce added to the mix. Mehr erfahren.
Miss Lee makes her home-style mac and cheese with classic, cloudlike macaroni, plus three cheeses (mozzarella with mild and sharp cheddars), then bakes it so bits brown gently here and there. Mehr erfahren.
Forget breadcrumbs. This mac and cheese is topped with brown butter solids — basically, melted butter that has crisped into toasty, nutty flecks. Mehr erfahren.
Chef Mariela Bolanos has created one of the most interesting versions of mac and cheese in Chicago. Tiny pieces of crisped-up Brussels sprouts and sweet corn deliver flavor and texture in every bite. Mehr erfahren.
The mac and cheese at Smoque gets back to basics with simple elbow macaroni and plenty of cheddar, baked in a deep foil tin to keep the noodles hot until the last bite. Mehr erfahren.
Made with butterkase, cheddar and Swiss, the mac and cheese at Uncommon Ground is so creamy it's spoonable. A garnish of crumbled potato chips delivers crunch and a subtle spud flavor. Mehr erfahren.
This steakhouse’s mac and cheese is a thing of beauty. The pasta is bathed in a blend of Gruyere, comte, mascarpone and raclette cheeses, with a little bechamel sauce for good measure. Mehr erfahren.
Consider how Chef Jonathon Harootunian's entree-size mac and cheese is constructed: Grass-fed brisket, smoked for 14 hours; a boatload of cavatappi noodles and plenty of mornay cream. Mehr erfahren.
Bub City gives beef its much-deserved time in the spotlight with its zesty chipotle-brisket mac and cheese. Rich, creamy sauce is blended with a chipotle puree to give this mac an extra kick. Mehr erfahren.
This mac and cheese won Chicago's Mac & Cheese Fest for a reason: It is out-of-this-world good. Mehr erfahren.
The five-cheese mac at Frontier arrives in a scorching-hot cast-iron casserole pan plopped on a weathered wood cutting board, the browned crust bubbled up over the sides of the dish. Mehr erfahren.
Truffle, slab bacon and a creamy cheddar-fontina sauce could be overkill elsewhere, but RPM Steak manages to make a decadent mac and cheese delicate at the same time. Mehr erfahren.
Kuma's Corner bills its build-your-own mac and cheese as an appetizer, but it's big enough to feed you and a few of your headbanger friends. Mehr erfahren.
At Bar Pastoral, the daily-changing, dinner-only mac and cheese usually uses the taleggio-like washed-rind Paesanella and the Parmesan-esque Podda. Mehr erfahren.
The regular mac boasts Irish cheddar and bacon. But I liked the lobster better, for its generous, plump pieces of the crustacean along with juicy thick mushrooms and plentiful creamy sauce. Mehr erfahren.
For a boost of flavor, each bite of mac and cheese was laced with the unmistakable, but never overpowering, funk of truffle oil. Mehr erfahren.
You might not recognize the neighborhood or regulars at Valois anymore, but the Hyde Park institution's mac and cheese remains the same, as does its price: $5 for a hearty, creamy, smooth classic. Mehr erfahren.
The order here is the chorizo chili mac and cheese, which is a steal. The molten cheese sauce coats each corkscrew noodle perfectly, with grape-sized hunks of chorizo lodged in every bite. Mehr erfahren.
The bowl of creamy, perfect-texture cavatappi is the kind of no-frills goodness we appreciate, but the chardog makes it. Cut up into chunks as mom used to do, it adds sweet, meaty, smoky contrast. Mehr erfahren.
The mac comes with two add-ins, which you choose from an ascending list grouped by price. I loved the jalapeno-heavy housemade giardiniera, but the real must-have: carnitas. Mehr erfahren.
Made with a jumble of corkscrew noodles tossed in a creamy sauce, the mac and cheese is punctuated with crunchy bites of honey-cured bacon and finished with a shower of toasted breadcrumbs. Mehr erfahren.
When is a side dish not a side dish? When it’s the GT mac and cheese, listed among the hot dishes at this River North seafood specialist. Mehr erfahren.
One North Kitchen in the Loop breaks the mold with its buffalo chicken mac and cheese. Spicy and acidic, with shreds of tender chicken mixed in, this is almost like a dip with pasta thrown in. Mehr erfahren.
The breadcrumbs strewn atop the homey four-cheese mac at Pearl’s Southern Comfort in Edgewater underscore how important even the tiniest garnish can be. Mehr erfahren.
Indulgent doesn't begin to describe the otherworldly cheesiness of the mac and cheese. The kitchen melts American, cheddar and Gruyere down to a potent and molten liquid that dominates each bite. Mehr erfahren.
Howells & Hood makes a statement with a baked dish built from penne, Carr Valley cheddar cheese sauce, spiced chunks of housemade andouille sausage and pork belly, all topped with a parslied gratin. Mehr erfahren.
Lincoln Park bakery Floriole is best known for its French desserts, but a surprisingly spicy mac and cheese, served for lunch only (starting at 11 a.m.), is a sleeper hit on the menu. Mehr erfahren.
Served in a searing-hot cast-iron skillet, the breadcrumb-speckled penne mac and cheese looks ordinary, but it’s anything but. Mehr erfahren.
Eat your “edible feelings,” the name restaurateur Brendan Sodikoff has given to the mac and cheese at his new River North market. Mehr erfahren.
Housemade pastas are a strength at this bar and restaurant, including a duck mac and cheese that smothers orrecchiette with duck confit, foie gras cream, lots of cheese and a dash of cherry juice. Mehr erfahren.
Boiler Room's mac and cheese pizza sounds like a starchy mess, but the Logan Square joint shows real care with the cheesy beast. Mehr erfahren.
The Mac and Teese is a dairy-free side dish that looks startlingly like the real thing. To my surprise, it also mimics the ultra creamy consistency and salty, tangy taste of boxed mac and cheese. Mehr erfahren.
Like most everything else at MacArthur’s Restaurant, the macaroni and cheese comes cafeteria-style and looks deliciously larger-than-life. Mehr erfahren.
It's Halloween, and Buffalo wings decided to dress up as mac and cheese. That's the best way to describe this spicy, creamy, blue cheese-y pasta at Rockit. Mehr erfahren.
