Dave's Hot Chicken Mac & Cheese: Creamy Copycat Recipe

Dave's mac & cheese is the side that quietly outshines half the menu — creamy, sharp, and good enough that it's been ranked among the best fast-food mac out there. The good news for your kitchen: it's not a complicated dish. It's a roux, some milk, the right cheeses, and the discipline not to overthink it. Here's a copycat that lands genuinely close in about twenty minutes, no oven required.

That's the snippet. Below: what makes Dave's version work, the recipe, the tips that keep it from going grainy, and how to build the loaded Spicy Buffalo Mac if you want the top-loaded one. For the chicken to go with it, see the full copycat Dave's Hot Chicken recipe.

What makes Dave's mac work

Two things. First, it's smooth and creamy, not baked — Dave's mac is a stovetop-style cheese sauce clinging to the pasta, not a firm casserole with a crust. Second, the cheese blend leans on sharp cheddar for flavor with a meltier cheese (American or pepper jack) doing the creamy, no-grain texture. It's also one of the lighter things on the menu at about 290 calories a side, which is part of why the sides ranking rates it so highly. Recreate those two traits and you've got it.

The ingredients

Serves about 4 as a side:

• 8 oz (about 2 cups) elbow macaroni
• 3 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk, warmed
• 2 cups sharp cheddar, freshly shredded
• 1 cup pepper jack or American cheese, shredded or torn (for the melt)
• 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder + 1/4 tsp mustard powder (optional, for depth)

One rule that matters more than it should: shred your own cheese. Pre-shredded bagged cheese is coated in anti-caking starch that makes the sauce grainy. Block cheese, grated yourself, melts smooth.

Step by step

1. Cook the pasta in salted water to just al dente (a minute under the box time — it keeps cooking in the sauce). Drain and set aside.
2. Make the roux. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat, whisk in the flour, and cook 1 minute, whisking constantly, until it smells nutty but hasn't browned.
3. Add the milk. Pour in the warm milk slowly, whisking the whole time, and cook until it thickens to a pourable sauce that coats a spoon, 3–5 minutes.
4. Melt in the cheese off the heat. Turn off the burner, then add the cheeses a handful at a time, stirring until smooth before the next. Adding cheese off-heat is what prevents graininess.
5. Season and combine. Stir in the salt, pepper, and optional garlic/mustard powder. Fold in the pasta. If it tightens up, loosen with a splash of warm milk — you want it creamy, not stiff.
6. Serve right away, while it's at its silkiest.

Make it the Spicy Buffalo Mac

Dave's sells a top-loaded version — the Spicy Buffalo Mac — and it's an easy upgrade at home. Make the mac above, then top each bowl with chopped Dave's-style chicken (or Dave's Bites if you've made them), a drizzle of buffalo sauce, and a little extra Dave's Sauce. For the cauliflower crowd, a breaded cauliflower version stands in nicely. It turns a side into a full, gloriously over-the-top meal — exactly what the menu version is going for.

Tips & storage

• Shred your own cheese — the single biggest anti-grain move (worth repeating).
• Melt cheese off the heat — high heat breaks the sauce and turns it oily/grainy.
• Undercook the pasta slightly — it finishes in the hot sauce and won't go mushy.
• Keep it loose — it firms as it cools; a splash of warm milk brings it back.
• Storage: keeps 3–4 days in the fridge. Reheat gently with a splash of milk, stirring, to revive the creaminess.

My honest take

Here's the one opinion I'll commit to: this is one of the most worth-it copycats on the whole menu, because great mac is cheap, fast, and the restaurant version isn't actually doing anything you can't. The only two ways to ruin it are bagged pre-shredded cheese and melting it over high heat — avoid both and you'll genuinely struggle to tell yours from Dave's.

So make the batch, keep it loose and creamy, and either eat it as the side it was born to be or load it up into a Spicy Buffalo Mac. Pair it with the copycat chicken and kale slaw for a full homemade Dave's spread — or just make the mac, because some nights the side is the meal, and I won't tell anyone. The full Dave's Hot Chicken menu is always there if you'd rather someone else stir the pot.