Popeyes, widely regarded as the champion of fast food fried chicken, has a new and improved Homestyle Mac & Cheese.
Did you know it had an old and un-improved Homestyle Mac & Cheese? I sure didn’t. See, the thing is, I’ve never been able to bring myself to order anything other than the red beans and rice or the mashed potatoes with cajun gravy. And this is odd because, as a human person, I love macaroni and cheese. I even love macaroni and cheese from other fast-food chicken places. It is one of my go-to sides when I end up at KFC, where I gladly consume it despite the fact that it tastes inexplicably chlorinated.
But Popeyes nails it on chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken sandwiches, biscuits, and the aforementioned sides, so why WOULDN’T it make a magnificent mac & cheese, too?
Well, they do.
Popeyes website boasts that its new noodle dish is “made with real butter and cream and topped with shredded cheddar cheese,” and this story checks out. The noodles themselves are perfectly cooked — soft and tender but not mushy. And there is plenty of cheese — a mild, creamy cheese that lovingly coats each noodle and the sharper, chewy cheddar that hides in pockets throughout the bowl.
It is a rich dish — likely owing to the real butter and cream — but not so rich that you won’t be able to eat the whole thing in like, 90 seconds and then go, “Dammit, Brandon, why did you eat the whole thing? Can’t you exercise more restraint than that?”
Despite the adulation, I do have two quibbles with this delectable side.
The first is that the texture is very one-note. And I get it, I do, this is mac & cheese, which is, by and large, a creamy, soft dish. But you know what elevates a very good mac & cheese to a great mac & cheese? A crunchy top. You know, breadcrumbs or what have you. You get a bit of textural differentiation because of the melted shredded cheddar, but it’s not enough to break up the monotony in your mouth. (Which again, I assure you, isn’t enough to keep you from wanting to consume an industrial barrel’s worth of this stuff.)
Second, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do now when I get a meal and have to choose two sides. My gut says to alternate between the red beans and rice, mashed potatoes, and the new mac & cheese like a responsible adult. However, the fat kid who lives in my brain says, “GET ‘EM ALL, BUDDY. IT’S THE FUTURE. YOU CAN JUST 3D-PRINT SOME NEW ARTERIES.”
God bless technology, and god bless this macaroni and cheese.
Purchased Price: $2.79
Size: Regular
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 300 calories, 22 grams of fat, 13.5 grams of saturated fat, 0.6 grams of trans fat, 609 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 1 gram of sugar, and 11 grams of protein.
9 out of 10? Really? I don’t know if it was Homestyle, this was a few months ago. I didn’t find it tasty at all!
That looks incredibly disgusting.
I don’t actually disagree, but homemade mac’n’cheese often looks like this as the sauce/cheese starts to cool down and congeal a bit. Unavoidable but the difference in taste makes up for the lackluster appearance!
This is what real Mac and cheese looks like lol it definitely doesn’t look disgusting.
King of fries chicken? According to a few people on Twitter. The real king is the Lord’s Chicken.
I don’t care for their beans and rice so I have tried their ‘regular’ mac and cheese before and it totally wasn’t worth the calories.
If you’re 3D-printing some new arteries anyways, my unsolicited advice for next time is that you should crumble up crispy pieces of your fried chicken’s breading on top of the mac and cheese for that breadcrumb texture you wanted.
You are clearly living in the future! Good call!
To echo Brandon, good call!
I absolutely loved this it was the best Mac and cheese I’ve ever had. Mine the melted shredded cheese on top was dark brown and almost crunchy. Maybe it was burnt lol but it was delicious!
This looks like actual legit mac and cheese! Not just noodles that are drowned in yellow number 5.
p.s. I love Alex’s reco of topping with chix breading for your crunch and alternatively? Just crumble up some chips from whatever bags you have in your car or at home…come on, you know that there is always something near your person 😉
Sorry, it’s still just noodles drowned in gross cheese. This is a low budget version of chik fil a Mac and cheese
I think I’m going to get a large and add lobster to it. Mmmmm!
Interesting that you mentioned that:
One of my local grocery stores has their own lobster mac & cheese, in a ready-to-go and ready-to-cook container. My husband and I get it pretty often (a couple of times a month). It’s quite good.
As a southern woman, myself, the crunchy topping is definitely optional. My grandmother would never entertain the idea of such a thing as a ‘crunchy topping’ for mac and cheese. The bubbly goodness of a good topping of cheese, however, is always required. Different strokes for different folks, of course.
I just tried it…it’s good but DAAAAAAAAAAA****N is it overpriced!!! I paid $3.69 for a regular!!! That’s just $0.30 less than the chicken sandwich!!! What the heck! I feel so ripped off…stupid curiosity wasted my money again…
It’s 100% their old Mac and cheese and they throw in the broiler so the top can solidify a bit to make it seem baked. Continue to have horrible Mac and cheese. Which is fine because ,Red beans and rice for life.
I would like to know why is pop eyes Mac n cheese so dam high I paid $3.84 for a small size inc.tax yes it was good in taste but my God it should not be so expensive..plz bring the price down..
Amazing review Brandon!! I too am bad at self-control around mac and cheese LOL. ???!! Looking forward to more popeyes reviews!!