Can Chick-fil-A do mac and cheese justice?

Mac and cheese is a conspicuous absence on fast food menus, but Chick-fil-A aims to right that wrong with new family meal option.

Chick-fil-A is testing two sides for customers to order individually or as part of the new family meal option. As you may have guessed, one of those sides is a three-cheese mac with cheddar, parmesan and romano cheese. The other is bacon-infused baked beans — which probably sounds good if you’re into baked beans. (Bacon-infused anything tends to be good.)

The family meal feeds four and comes with four entrees, two sides and eight mini rolls for $30. (Your entree choices are chicken strips, chicken nuggets, whole fried chicken breasts or grilled chicken breasts — your usual Chick-fil-A fare.) But, anyways, back to the mac.

Mac and cheese is a curious case in the fast food landscape. By definition, it should be a fast food staple. It’s cheesy, carb-heavy, calorie-high and decidedly not good for you. And yet, most national fast food stops don’t offer it. (Fast casual — Panera, Noodles, Corner Bakery — dabbles a bit more generously in cheesy pasta.) KFC does, to be fair, but for the most part, when you think fast food you don’t think mac and cheese.

And when you think “fast” and “not fancy” mac and cheese, you think Kraft, Velveeta or Stouffer’s.

But here’s Chick-fil-A, certified fast food stop and beloved purveyor of fried chicken, offering up a truly essential fried chicken side on the (one must hope and pray) national level. Until the day comes that Chick-fil-A brings mac national, and other fast food joints take the hint, the news will have to be enough.

In the meantime, Chick-fil-A will be testing the family meals, baked beans and mac and cheese in Phoenix, Arizona, Greensboro, North Carolina and San Antonio, Texas.