This delicious pressure cooker chili mac in the Instant Pot is a quick and easy, frugal weeknight dinner your family is sure to love!
Instant Pot chili mac is a super easy one-pot meal of cheesy chili and noodles–one your family will love!
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Do you remember Hamburger Helper? And that glove with the face that was on the box?
Now that I think about it, why was there a glove on the box? I’m not really sure what a glove had to do with cooking dinner. It wasn’t even an oven mitt…just sort of a strange icon, really.
As a kid, Hamburger Helper was a regular evening meal in our house.
On days when my mom worked, my dad was often in charge of dinner prep, which meant quick and easy meals were in order. Hamburger Helper was just that–an easy way for him to get dinner on the table.
Now that I have three kids of my own, I can fully appreciate the need for some quick and easy dinner options. Can I get an Amen?
But I try to minimize our use of convenience meals, partly because making our own meals is usually cheaper, healthier, and tastier!
One of the many reasons I love using my Instant Pot is that meals can be ready in mere minutes! Seriously, minutes, people!
This pressure cooker chili mac is a great weeknight meal solution for those of us who are short on time.
Not only is it fast, but it doesn’t require any strange ingredients and it’s pretty inexpensive to make.
Why You’ll Love Instant Pot Chili with Noodles
I know some people like to cook plain pasta in the Instant Pot and add it to their favorite chili. That’s a fine option, if you prefer.
But you can also cook it all together in the Instant Pot for an easy one-pot meal! I’m all for less cleanup, aren’t you?
I adapted this Instant Pot pressure cooker chili mac from a non-pressure cooker recipe I found at My Incredible Recipes, which served as the inspiration for this family friendly, quick and easy dinner option.
Noodles and beef are cooked under pressure in a perfectly seasoned sauce, then some shredded cheese is melted in after cooking. Be still my heart.
The result is a deliciously hearty meal that your family is sure to love, and one that you’re sure to make again and again because it’s just that easy.
Making Instant Pot Chili Mac with Cheese
You may have heard that you’re not supposed to use dairy in pressure cooker recipes, and that’s because the high pressure can cause the dairy to curdle. Yuck!
So in this case, we add the cheese after the pressure cooking time is complete, so it melts in easily without turning into a clumpy curdled mess.
New to Pressure Cooking? Check out These Helpful Resources!
- How to Make Your Favorite Slow Cooker Recipes in the Pressure Cooker
- Everything You Need to Know About Making Easy Pressure Cooker Recipes
- The Best Affordable Gift Ideas for the Instant Pot Lover in Your Life
- 6 Useful Pressure Cooker Accessories to Make Life Easier
5 Quick and Easy Instant Pot Dinners that Will Save You Time and Wow Your Family
How to Make Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Chili Mac with No Beans
I don’t usually add beans to this dish, but you totally could if you wanted to. Kidney beans or black beans would be a great choice.
To start, you’ll simply begin by using the Saute function of the Instant Pot to brown some ground beef and cook some onions.
After those have cooked (drain the grease if you need to), turn off the Saute function by pressing Cancel.
Then you can add in some water, bouillon cube, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, chili powder, bay leaves, seasoned salt, pepper, and macaroni. Give it a good stir.
Lock the lid into place and set the vent to the sealed position. Select a 5 minute cook time at high pressure using the Manual/Pressure Cook setting. If you prefer slightly firmer pasta, I’d go with a 4 minute cook time.
After the cook time, allow a 10 minute natural release followed by a quick release.
Once the pressure has released, carefully open the lid. Remove the bay leaves and stir in the cheese until it’s melted.
The longer it sits, the thicker the sauce will become. You can also add more shredded cheese on top if you want!
Notes and Adaptations for Making Chili Mac in the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker:
- You can use different pasta shapes if you prefer! The general rule of thumb I follow is to take the cook time from the pasta box, divide it in half, and subtract one minute. This will give you the Instant Pot high pressure cook time. I think bowties, penne, or rotini would work great.
- Feel free to add beans if desired! Drained kidney beans or black beans would be a great addition.
- I used mozzarella cheese, but you could also use cheddar or Colby Jack. One reader also suggested smoked Gouda, which I think is an excellent idea!
More Instant Pot Pasta Recipes You’ll Love:
- Instant Pot Cheeseburger Macaroni
- Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese with Ham
- Pressure Cooker Chicken Fettucine Alfredo
- Beef Enchilada Pasta in the Instant Pot
- Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
Recommended Equipment for Instant Pot Chili Mac:
- Instant Pot (I have the DUO60 model, which I love!)
- Wooden spoon or plastic spoon
- Box Grater for shredding your own cheese, if desired (it really does make a difference!)
- Measuring cups and spoons
Easy Instant Pot Chili Mac
This delicious pressure cooker chili mac in the Instant Pot is a quick and easy, frugal weeknight dinner your family is sure to love!
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/2 large onion, diced
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 1 beef bouillon cube
- 28-oz can petite diced tomatoes
- 15-oz can tomato sauce
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp seasoned salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 cups (8 oz) macaroni, uncooked
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (I recommend that you shred it yourself for better melting)
- optional: additional shredded cheese for topping
Instructions
- In the insert pot of the Instant Pot, add the ground beef and onions.
- Use the saute function to brown the beef and cook the onions.
- Turn off saute function and drain grease if necessary.
- Add water, bouillon cube, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, chili powder, bay leaves, seasoned salt, pepper, and macaroni. Stir to combine.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot and set the vent to the "sealed" position.
- Using the manual setting, select a 5 minute cook time (if you prefer slighty firmer pasta, use a 4 minute cook time).
- After cook time is complete, allow a 10 minute natural pressure release followed by a quick release.
- Once the valve has dropped, open lid and carefully remove bay leaves.
- Stir in shredded mozzarella cheese until melted.
- Serve, topping with additional shredded cheese if desired (I used Colby Jack cheese for topping).
Notes
- You can use different pasta shapes if you prefer. The general rule of thumb I follow is to take the cook time from the box, divide it in half, and subtract one minute. This will give you the Instant Pot high pressure cook time. I think bowties, penne, or rotini would work great.
- Feel free to add beans if desired! Drained kidney beans or black beans would be a great addition.
- I used mozzarella cheese, but you could also use cheddar or Colby Jack. One reader also suggested smoked Gouda, which I think is an excellent idea!
Did you make it and love it? I appreciate your 5-Star Rating!
I love seeing my recipes come to life "in the wild"--don't forget to tag @marginmakingmom or use #marginmakingmom on Instagram so I can see your creation!
Adapted from My Incredible Recipes
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 383Total Fat: 19gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 81mgSodium: 1152mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 5gSugar: 7gProtein: 30g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and is not guaranteed for accuracy.
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Hi! I made this for dinner tonight in my Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker and followed the recipe to a T. My husband enjoyed it, and it made the kitchen smell so delicious, but I felt that the the elbow macaroni was overcooked and much too soft and limp. What’s the best way to fix this next time? Should I try cooking for 4 minutes instead of 5? Will that amount of time be adequate for the rest of the ingredients? This was the first time I’ve cooked pasta in my pressure cooker.
Hi Nellie! I’m sorry your macaroni was too soft! I typically take whatever the recommended cook time for the pasta is and divide it in half for pressure cooking. So my macaroni box said 9-11 minutes, which is how I arrived at 5, and that worked for me. But if your noodles are turning out soggy, I would definitely recommend making an adjustment, because soggy pasta is no good. You could definitely try 4 minutes–that would be enough time for the other ingredients. You could also try using low pressure instead of high pressure–I think I’d recommend trying that first! If you do try a variation, let me know how it turns out! 🙂
Thank you for your very quick reply. I really appreciate that! I’ll test it at 4 minutes on HIGH first and see what happens. Then I’ll test it a third time on low pressure for 5 minutes. (I hope that’s what you meant!) If I can get this recipe right with macaroni that’s a bit firmer, the recipe will be a real keeper for me. We still have quite a bit leftover from tonight’s dinner and hubby wants to have it again tomorrow – so you can see that it went over very well with him! It may be a little while before I make pasta again but I’ll update and let you know how it went the second time. I am trying to get more use out of my pressure cooker besides boiled eggs (So EASY and perfect every time!) and corned beef on St. Paddy’s Day. Again, thanks, Chrysti, for the reply! 🙂
I made it, but used Private Selection brand, Bronze Trottole. It’s a sturdy macaroni that’s a bit bigger than the typical dried macaroni. It turned out great!
I’m glad to hear that, Margie! Thanks for letting us know! 🙂
Made this tonight, but with ground turkey instead of ground beef, for a lower fat version. It was awesome! Pure comfort food on a cold night and so easy in the Instant Pot! Thanks so much for the recipe. Will definitely be making this lots of times.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Cathy! 🙂
Would the recipe still turn out okay if I didn’t add the cheese? Trying to save some calories!
Yes, feel free to leave out the cheese! It will still taste great. 🙂
Easy to make yet the taste is quite bland.
Hi Dick! I’m sorry to hear you found the dish bland–I can’t handle too much heat, so I tend to keep spices on the milder side. 🙂 Feel free to increase the seasonings to your taste next time!
Try it with 2c of Smoked Gouda, 1 can each of white, black and red beans and a pinch of pepper flakes. So good!
If I wanted to do the macs separate should I decrease the liquid amount?
Hi Julie! Yes, I’d recommend decreasing the liquid if you want to cook the macaroni separately. I haven’t tried making it that way, so I can’t say for sure, but I think I’d decrease to 1/2 cup of water in the Instant Pot if you’re not cooking the pasta in the IP. Hope that helps! 🙂
Ok so bomb recipe! My 13 yr old son and I made this together, but we added a twist – we used everything you did, but added 2c of smoked Gouda, a can each of red, white and black beans (rinsed the red and white beans but not the black), and a pinch of red pepper flakes for my husbands bowl. We also increased the black pepper by 1/2tsp.
We cooked the chili mix for 2 mins on high pressure, quick released, added the red beans and noodles, then high pressure again for 4 mins. Quick release when done, added the cheeses, and Voilà- the noodles were perfect, not soft and mushy, and the flavors – woot! We will make this again!
I don’t see a link for me to email this to myself :/ I will see if I can’t find it.
Thank you so much!!!
Your changes sound delicious–I bet the smoked Gouda takes it over the top!! I love the addition of different beans, too. Thank you for sharing, and I’m so glad you all enjoyed it! At this point, I don’t think the recipe card plugin has a way to to directly email the recipe to yourself, but as a workaround you could select the option to print it, then instead of printing it, save it as a pdf and email that to yourself. Hope that helps! 🙂
There was way too much liquid to noodles. I believe I followed everything correctly. Had to improvise and add instant dry potatoes to thicken, which didn’t give me what I had hoped. Maybe I’l try again. I guess it’s possible I used 3 1/2 c water. But still… so little noodles and I know I measured that correctly. Kind of bummed.
Hi Bev! I’m sorry it didn’t turn out quite right. You could try decreasing the liquid if you found it to be too much–the main thing is to be sure the pasta is covered with liquid before cooking. You could just use the minimum amount to achieve coverage and see if that works better for you! 🙂