Instant Pot Chili Mac:
This amazing recipe partners two comfort food favorites, macaroni and chili into one crowd pleasing dish.
This chili mac recipe is flavorful, fun, and will make a fabulous dinner to feed a hungry group of friends or family. And because it is cooked in the instant pot, it is quick, easy, and nearly hands-free cooking.
This is like the perfect combination between Mac and Cheese and Chili!
Instant Pot Chili Mac can be made right in your Instant Pot in practically no time at all. Avoid the hassle of having to get out multiple pots and pans. Make Instant Pot Chili Mac and let the Instant Pot help minimize the clean up while speeding up the cooking time.
And believe me macaroni and chili make a as good of a partnership as peanut butter and jelly, or pepperoni and pizza, or ham and eggs. You get the picture.
How Do You Make Homemade Chili Mac?
How do you make homemade chili mac? Well you need an instant pot and all your ingredients, and a little time. Honestly, I love homemade chili mac, and especially love how easy it is to make. It’s not hard at all, and it is a great dish when you are not sure what you are in the mood for.
I hate when I go into a restaurant and I am torn between two dishes. What should I get?
Chili? Macaroni and Cheese? How about both?
Chili Mac combines two favorite meals, chill and macaroni, great for the indecisive eater who can’t decide between two dishes. But what is really great about this Instant Pot Chili Mac is you can do all the sautéing and cooking right in your Instant Pot.
My Instant Pot Chili Mac recipe eliminates the hassle of extensive prep that accompanies a lot of dishes out there and is a pretty straight forward recipe to make.
How To Make My Chili Mac Recipe:
- Ground the beef with olive oil on saute mode in your Instant Pot
- Season meat with salt and pepper
- Add the onion and other seasonings
- Add peppers, broth, and pasta (make sure pasta is covered with broth)
- Cook on high pressure for 4 minutes and then quick release
- Stir in the rest, and enjoy!
That’s all it takes is a handful of simple steps to my Instant Pot Chili Mac and what you get in return is a filling dish that will rise to the top of your list of recipes.
How Do You Make Vegetarian Chili Mac?
While I personally love the addition of the ground beef, as it offers a really nice texture and flavor to this dish, it is pretty simple to turn it into a vegetarian dish.
I realize meat isn’t everyone’s friend. So, if that is the case, you can substitute the meat for more beans in this recipe. In fact, a few extra cups of beans will give you similar protein amount, and you will still get great flavor.
I would suggest at least a couple different combinations of beans to add a greater depth of flavor to the meal, if you decide to eliminate the meat component, and to provide more added dimension to the dish.
Tips for This Recipe:
There are a lot of different methods and ideas around making mac chili cheese. So I am going to share some tips for making the perfect chili mac for your tastebuds:
- Season and sauté. When you make mac chili cheese, you start with the ground beef. You want every layer of this dish to be flavorful, so you are going to add hamburger and seasonings.
- After sautéing the beef, make sure none of it is stuck to the bottom of the pot. Otherwise you will get a burn notice on the pot.
- Push the macaroni noodles down into the broth so they are fully submersed, otherwise you are going to get crunchy bits.
- Determine how much jalapeno you want. We loved it a little spicy, so we added the whole thing. But it ended up being a little too spicy for my kiddos. So adjust that to your preference.
- Quick release the pressure. If you don’t quick release, your noodles will overcook and not be very good. So be sure to give it your focus. It takes a few minutes to come to pressure (about 10) then it will cook for 4 minutes. After that, quick release and remove the lid.
- Stir in the cheese, beans, and green peppers. You could add both the beans and the green peppers earlier, but then you won’t get the same dimension in the texture. By adding them last, and stirring them in, you get a little variety of texture. And the food is hot enough it will heat them as well. Some recipes use already prepared macaroni and cheese, but for this chili mac recipe I like to add the cheese myself. It doesn’t take any more effort. And this method allows the cheese to blend in with the chili as well. You don’t end up with any processed flavors. And the results are stringy, gooey, and absolutely flavorful and delicious.
Mac chili cheese or chili mac is not too hard to make, and is a family favorite, and a perfect hearty dish.
With Instant Pot Chili Mac you don’t have to make a choice between chili and pasta. You can have both!
And if this meal puts you in the mood for some other macaroni dishes, I have got a couple other great suggestions for you. Try Rainbow Macaroni salad or Creamy Mac and Cheese Casserole. They are both great and delicious macaroni recipes.
Tools Needed:
- Instant Pot: This instant pot will make this recipe so much easier and faster to make.
- Wooden Spoon: You need a good wooden spoon to mix the ingredients to any recipe, and this is a great one.
More fun Instant Pot Recipes
- Instant Pot Pot Roast
- Instant Pot Meatloaf
- Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs
- Mongolian Beef Meatballs (Crock Pot and Instant Pot)
- Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatsauce
Instant Pot Chili Mac
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb extra-lean ground beef
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 1 cup celery chopped
- 2 tsps garlic minced
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- ½ tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 can kidney beans rinsed and drained
- 14.5 ounces Diced tomatoes
- 1 cup diced red orange, and/or yellow bell peppers
- 1 jalapeno diced fine
- 3 1/2 cups beef broth
- 1 lb dried large elbow macaroni pasta
- 1 green pepper diced
- 2 cups grated colby jack cheese
- 2 stalks green onion diced
Instructions
- Add olive oil to Instant Pot and select saute mode.
- Saute ground beef for 4-5 minutes until lightly browned, season with salt and pepper
- Turn off saute mode by pressing cancel.
- Add onion,celery, garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt & pepper, diced tomatoes, red, orange, and yellow peppers, and jalapeno (optional), broth and pasta in that order.
- Gently press the pasta down into the broth so it is covered.
- Put the lid on the pot, locking it into place.
- Set valve to sealing.
- Cook on high pressure for 4 minutes, then do a quick release of pressure. Remove lid and stir in kidney beans, green pepper, and shredded cheese.
- Serve in large bowls garnished with green onions if desired.
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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