One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese
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Two favorite comfort foods come together in this super easy, 30 min one-pot meal that the whole family will go crazy for!
So after 2 long months of waiting and waiting, I finally brought our new puppy home today. Here is the newest member of the Damn Delicious family – Butters, our 10-week old Pembroke Welsh Corgi.
It’s been a very long day as I sit by hyperventilating each time he whines, but apparently that’s quite normal in the puppy world. So forgive me for today’s short post!
So about this mac and cheese. Now it’s definitely not your ordinary mac and cheese. It’s mac and cheese combined with a super easy homemade chili using pantry ingredients, combining two of your favorite kind of comfort foods in a single one pot meal. It’s quick, easy and sure to be a hit with the entire family. You can’t beat that!
One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 ounces ground beef
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- ¾ cup canned white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- ¾ cup canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon cumin
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 10 ounces elbow macaroni
- ¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add ground beef and onion, and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in chicken broth, tomatoes, beans, chili powder and cumin; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Stir in pasta. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until pasta is cooked through, about 13-15 minutes.
- Remove from heat. Top with cheese and cover until melted, about 2 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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I clicked on this for the recipe but I am commenting on Butters! I grew up with Corgis and never knew anyone else who owned one. My heart melts whenever I see one. They are the best dogs!
This looks so good!!! I can’t wait to make this. Butters is absolutely adorable and Congratulations on the new addition.
Thanks for posting. This was a great week night meal. The only thing I changed was to use a full pound of burger.
Can I just take a moment to tell you I love you! lol. Seriously, you have made my life so much easier. I’ve tried tons of your recipes and all but one have been loved by all of us. This recipe is now one of my go to meals that I always have the ingredients for in the house and we make at least twice a month. Super delicious!
Hice esto para mis hijos hoy y solo puedo decir ¡wow!
I made this and it was delicious! Tasty, easy, inexpensive, and it’s also great the next day. I added some Frank’s red hot to my bowl to give it an extra kick (but also because I am addicted to Frank’s.) With or without Frank, I’m keeping this in my rotation forever! Thanks 🙂
This was soooo good. My super choosey four year old seriously said “this is crazy good!!”
Can’t wait to try it! Just curious though, why only 8 ounces of ground beef?
You can always add more as needed to suit your preferences.
Does anyone know how many cups this makes?? I want to make it and I know it says “4 servings” but it’s 15 WW points per serving, so was wanting to break it down and see if this was huge servings or if it’s pretty small servings and 4 is reasonable. Thanks!!
Instant favorite! I added the whole 12oz box of twisted elbow veggie pasta, my can of diced tomatoes had green chiles, 1 small can of tomato sauce, a little extra chili powder and 1tsp cornstarch to thicken it up a bit. So much flavor! I LOVE this blog! I’ve made 4 recipes now and they’ve all been added to our favorites! Thank you so much for posting! Following you on Instagram has gotten us out of our home-cooking slump 🙂
Made this today for dinner with my boyfriend and we loved it! It was the perfect meal for a cold, gloomy day. This recipe definitely makes more than 4 servings though, more like 6. It’s also more chili than mac and cheese, but we sprinkled some extra cheese on top. Great recipe! We’ll be making it again for sure 🙂
Making this now but disappointed in that the 10oz of macaroni has soaked all the liquid. Looks nothing like the picture. Looks like a goulash. ???????
Most of the liquid should be soaked up – that’s the beauty of a one pot meal! However, if there is not enough liquid to go around, please feel free to reduce the amount of pasta as needed to suit your preferences.
The only thing that would make this recipe better would be is to make it in the crockpot. Would you have any suggestions on how I might prepare it in the cockpit other than put the macaroni in about 30 minutes before ready to eat? Thank you so much for posting.
It is very difficult to give exact conversion information to translate a traditional stovetop recipe to be used in a slow cooker without further recipe testing. However, here is an article worth checking out on a possible conversion guide. Hope that helps!
I love this chili recipe and you should totally enter this chili contest! I think you have a good chance at winning!
http://bushbeans.thedailymeal.com/
One of our new favourites to our diner menu! We add the pasta separately as we found it soaked up too much of the liquid, and added corn.
This recipe is now a household favorite, my husband (who is extremely picky) loved it, even got seconds… I did double it and instead of onions I used onion powder because my husband hates onions and added a little garlic powder! Absolutely amazing!!!
I will try the recipe, but must comment on Butters the corgi. I know she is well over a year old now, but she seemed to be looking right at me and saying “Don’t you want a puppy just like me?” Why, yes, yes, I do!
I made this with 2 cups chopped leftover cooked Christmas turkey in place of hamburger. It was really great! I am always trying new things to use up all those Christmas leftovers. I can’t wait to try it with the ground beef later on and also will try the vegan recipe from Megan for my vegetarians.
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
I’ve been wanting to make this for awhile, but in a vegan version. Substituted chipotle seasoned crumbled ‘tofurkey’ for the beef, low sodium vegetable stock for the chicken stock, and shredded vegan cheese instead of real cheddar. Used a whole can of low sodium kidney beans, skipped the white beans, and added a handful of lentils, just for fun.
Super delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
Tried and tested – I can honestly say this recipe is ridiculously delicious.