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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Just wanted to thank you for this recipe!! Made it tonight for tonight and it was definitely a hit with my husband!
I LOVE this recipe! I figured out how to double this recipe so that I can eat one that night and freeze the other. I’m a fan of making one big mess instead of two! Haha
Grocery List:
2 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, diced
1 lb. ground beef
2 (32-ounce) boxes chicken broth
2 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (14.5-ounce) canned white kidney beans (AKA cannellini beans), drained and rinsed
1 (14.5-ounce) canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
4 teaspoons chili powder
3 teaspoon cumin
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 (16-ounce) box uncooked elbows pasta
2 (1 lb.) bags shredded cheddar cheese
1 Pint Freezer Ziploc bag
On the freezer Ziploc bag write – “Chili Mac and Cheese” add box of broth to mixture, bring to a boil, add half a box of elbow noodles, simmer for 13-15 min, and then add cheese. (Keep the 32 oz. box of broth and half the box of elbow noodles in the pantry and you can freeze one of the bags of cheese to thaw later with your mixture.)
Heat olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add garlic, onion and ground beef, and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat. While this is cooking, open your cans (beans and tomatoes). Rinse and drain your kidney beans. Half of each kidney bean cans and one diced tomato can need to go in the Ziploc. Once the ground beef is cooked split half of the ground beef, onions, and garlic into the Ziploc bag.
Stir in chicken broth, tomatoes (one can), beans (half of each can), chili powder (2 teas. in the pot and 2 teas. In the bag) and cumin (2 teas. in the pot and 2 teas. In the bag); season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a simmer and 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.
I hope this makes sense!!!
I came across this when my husband showed me a post it was on yesterday. Looking forward to making this with par-cooked gluten free elbows. : )
Your pup is adorable. What a sweet little face! I bet he’s all grown up and handsome by now, being that I’m seeing this about 18 months after the original posting.
I made this about 2 weeks ago. While the flavor is great, I agree with the other post. The amount of macaroni called for in the recipe has to be a typo. It was way, way too much pasta!!!! Add at least half of what it calls for!
I thought for sure that I had made a mistake. I thought maybe the pasta was to be cooked first. Or that I hadn’t followed the recipe. Nope. I would change it to approx 4 oz of macaroni and it will be a perfect, cold night recipe!
Liz, the amount of pasta listed in the recipe is correct. However, please be mindful there are different sizes of elbow pasta (small and large). I highly recommend using small.
This was delicious! Thank you! I used lean ground turkey instead of beef. I also had to add a bit more broth, but this could have been because I cooked it too high or I used too many noodles? Either way, delicious recipe. Thank you!
This was pretty good, however being from TX, we found we needed to at least triple the amount of chili powder and cumin, plus add the whole cans of beans as it was not robust enough for our tastes. We also found the amount of pasta to be a bit much, so we would reduce it by two to three ounces next time. Overall, a nice hearty and filling meal!
That looks (and sounds) absolutely amazing!! I will definitely be making it one night this week, if not tomorrow!! Thanks for sharing!!!
Oct.14/15 I had leftover chorizo + hot Italian sausage. Started with fresh medium tomatoes, added sweet onion, garlic and sautéed. Added vegetable broth, the rest as per the recipe. Used a can of Romano beans (all I had). Topped with jalapeño cheese in the pot. Then served with 2yr old cheddar. Marvellous and thank you!! Your dog is so cute. Ottawa, Canada
Went looking for a Chili Mac recipe and found one..complete with a very cute Pem Puppy!! I will be making this tonight for our dinner. If you love Pems..you must be a great cook. I know because I love to cook and we are doggy parents to to Pems. We have Smokey who is a red/headed tri, age 6 and our new boy Lukas, a striking little sable. We’ve had Pems in our home for many years, best dogs ever.
Thanks for the recipe, my hubby is going to like this one!!
I meant to say TWO Pems and our Lukas is just over a year. Love sweet puppy faces.
Can I make this and serve it the next day?
Yes, absolutely.
Just made this, and it’s so easy and amazing. I couldn’t find chili powder (I’m in Japan, some stores have it, the one I went to didn’t), so I improvised with a combination of paprika, cumin, oregano, cilantro and chili pepper, kind of dashing them in and tasting as I went, and it worked! I also used about half the pasta (small pot, sacrifices had to be made), but the balance was still great. Anyway, thanks again!
Can I use 1 lb hamburger? I wasn’t sure how much it would change it. In my eyes the more meat the better.
Yes, absolutely.
Just had this for dinner. It was definitely a winner and I will be putting it in my keeper board. The only change I made was to use all of the beans and cut down on the pasta a bit. Thanks for sharing.
Why not use ground chicken and reduce your intake of red meats and lower the calories as well?! It really won’t effect the taste at all.
Anne, you can use ground beef, ground chicken or ground turkey if you’d like – it’s up to you! Isn’t that the beauty of home cooking?
Would this be good to cook at home then freeze and then re cook over a camp fire for camping? Just wondering?
Unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot say with certainty. Please use your best judgment.
The beauty of recipes like this is they are easily tweaked to your liking. While I thought it was pretty tasty, if I were to make this again, I would double the meat, increase the beans, and most of all, I’d cut the elbows in half. I cut it back to 8 oz., but it was still too much. All the other ingredients kind of got lost in all that pasta. I felt it could use more cheese – this recipe makes quite a lot. Also, IMO, 13 to 15 minutes is too long, unless you like mushy pasta. I turned off the heat after 10 minutes and let it sit for a few more..
We really love this recipe. I love that basically making the sauce with broth doubles for also cooking the pasta. That’s why this is such a wonderful recipe- it multitasks and saves so much time. Plus cooking it this way makes it so much richer and more delicious. I’d also like to say that it’s just such an easy recipe in terms of saving time. While you are doing one part you can be preparing for another part.
Also we often make substitutions. We’ve done this recipe with ground turkey and vegan substitutes depending on how we feel or our guest’s dietary restrictions. We’ve also used alternative pastas. No matter how we alter the recipe it always comes out great. I personally love that I can use canned goods for this. That means this is a great last minute recipe.
Anyway, we love chili mac and this is basically the only way we make chili mac now. Couldn’t live without this must-have recipe in our arsenal of favorites. You have no idea how much it enriches our lives to have dependable recipes we enjoy that can be healthy as well. We are so grateful to you for sharing!
Love this recipe.. it was delicious and the family went for seconds.
Thank you so much for this recipe, I love it! So easy and yummy! We have tweaked it some to make it a tad bit healthier: whole wheat pasta, kidney beans, black beans, ground turkey and add a little corn! The addition of corn has made me want to play with making a Tex-Mex version! I have shared this recipe with all my friends!
P.S. Even my 2 year old likes this! BONUS!!
I love One Pot Meals! I make this for my family at least once a month and they love it. I double the portions so we’ll have some for lunch the next day. I also use ground turkey instead of beef and I add about a cup of cheese directly to the pot just before the pasta is done. I think the fact that everything sticks together with the cheese helps to hide the beans from my kids! They won’t eat them if they find them!! This recipe is very tasty. Thanks for the recipes!