One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
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?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Quite good and definitely easy! Is 8 oz the right quantity of ground beef? Looks more like a pound (16 oz) in the video but maybe it’s kept to half a pound due to serving size for only 4.
My family loved this dish! Used black beans instead of kidney beans, added a packet of Williams chili seasoning to add in more flavor. Had to use brown rice elbow pasta since hubby is GF and used Gardein crumbles instead of ground beef!! Oh and used close to two cups of cheddar cheese instead of 3/4 cup. It’s a fantastic meal!!
First time making this, so good! Hubby loved it as much as I did. Saved so I’ll remember to make it again. Thank you for sharing.
Wow, loved this recipe! Would not change a thing.
This is so good! I doubled and used around 2 cups extra chicken broth plus more macaroni, fire roasted diced tomatoes and added a block of cream cheese at the end. SO YUMMY! Thanks for the recipe!
Had to adjust due to ingredients on hand. Use home made bone broth, fun Halloween shape noodles, used regular ground sausage, added a bit of cream cheese, only had black beans and used Rotel and corn. Very good. Very easy pot meal. Maybe one day I’ll make it the recipe way
I’ve probably made this recipe 20 times, and we love it every time! Not only is it super flavorful, but it’s also super easy to whip up for weeknight dinners and to double to feed a crowd. It also makes a great meal to warm you up and fill your belly as it’s comforting yet hearty. And don’t forget how kid friendly it is, too!
Love this! I added more pasta and a bit more water, put it in my instant pot for 5 minutes. Next time I’ll try 3 min with elbow macaroni. Finished it with cilantro!
Very good! I have been making this for several years and we love it! I probably need to double it because we never end up with very much for leftovers and lunches. Making this again tonight!
Delicious! Perfect quick one pot dinner to throw together after work! Husband loved it and my childish palate approved!!!!
This was delicious! We used chickpea pasta for extra protein and it was yummy! We will make this again!
Outstanding ! Thanks for this recipe !
I used 1 lb ground turkey rather than ground beef and 4 tbsp better than bouillon chicken flavor with 4 cups of water. Used fire roasted diced tomatoes and an 8 oz packet of Mexican 4 cheese blend. Consider the use of high protein elbow macaroni to increase nutritional content. Delicious !
I love this recipe! The cumin, chile and tomatoes combined with the chicken broth (I used Better than Boullion) make a delicious broth which I like SO MUCH that I will use less pasta next time ( I have a 16 ounce bag of macaroni so I’ll use half the bag and save the other half for another dish). The textures make this dish so comforting. If you don’t add cheese it will still be amazing! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Good, but you really need to keep some liquid in there to keep the flavor with each bite. If you eat it without any juice it’s quite bland tasting.
Made this last night and it was a HIT! Kids loved it and hubby took all the leftovers to work. Will be adding this to our favorites!
Your site is our “go to first” when looking for receipes! It’s a cold winter night in Delaware, and this comfort food is just what was needed! We made it vegetarian by using impossible burger instead of hamburg, and vegetable broth. It was really, really good! Thank you!
Really easy to make and modified to our taste. I had a small chunk of velveeta left in the fridge and added about 1/4 c sour cream to make it creamier. Will definitely make this again! Great for a cold winter day..
Thank you!
Perfect family meal for the winter. I did add 1 tbsp of tomato paste and 1/2 tsp of oregano.
Just made this, had to make it earlier in the day due to our schedule. It now is nothing but ground beef and noodles, I haven’t added the cheese yet. Not serving it right away it lost all of it’s “soupiness” and their is no broth. Anybody have this happen??
Pasta will continue to soak up the broth and become mushy. If you’re making it ahead of time or making a large batch to freeze, add the pasta when you reheat to serve it.
I know may family won’t eat all of this before it goes bad, so before I add the noodles I’ll divide out what we are going to eat into a separate pan and only add noodles to that. The original pot, without noodles, I’ll let cool and portion it out for the freezer. I hope that makes sense.
Excellent recipe – substitute high protein elbow macaroni and ground turkey rather than beef to reduce the calories, fat and carbohydrate content. Add salsa to improve the flavor.