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 just made this for my family if you love chili then you must try this it is amazing i didn’t have fresh onion or garlic i used powder garlic and minced onions and once i dished it out i sprinkled fresh grated mild cheddar on top
had to spruce up the flavor but turned out awesome, but the pasta was WAY too overdone for my liking. also had to had to add red pepper flakes. great flavor, but wouldn’t make again. maybe if the pasta was served on the side.
Can you freeze this?
Very good. Used a can of Rotel as I did not have any diced tomatoes. Other than that followed exactly. Will make again. Thanks for the recipe!
Rotel is soooo good with this!
I have made this recipe dozens of times, it’s quick to make and my family loves it, they always go back for seconds. I follow the recipe exactly except I use 2 cups of broth.
Cooked for dinner tonight and my we couldn’t stop eating it!!!! Loved it so much that we’ll definitely be having it for the next few meals! I stuck the pan in the broiler to melt the cheese on the top at the every end and it turned out great!
Is there a way I could use already made, left over, chili to make this?
This is a great base! I used a low sodium broth, added about a tablespoon of knorrs caldo de tomate. Because I like my chili mac Hearty… I also added 1 Jalapeno, a small can of diced chiles, 4 oz of velveeta cheese, and one can of creamed corn (this adds some sweetness). I didn’t have elbow macaroni, so I used ~16 oz of penne pasta. I added salt to taste. When serving, I topped it off with some green onions, and super small diced red onion.
Oh! I also added a green bell pepper!
Response to Angel. So you seriously changed the whole recipe. I think that’s insulting to the person who posted it originally. Why don’t you post your own recipe.?
Love this! It’s a family fave.
Love this recipe! I have made it several times and it is always a crowd pleaser.
This was very straight forward, easy and fairly quick! As far as the white kidney beans here, well I used what I had on hand, which were, Northern beans.
My chili was a bit watery, so I put a heaping tablespoon of corn starch in a bit of water, mixed it thoroughly and then added to the pot. Brought to a quick boil, then simmered, turned off added cheese. This was a very good, flavored lovely chili. I could have used more chili powder but just a bit more. Very good indeed. I will recommend this dish to family, Thank you for sharing damn delicious one pot chili mac n cheese!
Another 5 star meal from Damn Delicious. Everyone loved it, it’s definitely going into my favorites rotation. As with a lot of my ground meat recipes I made it with half ground turkey and half ground beef (unless my daughter is here, then its all ground turkey). I didn’t have any fresh parsley so I tried cilantro instead, which made it so ultra delicious. Thank you for another wonderful recipe
This has become a family favourite and I have been making this recipe for several years now. I usually add a bit of extra pasta and less chilli powder for the kids. The flavours are amazing!
I had taken out ground beef, but was tired of making the same old thing. So I went to the internet in search of something different and boy am I glad I did! This was absolutely delicious and will be saving this recipe to make again soon! The only thing I did differently is leave out the cumin, but that was because I didn’t have any in the pantry. Thanks for this recipe!!
I did not change the recipe much at all except I usually just consolidate the kidney beans to just one can. but it’s basically the same thing and it is a great meal. It has replaced my other two chili mac recipes because this one tastes better.
Excellent one-pot meal a keeper to my collection. Thanks. Made more than I needed how can I freeze the left-over for a later date?
It’s a cold and rainy day in NYC today and this looks perfect to go with a movie. I’m making this exactly as directed. Can’t wait. Do we get to cuddle with Butters? Adorable.
I’ve tried many of your recipes. They are all good, but this remains one of my favorites! YUMMMY!
This was delicious! My boyfriend and I like to limit our red meat intake so we tried this with Beyond Meat crumbles instead and it was so good! Very easy to make – I’ll definitely be adding this recipe to the books.
I have been making this for a couple of years now. I absolutely LOVE it & it is incredibly easy to put together. I double the recipe every time so I have it all week long. Cumin is one of my favorite flavors! I go heavy on the cumin & chili powder, and sometimes add a touch of cayenne. I love adding in the fresh parsley. This recipe will remain in my usual rotation of meals for sure! Thanks for sharing the recipe & pictures of your cute corgi!
We’ve tried this recipe tonight. It was delicious and easy to make. Your recipes are always at height of my expectations. Thank you for sharing!
Awesome recipe, you can tweak it many different ways, and it’s fun and good….