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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Another lovely “concoction” which I will duplicate. Love the puppy! Keep the good stuff coming!
The recipe for the Chili Mac and Cheese is not showing up in the link – just and FYI!!! ( I want to make it this weekend, so . . .)
Thanks,
Alixe
My apologies. The website is undergoing a system update. The recipes will be available very soon! Thank you so much for your patience.
yes….I almost started crying…i hope to make it this weekend
Wow I just made this recipe and it’s delicious! My fiance said he’d marry me today but of course I couldn’t take credit. Thank you!!
This is AMAZING! My family loved it! It is super filling and there was even leftovers.
Have made it several times… love it!! I use one pound of spicy pork sausage, two onions, and brown it very well. Then the garlic and spices, so every layer is seasoned. I used the Rotel original diced tomatoes with green chilies, and dreamfields macaroni. We love it spicy!
I’ve also made it early in the day without the macaroni, so the flavours can meld, then bring it to a boil and add the pasta. It tends to be thicker that way. Then cilantro instead of parsley just before serving. Yummmmm!
There is nothing better on earth than a 1 pot meal. This was delicious. And I love this blog!! I made two adjustments because I like a heartier flavor to my chili– I start the recipe this way so the meat looks more like chili meat and less like hamburger meat: : Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add 3T tomato paste, 3T chili powder, cumin and and cook, stirring, until the oil is brick-red and the mixture is dry, about 2 minutes. Then I add the onion and then the ground beef. The amount of chili powder in this recipe wasn’t enough so I increased from 1.5 Tsp to 3 Tablespoons.
Thank you, Kate!
I just made this recipe. Is it supposed to be runny?
The consistency should be between a chili soup and macaroni & cheese. Hope that helps, Jill!
This was so easy to make and came together so quickly. My husband and I loved it! Makes 4 heaping portions.
This was quick and delicious as always! 2 1/2 dry macaroni is pretty close to 10 ounces.
I love every recipe that I have tried of yours!
We love everything Damn Delicious but this is one of our all time favorites. Quick and easy to make, I always have the ingredients on hand and my 5 hungry boys devour it!
So, you boil the pasta with the beef? You don’t add the beef to the boiled pasta at the end?
Yes, that is correct.
Except for using rotini instead of elbow macaroni, I followed the recipe exactly. Conclusion . . . meh . . . OK, but not very satisfying. 🙁
Tastes as delicious as it looks! Great quick meal! Even had all the ingredients on hand Thanks for sharing! Family with 3 teenage boys approved! 🙂
So great to hear! Thanks.
I’m so glad I found this recipe–it is delicious! I followed your instructions to the letter–in places against my “experienced cook” judgement, lol–and found it to be perfect. Great consistency, great flavor, hearty, and, since cheese is only sprinkled on at the end, more healthy than many chili mac recipes. Also, great idea cooking the elbows in chicken broth–I seriously would have never thought to do such a thing. For folks who want more kick–add a bit of jalapeño. For folks who want more “soup,” add less pasta. Be careful not overcook!
Thank you for sharing, Annie!
This was delicious. Mine didn’t come out as “soupy” as yours, but was still so good. Maybe I put too much pasta in. I’ll definitely be making this again. Sue
What an easy and quick lunch! I’m from Texas and love meat; therefore, I used a full pound of ground beef. This recipe is ”damn delicious “!
Yum!
Yum! Made it for dinner tonight and it was wonderful! When I make chili, I usually freeze some for later. I’m wondering if freezing this would be successful, because of the pasta. Also, maybe those who are more savvy about these things could answer this question: is there a way to save recipes and make notes on them? I save a lot to the big P, but can’t make notes about them there. Is there a way to do that, or do I just have to sharpen my memory skills? I added some thinly sliced baby carrots tha I needed to use up and it was perfect!
OMG – is there anything cuter than a Corgi puppy??? (The food looks awfully good, too!)
I had this pinned and just found it again and so glad I did. Made it for the first time….my family devoured it. It was so simple and easily adjustable to your own tastes. I added cayenne and served it with hot sauce on the side. I also used tomatoes with peppers. Thank you for sharing this!
What size is your dutch oven? Mine is only two quarts and I wonder if that is big enough or if I should divide the recipe.
I used a 4.5qt Dutch oven.
Absolutely disgusting! I followed the recipe to the T. It is bland and has no flavor whatsoever. Looks amazing, tastes HORRIBLE!
Thank you! I’ve been reading the comments getting frustrated. Mine looked exactly like the picture. My husband will eat anything, and he couldn’t even get it down. It was not good for us.