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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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.
We made this recipe today, to try our new small Dutch oven. I am a vegetarian so my hubby suggested using black beans instead of ground beef. It turned out delicious! We had to adapt the recipe to accommodate the small pot – but it was very easy to make and came out really tasty! Congrats, this is already one of our favorites, it will also become one of our regular meals! Thank you!
This is the first recipe I’ve cooked from Damn Delicious – Chungah, thank you! It is truly a full, balanced meal in one pot. I have a tiny tiny studio kitchen so I’ve been looking for one-pot meals – this was perfect.
A note for people who have had undue difficulty in measuring 10oz of pasta out without a scale – look at the back of the box and put your math skills to use! I had a 16 oz box that contained eight 1/2 cup servings (dry). This means that each 1/2 cup has 2 oz of pasta in it, so 10oz is equal to 2.5 cups (or five 1/2 cups). DONE.
Absolutely delicious! I cook for five people (a vegetarian, a vegan and three meat eaters) and I was able to easily make the original recipe for the meat eaters and a vegan version for the vegan and vegetarian. They both turned out delicious and if I were to be honest, the vegan version was the best one!
To make vegan:
Substitute the ground beef with Gardein meat crumbles (do not use Morning Star crumbles if you are making vegan,
Morning Star’s crumbles are NOT vegan!
Instead of chicken broth, you can use Vegetable broth.
Substitute Cheddar cheese with vegan cheddar shreds.
For both dishes I used sour cream for the meat one and Vegan sour cream for the vegan one.
If you are like me, cooking to feed multiple food eaters, this is a very easy recipe to accommodate everyone.
This really is a fabulous recipe that I use all the time! I add thinly sliced carrots and celery for extra veggies and cook them with the meat and onions. Going to make it again tonight using tortellini instead of elbows.
This has been a HUGE hit with my family (including picky three-year-old twins). I’ve probably made it half a dozen times now, but tonight I made a couple of variations (having limited ingredients, otherwise I wouldn’t mess with perfection). I used about a pound of chicken pulled off the bone, only one can of beans, some velveeta, rotel in place of the tomatoes, and taco seasoning in place of the spices. It tastes like a mix between white chicken chili and macaroni and cheese. YUM.
I made this with a few alterations tonight and we loved it, 3 year old included, he had seconds even!
I used two full cans of red kidney beans (I didn’t have white, and didn’t want to use partial cans).
I used a full pound of ground beef
I only used 8 oz. of pasta
I added 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
This will be added into our regular rotation, thank you for the wonderful recipes!