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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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!
Amazing recipe! We LOVED it! Thanks so much for sharing!!!!
Just had to comment on this ! So so good! I added lots of veggies, as I would in my chili (celery, carrots , mushrooms and corn). NOW FOR THE AMAZING INGREDIENT. Then I realized I was out of macaroni! Searched the cupboard and found a box of Annie’s mac n cheese (like KD). So I added the noodles from the box. Then I looked at the dried cheese packet, and thought, “what the heck, it is chili-mac-and- CHEESE soup “. And so I added the cheese package at the very end. I know some of you are likely cringing at the thought!
I can’t tell you how GOOD it made it though! It gave a slightly creamy broth and cheesy flavor! Might get the same results by adding a couple of spoons of cream cheese right at the end, if powdered cheese is not your thing. Try it, trust me
Also, i used my own taco seasoning for the spices and cooked much longer to make sure everything was tender
This is a great meal. you can make to your liking easily. I used chili beans instead of the kidney. Also added cut up mild chiles. Added extra cumin and chili powder. Absolutely loved it. It’s a keeper for sure. everyone raved about it. It would make a great potluck dish.
thanks.
Made this for dinner tonight and was very very good. Family wants me to double it next time :o) Did add full cans of each bean and then more spice. My batch did not have any additional broth as shown in the picture but, was very delicious just as is. Next time will think about adding one green bell pepper along with onions to up the veggies. So great- thanks!
This recipe looks so good! Im not sure what i did wrong but it didnt turn out good for me. It wasnt as “soupy” as the pictures and the sauce i did have was kinda watery whereas on the pictures it looks flavorful and red. Any tips? Im not the best cook so im thinking i did something wrong.
It’s hard to say! Did it thicken up a bit as you let it sit?
Thank you so much for this recipe!!! I even won 2nd place (tied for 2nd :)) at the chili cook-off last weekend. My only concern is that it really lacked in kick. What do you recommend?
You can always increase the amount of spices, to taste.
This was a good recipe. I added Siracha to mine to give it a bit more kick since the seasonings by themselves were a tad bland. I also accidentally put in a whole pound of beef and a whole box of macaroni noodles (16 oz) because I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t realize the recipe cut it down like that. The way I buy my beef though, it’s very inconvenient to only use the 8 ounces. It’s also very difficult to get exactly 10 oz of noodles in the pot. It’s slightly less than 3/4’s, which is…I’m not sure. So instead I just used what I had. It turned out a bit more gumbo-like or stew-like that soupy like the picture for obvious reasons. I did add more chicken broth to compensate for the noodles. If I were to do the recipe again, I would add an extra can of tomatoes, use beef broth instead of chicken broth, less noodles, and definitely add the siracha/hot sauce. It was delicious though, and my kids enjoyed it. The 2 1/2 year old ate two helpings! That’s rare! Overall, a good base recipe to build on and tailor to you liking.
This recipe is so easy, and delicious! I didn’t have any kidney beans, so substituted with Ranch Style Beans, and it still turned out great!
I created a spreadsheet a few years ago to help me with meal planning, and have been updating it with every new recipe we try and like. It now contains around 90 meals, each categorized by main ingredient (Beef, Chicken, pasta, etc) and meal type (Mexican, Italian, American, etc), with a link to the recipe – yours included! It has saved me so much time with meal planning and making out my grocery list!
After talking with some friends, I thought this spreadsheet might be something worth sharing, so I have made it available from my blog to download for free! Now that my readers have your recipe, I’m sure they will be enjoying it as much as we do!
This was a total winner! My three kiddos gobbled it up – 4 bowls each. I doubled the recipe to pack in lunches day after. Thanks for creating meals that are both tasty and mom friendly!
This is my own opinion but I think this was a really poor recipe. No flavor and so little spice… boring. Really sad to see all these blogs with people that can’t cook with pretty pictures. Sorry to say that this recipe not one to ever make again. Come on people! Make your favorite chile recipe and add some cooked macaroni to it! Soooo much better! Really!… 2 teasps. ground chili!!!! So sad.
Agreed!
It was awful.
I kinda thought about doing exactly what you just said, which was to just make my own chili recipe next time since it would add more flavor and I wouldn’t have to go blind.
you need to use this as a base recipe and add your own kick to it. I added extras and man was tasty.
This is my favorite! I use turkey add the whole cans of beans and a little extra cheese. I make this all the time and everyone loves it. It’s also great for leftover lunches. Thank you!
Yet again, you hit it out of the park! Thank you again for yet ANOTHER easy family favorite 🙂
I loved this recipe. I do like adding brown sugar for sweetness. What do you think?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
This is my second time making this and I LOVE it! I make it vegetarian though and it turns out awesome!