Instant Pot Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese
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Cheeseburger macaroni recipe? YES, PLEASE! Hamburger meat, pasta and an epic cheese sauce. All made in ONE POT. Too easy!
It’s been a bit hectic here. With the move, the traveling, the wedding planning, and the holidays, we’ve been constantly on the go-go-go.
But even with our super busy schedules, I can still whip up this cozy, comforting cheeseburger mac in a flash.
That’s right. You read that right. It’s cheeseburger MAC. AND. CHEESE. Aka, homemade hamburger helper made a million times better thanks to Cabot cheese.
Owned by 800 farm families throughout New York and New England since 1919, Cabot creates the best cheese and dairy. So it’s no wonder that this mac and cheese yields that super creamy, super epic cheese sauce.
And my favorite part? You can throw all of it in the Instant Pot®! And I mean, all of it, even the uncooked pasta. You barely have to lift a finger here.
After the quick-release, you can stir in all the cheese, letting it melt right into the pasta. The key here is using a good quality cheese, like Cabot Mild Cheddar Cheese. It will make all of the difference!
Instant Pot Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- ½ medium sweet onion, diced
- ½ green bell pepper, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons paprika
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 3 cups beef stock
- 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 12 ounces elbow macaroni
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 ½ cups shredded Cabot Mild Cheddar Cheese
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Set a 6-qt Instant Pot® to the high saute setting. Heat olive oil; add ground beef and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Add onion and bell pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in garlic, paprika and oregano until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in beef stock, tomato sauce and pasta; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Select manual setting; adjust pressure to high, and set time for 5 minutes. When finished cooking, quick-release pressure according to manufacturer’s directions.
- Stir in cheese and heavy cream until cheese has melted, about 1-2 minutes; stir in parsley.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Cabot Creamery. As always, I only partner with brands that I love and truly believe in, allowing me to create more quick and easy recipes to get us through the week without breaking the bank. All opinions expressed are my own.
Any one else have issues with this coming out watery & more like a soup? Tried all the tricks – cornstarch slurry, added more cheese, tomato paste – nothing worked. It was absolutely delicious though!
What would the instructions and ingredients (not sure if you’d need more of less liquid)be if you made this on stove top? Looks delicious!
I LOVE your recipes! I call this one adult hamburger helper, and when I make it, I have to do at least a double batch!
I have tweaked your recipe to fit my family’s tastebuds – I use a large whole onion and bell pepper, diced tomatoes instead of tomato sauce, smoked paprika instead of regular, extra garlic, and orrington farms beef soup base w/water in place of beef broth (it adds a nice depth of flavor).
This tastes as great on day 2 as on day 1 (if you happen to have any left over!)
We make this all the time and it gets eaten up so quick! Has anyone ever doubled it?
This is exactly what I needed: quick, easy, and tasty. Even my VERY PICKY child ate two helpings. I didn’t have enough tomato sauce so I ended up using about ¼ cup ketchup (not noticeable in the end). Added some chopped up carrots to sneak in more vegetables. Being able to cook it all in the instant pot helped not heat up the entire house.
This is easy and delicious. I have made it as it is written but most recently replaced the paprika and oregano with taco seasoning for what I call Taco Mac & Cheese. Easy and delicious recipe that is very versatile.
Yummy! I love this recipe, it’s fabulous as is and it’s a great recipe that allows substitutions if need be.
Wow
I’ve made this recipe several times over the years and love it! It is great as is! We also like to make a healthier version with ground Turkey/Chicken stock and omit the heavy cream and it’s still delicious. This summer I plan on using poblano peppers and green chiles and maybe stirring in fresh corn at the end. So many things you can try!
I got tired of pulling out my huge instant pot, so I make it on the stove. My kids beg me to make this all the time, and they fight over the leftovers! Very good recipe!
My family love this recipe and I have made it many times over the years. As I am trying to reduce our meat consumption, I used only a third of the meat last time and replaced the other two thirds w small green lentils (dry). I added an additional 1.5x water to lentil amount to the pot. They cooked in 5 min although 6 would have been better. Next time, I will look for a slightly longer-cooking pasta. My whole family liked the lentil addition and I was cleared to repeat it. Also positive: I felt the dish was quite filling w the lentils. Just sharing if someone wants to try.
The wife loved it which is pretty much the standard for what gets fixed again in our house. Quick and easy, I’ll definitely prepare this again. Must confess, when faced with a choice between using the bag of shredded cheese or hand-shredding the block of Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar already in the fridge, I chose easy over great.Soon I’ll enjoy the Cabot with some Riesling & fruit, or whatever looks good at the moment. Thanks, and I’ll be trying a couple more recipes from your site soon.
My husband and I LOVE this dish. It tastes exactly like Hamburger Helper but way fresher and unprocessed. Also SO easy. Definitely a favorite of ours.
Quick n easy! I let it sit 10 min after stirring in the cheese n cream. Used Tinkyada gluten free shells. 5 min, quick release. Great recipe!
Super tasty! It’s in my regular rotation now at my husbands request. I use whole wheat macaroni, increasing the cooking time to 7 minutes and it comes out perfect!
This is my absolute go-to guaranteed to please meal for my 22 month old. It’s super easy to throw together. I use protein pasta and have never had an issue with the pasta getting too mushy in the instant pot. Tonight I didn’t have any dry pasta so made the sauce on the stove (omitted the beef broth since it seemed saucy enough without it) and added frozen ravioli I cooked separately, a hit!
I would make this the traditional way, not in the Instant Pot, because the pasta was mushy. I would make it al dente and then add everything to the pasta. The flavor was good, however.
This came out so delicious! Great instant pot recipe!
This absolutely amazing. I’m wondering if it can be doubled in an 8 quart?
I make this all the time and it’s a true household hit. I made the mistake and made a different recipe last time and it was terrible. I’m so glad I found ole faithful. I’ll be bookmarking it immediately!