Instant Pot Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese
by Chungah
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
Homemade hamburger helper! Quick, easy, budget-friendly, and tastes SO much better than the boxed mix. A family (and childhood) favorite!
Featured Comment
Reasons to make cheeseburger mac and cheese in the Instant Pot
- Homemade hamburger helper. This tastes like that childhood favorite, made with better flavor and fresh ingredients. We’re talking real cheese, less preservatives, and less sodium.
- One pot convenience. With the help of the Instant Pot®, everything comes together in a single pot, even the uncooked pasta, making clean up an absolute breeze.
- Perfect for busy weeknights. With its fast cook time and hands-off cooking, this is one of the most handy recipes to have in your back pocket for those hectic weeknights. Not to mention, an instant hit for both kids and grown ups!
- Budget-friendly. This dinner comes together very economically using affordable pantry staples.
key ingredients for instant pot cheeseburger mac and cheese
Beef
80/20 ground beef is best, providing the most flavor and juiciness. For leaner options, opt for 90/10 ground beef, ground chicken or ground turkey.
Onion, bell pepper and garlic
For flavor boost! This is always our go-to during those busy nights, cutting down prep time even more.
Seasonings
We’re calling in pantry staples here – paprika, oregano, salt and pepper.
Beef stock and tomato sauce
These are the liquids to keep everyone happy and saucy for all the rich, deep flavors.
Pasta
Elbow macaroni is a classic, quintessential choice, trapping in all the sauce with every bite.
Cheese
Opt for freshly grated cheese for the best taste and texture, melting more smoothly for that dreamy, silky, creamy-cheesy goodness.
Heavy cream
Add your finishing touches with heavy cream, making the sauce even more rich, velvety, and creamy.
tips and tricks for success
- Use your favorite meat. Ground beef, chicken or turkey will all work very well here.
- Freshly grated cheese goes a long way. Pre-packaged shredded cheese contains anti-caking agents that can lead to gritty and grainy mac and cheese.
- Use melty cheese. Sharp and medium cheddar cheese are classic choices for homemade hamburger helper, but other melty cheeses can also be used such as Colby Jack, Monterey Jack, American Cheese, or Pepper Jack.
- Sneak in some veggies. This is a great recipe to sneak in some extra nutrition and veggies for those picky eaters including leafy greens such as spinach, kale, collard greens, swiss chard, or arugula.
- Add the cream slowly. Always add the heavy cream at the very end, pouring very slowly to prevent curdling.
what to serve with cheeseburger mac and cheese
- Roasted Sweet Potatoes
- Easy Garlic Parmesan Knots
- Garlic Parmesan Roasted Broccoli
- Italian Chopped Salad
- Best Chicken Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons
Tools For This Recipe
6-qt Instant Pot®
Instant Pot Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! Ground chicken or ground turkey can be used instead of ground beef.
Mushrooms, peas, carrots, broccoli, zucchini or leafy greens (ex. spinach) are all great additions.
Heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream) has one of the highest fat contents with about 36-40% fat. Half and half or whole milk are suitable substitutes, but will yield a lighter result.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Absolutely! We have a recipe for that here.
Instant Pot Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese
Video
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 medium 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.
Equipment
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
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.
This has been my families go to recipe for the bast I want to say 3 years or longer! I had to come back to retrieve the URL to add to my digital recipe list. This is an amazing recipe! Thank you
What do I need to adjust to double it?
This is so delicious. I brown the beef, onion, bell pepper, garlic & seasonings the night before and then let cool before I placed in the refrigerator. Came home from a day of skiing, pulled out the meat mixture, and then continued the steps from the original recipe to complete the dish. It was very easy and I had a hot dinner in less than 20 mins. My daughter went back for 4ths, and my husband said it was stellar.
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!
I let it sit for 10 min then serve. Helps soak up liquid.
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.