A favorite dish of pasta with ground beef, tomatoes and chili seasonings, made easy using the Instant Pot!

Instant Pot Chili Mac

I love sauce and pasta dishes like this chili mac. It's so easy to throw together and gives you such a tasty dish that really most everyone loves and it's good any time of the year.

Besides a multitude of variations within the recipe itself that you can make by increasing and decreasing the chili seasonings and yes, even the cheese (or even leaving the cheese out), there are other ways to vary it too, just to give it a different flavor. Taco seasoned comes to mind as does a more mildly seasoned ground beef "helper" style of pasta and everything in between.

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I didn't start off right away in the Instant Pot craze.

In fact I bought two other branded electronic pressure cookers before Instant Pot became the rock star popular cooker that everyone fell in love with. I finally bought one and I have to say, this kitchen appliance sure did grow on me. Besides the basics that I use it for all the time, like potatoes, a variety of veggies, beans, boiled eggs and rice, and yes, roasts, one of my big favorites to cook in the Instant Pot is pasta with sauce!

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Just so you know... although I use my branded Instant Pots (#ad) the most, when I reference a recipe for instant pots here on my website, it's used as a generic term, meaning any electronic pressure cooker brand, because there are many (#ad) these days!

Pasta in the Instant Pot is so quick and easy and especially handy when you're hungry but exhausted and have mouths to feed but just don't feel much like cooking.

Here's what you'll need to make my Instant Pot Chili Mac:

• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil or other cooking oil
• 1 1/2 cups frozen pepper and onion blend
• 1 tablespoon chopped pickled jalapeno
• 1 pound lean (85/15) ground beef
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons chili powder, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (4 ounce) can green chilies
• 2-1/4 cups beef stock or broth
• 1 (15.5 ounce) can chili beans, undrained
• 1 1/2 cups dry medium elbow macaroni
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese, your choice, divided, or to taste, plus more for garnish

Here's how to make it!

Though you can certainly use fresh onions, peppers and jalapenos, I've been keeping various blends of peppers in my freezer so today I'm using a frozen blend of onions and peppers. I also keep pickled jalapenos in my pantry - the sliced "tamed" version is what I always try to get.

As noted before, I've gotten a little skeptical about grocery store meats these days so I've been buying the majority of my poultry and meat from farm sources locally and all across the country. 

The Moink branded ground beef pictured here that I'm using is from one of those sources. 100% grass fed, 100% grass finished, free of sugar, nitrates, nitrites, food dyes, GMO grains, saline solutions, and "any and all other sorts of funk," in their words! I have no financial relationship with them, just sharing another one of my favorite meat sources!

If you're using the frozen pepper blend, often they are already broken up a bit. Otherwise let them thaw enough that you can use a pair of kitchen shears to chop them up a bit. Chop up the garlic and jalapeno.

Set your Instant Pot to the sauté or browning function sometimes for other multicookers, add olive oil and the pepper blend and cook for about 4 minutes, or until tender.

Add the ground beef and cook, stirring to break up the meat until cooked through. Drain off any excess fat. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but doesn't that ground beef just look perfect?!

Stir in garlic and jalapenos.

In place of the Italian seasoning, I decided to use some of my Bragg Sprinkle. Love this stuff!

Combine the chili powder, cumin, Italian seasoning (or Bragg Sprinkles), salt and pepper.

Add to the meat and stir in.

Add the (Rotel) diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and green chilies. 

Stir together.

Add the beef stock, chili beans and pasta. I'm using Better than Bouillon (#ad) roasted beef base. 

Stir, cover, cancel sauté and set pot to HIGH pressure for 6 minutes.

Now, this is pretty juicy as written though once you stir it up, add the cheese and let it rest it's not soupy. That said if you prefer it to be drier, just use a little less broth.

Let pressure release naturally 10 minutes, then carefully release any remaining pressure. 

Stir, add half of the cheese and stir in.

Sprinkle remaining cheese on top, cover pot.

Let rest until cheese melts.

Spoon into individual bowls and offer garnishes at the table.

For more of my favorite Instant Pot recipes, check out the collection on my Pinterest page!

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