Instant Pot Enchilada Casserole

Our creamy Instant Pot enchilada casserole with ground beef recipe has all the Mexican flavors you love cooked in just 4 minutes! You’ll definitely want seconds of these noodles this weekend for dinner.

What is an enchilada casserole?

You may have had this traditional dish with meat and cheese wrapped inside corn tortillas and baked in a dish with enchilada sauce and cheese smothering the top, well this is a deconstructed version of that. Another difference is that we swap out the tortillas for noodles instead, no wrapping required. Essentially you get most of the same ingredients but with less prep.

Ninja Foodi Enchilada Casserole

I’m telling you, this was a throw it together let’s see what happens kinda’ meal that worked out perfectly. SO of course I wanted to share it with all of you. You can make it in your IP, Crockpot Express or as an easy Ninja Foodi recipe as well (with the lid that is not attached). Any brand of electric pressure cooker works.

I used ground beef because that is traditionally what we have on hand and what we use for Instant Pot enchiladas too. Ground sausage, turkey or even precooked shredded chicken would work too. Medium size pasta noodles like shells work great but penne or twisty type is fun as well.

Enchilada Casserole with Ground Beef

I made this two different ways, I will explain them both. The overall consensus was that the ground beef method with more ingredients was favored over ground sausage. If you’re in a rush you could opt for the latter though. Jimmy Dean has a great spicy variety if you like some heat, I like half and half of this.

If you’ve never made Instant Pot casseroles before you’re in for a treat! I love them because there’s NO boiling required. The pasta cooks in the flavorful sauce which makes them taste amazing when they’re tender!

I know, meatloaf and enchiladas?? May sound strange but it just means I added a wallop of flavors to my ground beef before browning it on the saute function. I HIGHLY suggest getting a non stick pot. It almost eliminates all burn notifications and eliminates need for cooking spray. Makes it easier to clean too.

Variations

You can make this dairy free quite easily. I use Daiya vegan cheeses for my husband, comes shredded. Heat can be added with red pepper flakes and/or some Sriracha.

For us we like to add lots of cheese, it will melt quickly once you stir it in AND I sprinkle some more on the top when I serve each bowl because that is how we roll. Adding a dollop of sour cream brings a creaminess to this dish. You could also add green onions and/or diced chives on the top when serving it. The possibilities as far as toppings are endless.

Can you make enchilada casserole with chicken?

Of course, you really can use any sort of meat you wanted but this is most common and expected with this dish. You’d need to dice chicken breasts into bite size pieces. Then cook the chicken with some olive oil on saute function to brown outsides and then follow the remaining instructions and ingredients below.

How do you make this extra creamy?

Lift lid, stir, and add some cheese when done cooking, stir again until melted and this will thicken the whole dish. If you stir in your sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt) now it will make your casserole creamy, or you could choose to serve as is with a dollop on top.

Tips

If you do not want to add the sour cream your pressure cooker pasta will look like this. That is good too, but not over the top!! It really doesn’t matter what style noodles you use. I wouldn’t use whole grain because the timing will be off and personally I think they have an odd texture.

Anything small or medium size will do, you can see both types below. I use what is in my cupboard basically. Now for the good stuff!!

The great thing about this enchilada pasta is you can really adjust the heat level. I used mild sauce the first time, but the second I used half mild and half medium. We all thought this brought more WOW to the dish.

I might add the chicken with some diced onions. You’d just need to saute until outsides were no longer pink.  Then follow rest of instructions at the point where to pour in the enchilada sauce. When I make this shredded chicken version I will add more info as far as that goes.

What can I substitute for enchilada sauce?

You could use our easy to throw together tamale sauce we have here. This one does have some heat for sure but you can tone it down with the types of chiles used. Other options would be to pressure cook with;

• 1 cup spaghetti or tomato sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 to 3 tsp chili powder
• One tsp basil
• A tsp oregano
• 1 tsp cumin
• salt and pepper to taste

FAQ

What should I serve with enchilada casserole?

Instant Pot refried beans are great from scratch! Cream corn casserole is one of my favorite side dishes.
Instant Pot corn on the cob is something we make with almost every main course in warmer months. Serve this as is or with corn tortillas on the side if you’d like. It’s one of our favorite Instant Pot Mexican recipes.

How do you reheat enchilada casserole?

Preheat the oven to 350˚ degrees. Put leftovers in an oven safe baking dish and cover with foil. Reheat for 20-30 minutes if it’s been refrigerated, or 45 minutes if it was frozen. Stir halfway through, remove when the enchiladas are warmed. This will work with this or our slow cooker Crockpot enchilada casserole leftovers.

• If using a microwave, reheat in a dish in 30 second increments stirring in between times. 
• Add a bit of extra cheese on top halfway through and/or sour cream to make it creamier.

Other easy Mexican pressure cooker recipes you’ll love

1. Above is our Instant Pot Mexican pizza. You use a springform pan for this one.
2. We made what we called an pressure cooker Mexican casserole here. There are similar flavors but this one has beans and corn right in the mix too.

Printable recipe instructions and nutritional information is below. Just add all the things in my friends and ignore all of that stuff. 😉 Casseroles are meant to be feel good comfort food after all.