Creamy Instant Pot Enchilada Casserole

Instant Pot enchilada casserole is a creamy pasta with ground beef or sausage and all the Mexican flavors you love. Cooked in 4 minutes, you’ll definitely want seconds. 

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. Any 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.

Instant Pot Enchilada Pasta

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.

• If you’ve never made an Instant Pot casserole 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!

Like I said, I made this two different ways. The preferred method is in the recipe card below, and explained here. Alternatively instead of making the meatloaf recipe initially you could use just ground sausage.

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.

Instant Pot Enchilada Casserole

I HIGHLY suggest getting this non stick pot. It almost eliminates all burn notifications and eliminates need for cooking spray. Makes it easier to clean too.

1. Meat mixture:
   1. Ground beef
   2. Egg
   3. Onion soup mix
   4. Parmesan cheese, shredded
   5. Worcestershire sauce
   6. Bread crumbs
2. Other ingredients
   1. Olive oil
   2. Uncooked pasta noodles – we used rotini once and medium shells the other
   3. Enchilada sauce – I like half mild and half medium as far as heat goes
   4. Onion
   5. Beef broth
   6. Sour cream

Use a ton of cheese for this as well. If you stir in some at the end and let that melt, then add more on the top of each person’s bowl it is best.

Lazy Enchilada Casserole

Here is a quick rundown but there’s a complete printable recipe card at the bottom of this post as well you should refer to.

• Combine ground beef or sausage, egg, onion soup mix, parmesan, Worcestershire sauce and bread crumbs. Mix with your hands in a bowl.
• Set pot to saute and add olive oil. When hot add ground beef and diced onions (could add roasted garlic too). Cook until outside of meat is no longer pink. Turn pot off now.
• Add 1/2 c of your broth into your pot and with a wooden spoon deglaze your pot (scrape any stuck on pieces of meat off the bottom of your pot). Spread meat out on bottom of pot now.
• Pour your enchilada sauce in. Now pour in the rest of your broth, do not stir at any time during this layering.
• Sprinkle in your uncooked noodles on top and gently submerge into the liquid on top.
• Close your lid and steam valve and set to high pressure for 4 minutes. Then do a quick release the pressure.

Lift lid, stir, and add cheese, stir again until melted. Either stir in your sour cream now to make casserole creamy, or serve as is with a dollop on top. Can sprinkle green onions on very top if desired.

Instant Pot Cheese Enchilada Casserole

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!!

• Add lots of cheese, it will melt quickly once you stir it in.
• 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.

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 suppose you may be able to make an Instant Pot chicken enchilada casserole version. You’d need to dice chicken breasts into bite size pieces. Then cook the chicken with some olive oil on saute function.

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

What should I serve with enchilada casserole?

Instant Pot refried beans are great from scratch! 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 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.

Looking for other easy pressure cooker recipes with a short cooking time? We have made hundreds of one pot meals and desserts in our “magical multi cooker”. Here are just a few similar dishes you might love as well.

1. Above is our Instant Pot Mexican pizza. You use a springform pan for this one.
2. Pressure cooker Mexican rice is a great side dish, or make for a crowd and keep warm in a slow cooker.
3. We made what we called an Instant Pot 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.