Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese 4 Ingredients

Instant Pot Mac and Cheese 5 Ingredients

Yes we’ve made the boxed version a lot, and I think I had it at least twice a week this way growing up, but making it from scratch is just amazing! You only really need 4 ingredients + 1 more would be some water. That’s a easy meal win in my book. 😉 Oh yum is right huh??

Pressure cooking is the way to go. Period. You don’t have to own this brand either. You can make the same thing in your Crockpot Express or as an easy Ninja Foodi recipe as well.

What ingredients do I need for mac and cheese?

1. Noodles – elbow macaroni or small shells work
2. Evaporated milk – if you don’t have any you could sub. for whole milk
   1. almond milk could be used for dairy free
3. Shredded cheese – we love sharp cheddar but you could use a Mexican blend or Monterey Jack too
   1. some added parmesan cheese is a great add
4. Water or chicken broth
5. Butter or margarine to make a creamy sauce

Here are a few questions you might have right about now. We will show you how to make this just right with evaporated milk and shredded cheese, or dairy free.

The alternatives would be if you used cheddar cheese soup as an ingredient and/or a processed product like Velveeta. I like to use fresh products and they should be treated gently, if cooked under high pressure it should only be a few minutes.

How to Make Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese Evaporated Milk

• Shred 3 cups of either cheddar (we like sharp), or a mixture of jack and cheddar
• Boil your noodles in the Instant Pot with water for about 3 minutes under high pressure
  • adjust for gluten free pasta as that doesn’t take as long to cook
• Quick release, drain, and add the rest of your ingredients until melted
• Stir and enjoy

What noodles are best for mac and cheese?

You could use any sort of small or medium noodles you’d like, elbow macaroni is most common. I typically use whatever is in my pantry but squiggle multi colored pasta is fun to use sometimes. Do not use egg noodles as those cook too fast and don’t soak up the cheesy sauce like others do.

Can you add meat?

A few tbsp of bacon bits or precooked sausage is optional of course, you would need to precook those ahead of time. When you’re done you can dice pepperoni and other proteins to make Meat Lovers Pressure Cooker Mac and Cheese version that my husband loves.

Can you use milk in a pressure cooker?

Yes, for a short cook time. For this dish we add it in after cooking the noodles so no worries. If you needed a dairy free macaroni and cheese option for any recipe that calls for this you could use other alternatives such as coconut milk out of the can or almond milk. Take note that both of those are a bit sweeter so the overall flavor will be altered but great options nontheless.

If you let it sit the sauce will thicken a bit more but we think it is perfect as soon as the cheese is melted and serve it immediately with a pinch of bacon bits on top. It serves the 5 of us just fine with a side of salad for dinner. Here are quick directions but a printable version is available at the bottom.

How to Make Instant Mac and Cheese in Pressure Cooker

• If you want to make boxed Kraft mac and cheese in a pressure cooker we have instructions for that too, as well as stovetop homemade mac and cheese!
  • You just add 1 1/2 c water
  • Add the noodles from your box, stir well so the water becomes a bit murky meaning the slight powder on the noodles is washed off.
  • Close lid and steam valve and set to pressure high for 3 minutes.
  • Allow to naturally release for about 2 min.
  • Add butter and allow it to melt.
  • Pour in your packet of dry cheese and stir until dissolved. 
• Turn IP off and unplug so it doesn’t continue to heat up. By now sauce should be a bit thicker and ready to serve.

Of course you can tweak this by folding in leftover meat to make it even heartier. We have done this with our brisket mac and cheese which is great.

Mac and Cheese for Two

If you have less people in your home you could cut this in half. I sometimes do not suggest that because if there isn’t enough cooking liquid the recipe won’t work. This one should be just fine to do so, easier to do so if you have an IP mini version.

Instant Pot mac and cheese recipe is a great after school snack because it’s so quick and easy. Now that I have teens at home they can make it all on their own which is nice. Sometimes if we had tacos the night before they will add that meat into the mix which makes it a hearty meal for sure.

More Instant Pot pasta recipes

• Instant Pot pizza pasta is a fun meal that kids love. Add all your favorite toppings.
• The easiest Instant Pot spaghetti is here. Low fat meal that is great with leftover beef or meatless.
• We have a lot of other cheap Instant Pot recipes to choose from here too!
• Add ground beef for a batch of Instant Pot cheeseburger macaroni

What should I serve with macaroni and cheese?

1. Our Instant Pot broccoli takes a whopping 1 minute.
2. Air fryer chicken nuggets are always a winner.
   1. With some beautiful roasted vegetables of course.

How do I reheat mac n cheese in the Instant Pot?

• Whether you are reheating this or mac and cheese with heavy cream, inside a pressure cooker is possible on saute low, with a few tbsp. of milk
  • Stir until warm enough, remove immediately
• I like to put it in a bowl and add 1 tbsp of milk to the top
• Microwave for 30 seconds
• Then stir it and cook for another 30 seconds
• If you put a paper towel over the top to begin with it will keep in more of the moisture

Printable recipe withe nutritional information including calories and saturated fat below. Calculates with exact ingredients listed. There’s a video embedded within this post you can watch to see how we make it.