This pressure cooker chicken spaghetti was a real hit for dinner tonight! If you love our easy Ninja Foodi spaghetti and Instant Pot recipes, this is a weeknight dinner you’ll want to make.
I’m here with pressure cooker cheesy chicken spaghetti to add to our long list of easy Instant Pot recipes. If you’re ready to amp regular Instant Pot spaghetti up to the next level with cheese and a bit of a kick this is the next dinner you need to make!
This one pot meal is done in less than 20 minutes!!! You can make it in your Crockpot Express or as one of our Ninja foodi recipes too. That means it’s a real winner. The only real prep is to cube chicken breasts and dice your onion up. The rest you can just dump in, pressure cook, lift the lid and stir!
If you love traditional Instant Pot spaghetti we have instructions for that too. It is the ONLY way I make this “old fashioned” dinner because it takes no time at all. This too requires no boiling and is all cooked in one pot.
The beauty of this method is that the cook time for this one pot spaghetti is like cut in thirds. A busy family like us needs all the help we can get y’all. I often forget what time it is and realize around 4pm that oh, everyone is starving I probably need to figure something out. So there’s that…..
I made my first version which I share at the very bottom of this page. Then on the second go around I switched things around a bit and used Velveeta instead of shredded cheese. That is a substitution you can make too for a much richer flavor. I include both recipes below.
The Velveeta version has more of a kick to it (a bit of heat) because I swapped out some chicken broth for another can of Rotel. You can decide which recipe you’d like to try. They’re both yummy.
No need for cooking the chicken ahead of time. You can just add everything and have it cook together. Use leftover chicken or fresh. Watch the video that’s embedded in this post first. Honestly the longer this sits the better it gets and is amazing the next day as leftovers. And I might even admit that it is better the next day reheated too. 😉
Ingredient Notes
Chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, diced are preferred but thighs are another option if you would rather use dark meat. You need to cut your meat into large bite size pieces for the cook time listed below.
Can you use leftover chicken to make chicken spaghetti?
Absolutely!! It doesn’t matter whether you use precooked or raw chicken into the pot at the beginning. You should use the same cook time just so that the other ingredients cook to al dente and under high pressure it will only get more tender in the cooking process.
For the cheesiness you are going to use about half a block of Velveeta, or I found a package with 5 smaller blocks and used 3 of the 5 pieces, about 10 oz.
Cream of mushroom soup will make it creamy for the sauce + Cream of chicken condensed soup in there. I like 1 can of each but you could use 2 of the same if you prefer. I like this better than cream cheese which others may use.
Rotel I like better than diced tomatoes because it has more heat to it. There is mild, regular and a hot version if you want it to be extra spicy. This is a picture of the above recipe that has real cheese in it versus velveeta and doesn’t have a kick like the first recipe does.
Add Spaghetti noodles, straight I used here but really any shape or variety will work. Add uncooked
If you have an Instant Pot I HIGHLY recommend getting a non stick pot. Great for all recipes & to help prevent burn notice.
Variations
Leave onions and peppers out entirely if you have really picky eaters at home that don’t like any sort of crunchy items. Other version using shredded cheese and very little heat is below this recipe card. After this try our baked spaghetti with meatballs next.
There is a decent amount of sodium in packaged cheese so salt and pepper is not necessary. There will not be a lack of flavor for sure. Looking for more pressure cooker chicken recipes? We have a ton of them on our site but have listed below a couple favorites that pair with this well.
Instant Pot Chicken Spaghetti Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts , approx 1 lbs., boneless, skinless, cut into cubes
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 cans rotel
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- 8 oz spaghetti noodles, uncooked, broken into thirds (basically half a box you’d find in the store)
- 8 oz velveeta, or 3 blocks if you buy the 5 block pack
- 1/2 c chicken broth
Instructions
- Add your cubed chicken, diced onions, and 1 can of rotel into your Instant Pot. Stir so everything is mixed well.
- Break your noodles into 3 equal parts and sprinkle on top of your chicken mixture.
- Pour your 2nd can of rotel on top of your noodles. Whisk together your cans of cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup and chicken broth, pour on top of noodles but do NOT stir.
- Close your lid and steam valve and set to high pressure for 8 minutes.
- Do a quick release and lift lid.
- Stir contents and break up any noodles/chicken pieces that may be stuck together a bit. Turn your pot to saute. Serve now if you don’t want cheese, it’s delicious as is.
- Dice your velveeta into smaller chunks of cheese and add into your pot. Stir until cheese is melted and sauce thickens.
- * Honestly the longer this sits the better it gets and is amazing the next day as leftovers.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
How to Cook Instant Pot Chicken Spaghetti
Very good. I only used 1 can Rotel, I can cr of chicken and half the pasta. Turned out perfect for hubby and me with enough left for tomorrow. Needs some added garlic is all I can think of. Love the ease of preparing in IP. 😀
so glad
I’m not a fan of rotel or Velveeta so I use the other recipe. I replace the rotel with diced tomatoes and use sharp cheddar cheese. I LOVE this dish and it’s perfect for providing several evenings of dinner for a single person like me. Well, that is if I can keep from eating too much at one time!
Made tonight following recipe to a t. Oh my goodness. This is delicious!! Definitely a new favorite!!
OH good!!
So easy and so delicious!! Definitely adding to our regular rotation.
yay!
If doubling the recipe and using an 8 quart Instant Pot. Would the cook time stay the same?
Thanks
I have never doubled it but I would guess it would stay the same
I’ve done this recipe and absolutely love it however I forgot to defrost the chicken how can I use this recipe with frozen chicken
If you first follow our Instant Pot frozen chicken recipe you could then shred and skip the saute step on this recipe
I would cook the chicken in the instapot frozen first my inself it only takes 25 mintunes frozen. The chicken won’t over cook because of the other things you put in the dish.
Just made this. Used entire (16 oz) spaghetti; 2 cans “hot” Rotel plus rest of recipe as written. Pressure cooked 8 minutes, quick release, stirred. Had some clumpy spaghetti, and the pasta wasn’t cooked to my desired tenderness. So I added a cup of water and pressure cooked for 5 more minutes. After that, noodles were just right (and only had one small clump). Added Velveeta and a little cheddar per recipe. To finish, put a good handful of shredded cheddar on top and air crisped for a few minutes.
End result: super cheesy, spicy, chicken spaghetti.
Can I use chicken that is already cooked in this recipe? What changes would I have to do?
Yes you could, just skip sauteeing at the beginning.
I did it that way. It worked great! I also was out of total so I used Hunt’s petite diced with sweet onion and a can of diced green chilis. Yum!
Nancy
Awesome recipe! I doubled the chicken breast since my marine son came over. And I added ripe olives when I added the cheese. I’ll definitely make this again.