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
What other options are there instead of onions? My BIL does not like onions. I have made this recipe and it is awesome. This weekend fixing it at the deer lease and trying to keep it edible for him.
Thanks
I would just leave them out entirely then. Wouldn’t be an issue.
What is the best setting to choose for pressure cooking on high?
What can I use instead of Rotel?
Salsa, or diced tomatoes
Cant read the recipe wìth real cheese. Is it nother place on the net?
My spaghetti was all clumped together and not cooked all the way. What did I do wrong??
Must ensure all noodles are submerged in liquid before putting lid on, also when breaking noodles make sure you sprinkle them in as you see in video and not throw in in one big clump. Breaking into 3 or 4 equal parts rather than 2 works best too.
I thought the Instant Pot required liquid is actually be what I meant to say..
Yes there is liquid in the cans of Rotel and soup, it works great. Others have had success too, no issues.
How is that you can cook this with no liquid? I thought it required it…
Such an easy way to get dinner on the table quickly. I love how it all cooks up in one pot.
I love recipes that you can just throw in the IP and have done in no time! So yummy!
What a fun idea. There is a lot I can learn from this recipe about the layering that I can apply to other Instantpot recipes!
Layering is key.