Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Mexican Casserole

Pressure cooker Mexican casserole with ground beef and Rotel is total comfort food! Made in your Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Crockpot Express it will become a new favorite pasta meal. 

Ninja Foodi Mexican Casserole

We have it on our roundup of Ninja Foodi recipes too. It doesn’t matter what brand you have, it will work great! With this one you just use the lid that is not attached. I added ingredients I had that I thought would work well together. Mexican casserole is what we called it but you can call it whatever you’d like.

Instant Pot Mexican Casserole

I used pasta noodles for this because that is what I had on hand, with ground beef. Later on I made a leftover chicken recipes Instant Pot meal with rice and chicken instead. If you wanted to use poultry instead for a sort of chicken enchilada casserole that would work too. Just substitute it for the beef and follow the same timing.

NO draining is even required which makes the meal prep practically nothing. You just open the cans, dump everything in and let it cook for just a few minutes. I like using what is on hand because I hate wasting food. Choose whichever sounds best for you and go with it!

Ingredients you’ll need to make this Instant Pot casserole of ours. Of course you can tweak certain things like omitting the bell peppers if you don’t like them etc. You should never alter or change the amount of liquid to pasta or rice added though, those are carefully tested so there is just enough to become tender.

Ingredients

• Ground sausage, we prefer spicy sausage, you could use ground beef or diced chicken breasts
• Rotel or use a can of mild enchilada sauce if you don’t want any heat
• Black beans are canned to make things easier
• Canned corn is drained
• Beef broth is better than water that doesn’t offer flavor
• Pasta – we used bowtie or shells
• Onion diced fine is nice for texture
• Bell peppers are optional but chopped small are a nice touch
• Olive oil I just use to saute the meat
• Cream of mushroom soup
• Sour cream dollop can be added on top when serving
• Optional chili powder and/or green chiles if you want to add heat
  • a packet of taco seasoning could be added as well if you wish
• You could dice up some cooked tomatillos too if you wanted to add them.

Variations

If I only had a can of diced tomatoes I would’ve used that. Or if you have an issue with any heat at all that is a good alternative to RoTel. I do love a little spice though and this is just enough, the mild version that is. I’m all about using what I have on hand, especially when proteins are about to expire. I HATE to waste food, so I usually just raid the pantry and come up with something new.

If you wanted to use rice instead of noodles I would suggest following our Instant Pot Mexican chicken and rice version of that style of dinner.

Here is a quick visual of the steps I took. It is important after you saute any meats to deglaze the pot after that is complete AND turn the pot off to cool. If you don’t do one or either you risk the temp. rising, the machine displaying the burn notice and it will stop working all together. That means dinner is ruined, or at least postponed quite a bit.

Equipment

• Pressure cooker
  • If you have an Instant Pot I HIGHLY suggest to get a non stick pot. It will help to avoid the burn notice from appearing when creating any and all recipes.
• Wooden spoon – my preference when using any non stick pot like this one
• Cutting board – to dice your veggies into bite size pieces
• Can opener
• Knife

I didn’t feel like I even needed a side dish for this meal. With the carbs, vegetables and protein all together I served it as is. A side salad would work well though, or some homemade rolls. If you don’t have cheese on hand you could leave that out. Or if you needed a dairy free dinner then omit but that stuff goes on everything around here!

You can see here I used my Foodi to make this. Use what you have, but I highly recommend you get a non stick pot if you don’t have one already.

How to Make Mexican Casserole with Rotel

1. First set your pot to saute and cook the meat, onions and bell peppers together. Use a little olive oil.
   1. I add everything now to give the onions time to soften a bit.
   2. I do not drain what is inside the pot. To me there typically isn’t a lot of fat left over and what is lends a lot of flavor so I prefer to keep it in.
2. Turn your pot off to avoid overheating. Now you’re going to dump in all of your canned ingredients. Do not drain anything. Empty them in as is.
3. Stir everything together
4. Whisk together your cream of mushroom soup and beef broth together. You want this mixture to be as smooth as possible though there will be small lumps of mushrooms.
5. Now you’re going to put your noodles at the top. You’re just going to gently submerge them into the liquid below.
   1. Do not stir these noodles in with everything else.
   2. They’re best cooked this way. Especially if you don’t have a non stick pot for your Instant Pot you cannot stir or the burn notice will show up.
6. It’s time for the pressure cooking function.
7. If you have a Ninja Foodi you can add more cheese to the top and use your air crisp to melt and lightly brown.
   1. We do this for our baked spaghetti recipe in that too.

Tips

I think short cooking times are best when it comes to noodles. Egg noodles just need 2 minutes on high pressure with quick released pressure. Others like these are good with 3. If you like al dente then stick to 2 as well. Use a quick release or else noodles will become way too soft.

Something else to note: I do not drain any of the cans which adds to the overall liquid. Different brands of black beans are different colors. Some juices inside are darker than others.

This will alter the overall color of the dish. You can see here how this brand turned out (not much color). Then watch the video, that brand made the dish more gray overall.  If this REALLY bothers you, you could drain the black beans and rinse them. But you’d need to add back in about 1/4 c. of water to compensate for the loss of liquid.

How to serve

1. Top with a dollop of sour cream when done and OH MY is this Mexican casserole amazing!!
2. If you have a Ninja Foodi just sprinkle 1/2 cup (or more) cheese on top when done. Then close air crisp lid. About 5 minutes is all you need to melt and make it lightly browned on top.
3. You can transfer everything into a baking dish. Then put it under your broiler for about 4 minutes until cheddar cheese is gooey and perfect.

This makes it into a sort of enchilada casserole of sorts. Easy Instant Pot recipe and others you should try next:

• Ninja Foodi macaroni and cheese in your pressure cooker is way better than boxed, and faster than in your slow cooker for sure.
• Instant Pot chili mac recipe is super cheap to make too if you’re looking for budget friendly meals.
• Beef Mexican Enchilada lasagna bakes in the oven with similar ingredients and is great. Air fryer flautas are amazing with this.
• Our Instant Pot hamburger casserole is over the top delicious says everyone who tries it.

How do I save my leftovers?

First always allow your family loved food to cool completely, and don’t leave it out for longer than 2 hours. Then transfer from the pot or dish to airtight containers and into your fridge.

How do you reheat a refrigerated casserole?

I prefer that individual meals be reheated, not the whole thing. Spoon what you want to eat right then into a microwave safe dish. Cook in 30 second increments, stirring in between until it’s as hot as desired.