There’s so much to love about this pressure cooker chili mac! It’s unbelievably flavorful for such a simple recipe, lower carb and higher protein thanks to chickpea pasta, and requires one pot and about 30 minutes.
I used a 6.5-quart Ninja Foodi to make this chipotle chili mac, but I’ve included notes for both Instant Pot and stovetop prep. I’ll walk you through the recipe and touch on ingredient modifications below. And you can find the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Pressure Cooker Chipotle Chili Mac Ingredients
This recipe is really as easy as throwing things in the pot. You can break it down to three groups of ingredients:
- onion, garlic, ground beef, spices
- diced tomatoes, tomato paste, chipotle peppers, green chiles, beef or chicken broth
- the pasta
Cook ’em up, top with shredded cheddar, and you’re done!
As far as modifications go, feel free to customize spices and the vegetables you include. If you want to up your spice game, check out my homemade chili powder. Just be aware that you’ll need enough liquid to cook the pasta in when pressure cooking.
Compare your chili mac before pressure cooking to the photos below and you should be perfectly fine!
Chipotle Chili Mac Recipe Walkthrough
Add the onion, garlic, ground beef, and spices to the pressure cooker and cook the beef completely using its sauté function. Nothing fancy here!
The only thing you’ll need to do before adding the second group is to roughly chop the chipotle peppers. If you’d rather run them through a food processor like in my chipotle black bean chili or pineapple chipotle crockpot chicken, that’s perfectly fine.
Hot tip: The spice in this recipe isn’t as strong as you’d think. The acidity in the tomatoes and volume of beef do a great job at balancing things out. Chopping instead of blending seems to tone it down as well.
Give everything a stir and add the pasta. Stir, seal, and cook on high for five minutes.
Make sure the pasta is cooked to your liking before topping with cheese and broiling for two minutes (if you’re using a Foodi) or covering to melt the cheese. You can also reserve the cheese and top each serving individually. I’ve included the nutrition facts sans cheese in the notes below.
Final Recipe Notes
If you’re unfamiliar with the Ninja Foodi, it’s an all-in-one pressure cooker, air fryer, slow cooker, and a few more things. You can use it for everything from crispy air fried rosemary parmesan potatoes and breakfast pizza to pressure cooker cheeseburger soup and 20-minute mac and cheese.
I’ve found the Foodi’s pressure cooker function cook times to be almost identical to my 6-qt Instant Pot. You can learn more about the Foodi on my Amazon storefront.
You might notice the recipe calls for 93/7 ground beef as opposed to 96/4 like I used in my recent ground beef and potatoes skillet or sweet chili ground beef and brussels sprouts. I went with 93/7 mainly because there’s really no other source of fat in the recipe. Feel free to use 96/4 to reduce the fat content in your chili mac.
Okay, that should cover it. If you have questions about this chipotle chili mac, drop a comment below.
Pressure Cooker Chipotle Chili Mac
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Ground Beef, 93/7
- 2 medium White Onions, diced
- 6 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp Chili Powder
- 1/2 Tbsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Ground Coriander, optional
- 2 15 oz cans Diced Tomatoes
- 2 C Beef or Chicken Broth
- 7 oz can Chipotle Peppers in Adobo, roughly chopped
- 6 oz can Tomato Paste
- 4 oz can Diced Green Chiles
- 8 oz Banza Pasta Elbows
- 3/4 C 84g Shredded Cheddar (optional)
Instructions
- Set your pressure cooker to its high heat sauté function and spray the pot with nonstick cooking spray. Notes for stovetop prep included below.*
- Add the onion, garlic, beef, and dry spices to the pot. Use a spatula to break the beef into small crumbles as it cooks. Cook until no pink remains in the beef, about 6-8 minutes.
- Add the diced tomatoes, green chiles, chopped chipotle peppers, tomato paste, and broth to the pot. Stir everything together evenly before adding the pasta and stirring again.
- Seal the pressure cooker and cook on its high pressure for 3 minutes with quick release pressure (vent as soon as it's finished cooking).
- Stir and make sure the pasta is cooked before topping with the shredded cheddar.
- If you're using a Ninja Foodi, use the broil function for 2 minutes. If you're using an Instant Pot or another pressure cooker, cover the chili mac and let the heat melt the cheese. (You can also add the cheese to each individual serving.)
I’ve been making this for months when I want to meal prep. It makes a huge batch and so easy to cook in instant pot. I really love the chipotle flavor and the chickpea pasta I was hesitant about but ended up loving it!! And it adds more protein and fiber to the meal then regular pasta would. Mason is a genius!
I did this over the stop stop and it came out perfect. I topped with some chili fritos cause I had the macros and I highly recommend doing that lol
So excited to try this recipe, especially after reading the comments! I loooooove a good spicy meal! However, I usually use ground turkey when I am making anything that calls for beef. I looked through the comments but did see that anyone had tried it. Does it change any of the cook time or will I need to add any extra liquid?
You should be able to swap turkey in without any modifications. Hope you enjoy!
this is so easy to make, delish and makes so much you have food all week !!!
Incredibly hearty. Feels indulgent, but isn’t, which is just the best. Perfect for a dinner plus lunch the next day. I love spicy and it hit the spot! Yum!
Loved this recipe. It was so easy to 1/2 for meal prep for one and was full of flavor. Also seems like it would be easy to modify the flavor profile to make different versions of this. Definitely going to be adding to the meal prep routine
One of my favorite Mason recipes! (& that’s saying a lot bc I love everything of his I’ve made!) I tweaked it just a little bit bc I didn’t have the exact ingredients – I used can of rotel instead of diced tomatoes & the spices I just used my homemade taco seasoning. My husband RAVED about it, told me I definitely needed to save this one!
Good but super spicy
I often make this chipotle Mac to meal prep for the week. Depending on what I have I sometimes use even leaner ground beef and it’s still just as delicious. My favorite part is all the different layers of flavors and heat makes it a really satisfying meal. It’s a really good balance of carbs and protein so it keeps me full which is great for lunch and it’s much more satisfying and exciting than a salad!
I am all about spicy but I would cut waaaay back on the chipotles, it was almost inedible! I added 4 oz of cream cheese and more cheddar to try to balance the spice. I used El Mexicano chipotles, not sure if that makes a difference. The flavor is great however and I would make this again with some adjustments.