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.)
5 stars! I used rotel tomato can instead of adding additional green Chile. I also left out the chipotle in adobe sauce since I’m expecting and those cans are not bpa free. I used adobe chili powder as substitute along with regular chili powder. This recipe was delicious and will be making again.
I added the adobo peepers chopped and all the juices. I’m on fire! And I’m a good Cajun girl who likes spicy. This is whole ‘nother level. Adding yogurt and broth…. any other ideas.??
Aside from the heat, it’s delicious!
Oh no! I thought this one was pretty toned down compared to my usual chipotle recipes. Did you use half the can or a whole can? Sounds like you’re on the right track with yogurt and broth. The only other things that come to mind would be more acidity like lime juice when serving or maybe more tomato paste. Hope that helps!
This is such a delicious, easy, and cheap recipe and I made it on the stove top (hoping for an instapot for christmas!) I meal prep lunches for myself and my boyfriend and this is one of his favorites because the portions are huge and its “enough food” for him. Thanks again, Mason, for making easy to follow/easy to make and cheap recipes.
This is seriously the best recipe I’ve ever had…. my local restraint tried to make something like this but it contained more fat than I should consume in one week. This taste even BETTER.. i LOVE pasta more than life and then to include chili. Amazing is an understatement! If you’re trying to be healthy AND enjoy it, this is for you!!! RUNNNN
Tried the Chipotle Chili Mac stovetop style and it was delicious. It has a nice smoky flavor because of the chipotle peppers. It was really easy to make and you get a pretty big serving size! It’s nice to know that I can watch my macros but still really enjoy my food! I did sub the beef for lean ground turkey, but otherwise everything stayed the same. We will add this to our weekly/bi-weekly rotation and try more recipes!
I loved this recipe but my bf found it to be a lil spicy for his taste. I added tapatio to my portion cause nothing is too spicy!! Super easy to make and keeps well for meal prep.
I tried this in my instantpot and it was SO GOOD! The whole house smelled delicious as it was cooking! It definitely has a kick to it, but I like it spicy so it was perfect for me. You could always top it with some sour cream or greek yogurt to cut the heat a bit.
This is so good and surprisingly very high in protein! It is quite spicy though! So if you don’t love spice, I’d cut the amount of chipotle peppers in half!
I made this in the Instant Pot, and it was more than I could have even hoped for it to be! The flavor is spot on, it’s hearty, and it’s so macro friendly. Plus it’s easy to make, and my husband even liked it! It makes great leftovers as well. Awesome recipe!
This dinner is a fav in our house – so quick and easy and love the protein content 🙌🏼 I tend to ease on side of caution with spicyness – so omitted some of the peppers and it tasted great!