Cheeseburger Macaroni in the Instant Pot: A homemade “hamburger helper” dinner ideas that can be quick for a family meal using items that you may even have on hand!
Hey there quick meal idea lovers. I’m right there with you, hence the reason I finally took the plunge and bought the Instant Pot. Oh yes, this version of hamburger mac and cheese on the stovetop, can be made in a pressure cooker too!
After staring at my pantry the other day, I decided I wanted to experiment a little bit with the Instant Pot, and now you’re looking at the result. After we realized how quick and easy it was, I knew I had to share it with you.
I wasn’t sure if I’d ever like another “cheeseburger” dinner as much as we love the baked cheeseburgers but this dish is an amazing easy dinner idea when the comfort food craving calls! (We also think you’re going to love this cheeseburger subs recipe too, if you’re a cheeseburger fan.)
Cheeseburger Macaroni in the Instant Pot
Not only is there a ton of flexibility that you can have with this recipe, but the ease of throwing it all together was also my FAVORITE part.
Answering Your Cheeseburger Macaroni Questions:
I haven’t tried this, but I don’t see why you couldn’t substitute it. I’d just make sure to use about 10 oz. of Velveeta (cut up into cubes, like we did in this Rotel Dip, and maybe add a little bit of milk — maybe ¼ cup??? – guessing here) since the canned cheese is a little more liquified than the block cheese. If you try this, let us know!
Want to use frozen beef? You totally can, because I do too! I typically either forget to thaw it out, or I decide at the last minute to make something with it. I made this using frozen ground beef, although provided directions for thawed beef too!
But when I’m totally on my game and remember to thaw ground beef out naturally, you definitely find me making The BEST Cheeseburger recipe, where I use browned butter and basic ingredients/methods to make them the juiciest burgers I’ve ever had! So if you were on your game today, or just snagged some ground beef from the grocery store, you may want to make this cheeseburger recipe too!
Instant Pot Hamburger Helper
Now, I LOVE a good boxed, Hamburger Helper dinner from the grocery store. But what I REALLY love about this recipe is that it’s similar, super easy… (no, everything doesn’t come in a box) but the flavor of this dish is way more powerful!
Other Instant Pot Recipes You’ll Love:
- Kielbasa and Cabbage in the Instant Pot
- Instant Pot Pot Roast – Even using a FROZEN roast!
- Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
- How to Cook Hard Boiled Eggs in the Instant Pot
- Sweet Potatoes in the Instant Pot
Easy Cheeseburger Macaroni Recipe…
When sharing this recipe with you, I’m keeping in mind that a lot of you may desire a different level of seasonings and spices and I want to keep it as easy as possible.
So expect this to be a very basic recipe that could use extra spices and flavors… or cheese. You can NEVER go wrong with adding more cheese!
However, here are a few things I’d suggest doing additionally to really add flavor to it so it doesn’t come out bland.
Items to Add to Cheeseburger Macaroni
- Garlic Pepper (It’s my absolute favorite, to sprinkle on to the top of each serving, but not for my kids.)
- Extra shredded cheese on top of each serving is a MUST in my book.
- Add milk after cooking if you prefer it more creamy.
- Salt and Pepper as desired, but remember… you can always add more, but you can’t take it out.
- Sour Cream (Reader Suggested)
- Hot Sauce – I haven’t tried this yet, but I could definitely go for this on my serving.
- Can of diced tomatoes and green chilies! (Reader Suggested)
- Bacon or bacon bits for super easy additions! (Reader Suggested)
Left Over Cheeseburger Macaroni?
If serving this leftover, you may want to add a little milk to it before reheating, just to recreate a creamy texture.
I so hope you love this recipe. We ate on this for a couple of days and I’m already looking forward to making it again because it was so quick. It one of our favorite ground beef recipes that we turn to a lot.
This recipe is not only a great family dinner idea to meal plan with, (get your meal planning printable in the home management binder) but it serves as the perfect dish to deliver to someone in a meal care package to eat on for a few days!
Maybe just send along a little extra milk too, so they can add a bit to enhance the creaminess when reheated!
If you’re into quick and easy recipes, then you’ll LOVE to blog the recipe archives here on the blog, OR make dinnertime insanely easy, and grab my “Fabulously Fast Dinners” cookbook where I’ve done all of the dinner time planning for you!
More Comfort Food Recipes
If you love comfort food, then you’re in the RIGHT place. Here we believe that food is love. So when you either want to show yourself some love, or make something comforting for someone you love, then browse our favorite easy-to-make recipes!
But I’ve picked out some of our favorite comfort dishes here…
This Cheeseburger Casserole has all the flavors of a cheeseburger but in a dish that’s perfect for a family weeknight meal, or even a care package!
If you have extra elbow macaroni noodles, you can use them in this old-fashioned macaroni and tomatoes recipe!
30-Minute Taco Pasta Recipe – This 30-minute Taco Pasta Recipe makes the perfect weeknight dinner! If you are a busy mom looking for a simple, quick, and healthy recipe that can be made in under 30 minutes, this taco pasta recipe is for you.
Chili Mac Recipe – In less than 30 minutes, and a few simple ingredients, this chili mac using ground beef, beans, tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin, elbow macaroni, and cheese, will soon become a new favorite spin on a chili recipe! But similar to chili mac, this slow cooker goulash recipe is always a great choice!
Recipe
Cheeseburger Macaroni in the Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef drain after cooking if using a fatty beef
- 16 oz elbow macaroni uncooked
- 10.5 oz can of cheddar cheese soup
- 3 cups broth chicken or vegetable (Recently updated from 2.5 cups to 3)
- 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoon onion powder
- salt and pepper as desired
- garlic pepper seasoning optional
Instructions
- If ground beef is frozen, pour 1 cup water into the Instant Pot, put on the lid, make sure the valve is on “seal”, and select 25 minutes on “high” manual mode. Ground beef should be fully cooked before moving forward.
- If starting with thawed ground beef, turn the “saute” setting on and cook the ground beef, garlic powder, and onion powder until beef is no longer pink.
- Next add in broth, elbow macaroni, can of cheddar cheese soup and salt/pepper if desired.
- Lock lid and close the valve to “seal” and cook for 4 minutes on manual “high” setting. The pressure cooker will take about 5 minutes to seal, 4 minutes to cook and then quick release the valve to let the pressure out.
- Add in 2 cups of shredded cheddar and stir until melted.
- Divide and sprinkle on remaining shredded cheddar on to each serving, for extra cheesy goodness!
- Tip: Get creative by sprinkling on seasonings like garlic pepper seasoning, hot sauce, and anything else that you love, to add more flavor!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Did You Make This?
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Elise Laney says
Jessica, we made this on Monday and it was an instant success. I will be adding it to our monthly/weekly meal plan options. Thanks for sharing!
Jessica says
Yay!!! This is super exciting. Thank you for letting me know and for leaving a review!
Sallyjojo says
Thanks for sharing! Quick, easy and adaptable! Since there’s only 2 of us, used 8 Oz macaroni, 2 cups of water, a can of cream of mushroom, fresh onion, garlic and celery. When done added Rotel with the cheese and topped with a dollop of sour cream. Will be making again!
Jessica says
I’m so glad that you made it your own and loved it! Thank you so much for sharing what you did! I’ll have to try that soon, especially the Rotel! Yummo!
Adam says
Could you cut this recipe in half and use the 3-quart Instant Pot?
Jessica says
Hi Adam! I haven’t tried that, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t!
Becky says
Great beginner recipe! This is the 2nd recipe I made in my new pot. I sautéed onion with the beef and then followed the rest of the instructions. I will add a little milk for more creaminess at the end next time. This time, I added a little ketchup to my boil and voila! Cheeseburger in the mouth & very yummy. Hubs asked I add some stewed tomatoes next time. I’m thinking he’s onto something. 🙂
Jessica says
Ooooh! I love those additions! I’m so glad you shared them with us. Thank you SO much! 🙂 XO
Kristina Allori says
I’m always looking for easy Instant Pot recipes that my family will love. YUM!
Jessica says
Oh good!!! Thank you Kristina!
Beth Klosterboer says
This looks SO good. What a great meal for any occasion!
Jessica says
Thank you so much Beth! I totally agree!
Emily says
My family would totally LOVE this cheeseburger mac and I love that you can do it in the IP!
Jessica says
YES! The Instant Pot makes this easy recipe even easier!
Jamielyn Nye says
Such an easy and family friendly dish! Thank you for the recipe!
Jessica says
Yes!! So many families are loving this one for sure! 🙂 Thank you!
Steph says
My kids love this recipe! It’s so easy to make and the whole pot gets eaten. Can’t ask for a better recipe!
Jessica says
Aw, thank you Steph! That means a lot! XO
Heather says
We loved this recipe! I added a tablespoon of Franks Red Hot Sauce before the pressure cooking phase and then stirred in a can of petite diced tomatoes with the shredded cheddar. So good!!
Jessica says
Oh my heavens… the additions sound amazing! Thank you so much for letting me know and for the 5-star rating! XOXO
Margie says
My 15 year old loves it and he’s super picky. I added a can of diced tomatoes with chilies, we like a touch of heat. It was delicious and he has requested it be added to our menu plan.
Jessica says
Yay!!! I’m so glad that you, and he liked it!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Sandy says
Got my IP for Christmas trying different recipies. We really liked this one I added the chilli seasoning and can of tomatoes. My question is, can the recipe be doubled?
Jessica says
Oh good!! I’m so glad that you liked it! Mmmm, adding chili seasoning sounds amazing!
Well, I’m not sure. I’ve heard to be cautious with doubling things in the Instant Pot, and I’ve never tried it myself, so I hate to tell you to go for it. 🙁 May not hurt to try!
Kara says
Such a yummy soul food kinda meal! Thank you! I added half a cup of milk as well as the broth and a can of diced tomatoes at the end. It was delicious, we’ll use this recipe a lot.
Jessica says
Yay!! I’m so glad that you liked it! Mmmm, diced tomatoes sounds amazing! Thank you for sharing!
Diane Scanlon says
Made it tonite for company, super easy and quick and very tasty!! Came out perfect!
Jessica says
Awww!!!! I’m so glad that you all loved it! Thank you so much for the review and for letting us know too! XO
Linda says
Well, this has become a favorite already. Quick, easy, tasty, and NO CHOPPING! It is even forgiving of mistakes. I accidentally grabbed a can of cream of celery soup instead of the cheddar cheese. When I realized my mistake it was already in the pot, so I just went ahead and added the cheddar cheese soup too. Turned out great. Will make this often as my granddaughter liked it and my son like the fact that there were no onions involved. I didn’t mention the onion powder. Didn’t think he “needed to know”.
Jessica says
Mmmm! The addition of cream of celery sounds amazing and extra creamy!!! Haha! Love that you sneaked in the onion powder! Thank you so much for sharing Linda!
Keely says
Hey does anyone know if this is a gluten free recipe?
Angela Bryant says
Trying this for the first time, and first use of insta pot. We are gluten free as well so made my own gf cond. cheddar soup ( 3T butter melt add 3 T gf flour stir till smooth add 1c milk slowly whisking well til gentle boil and thickening happens add 1 1/2 c shred cheese) I will be using gf barilla elbows so I will update how it turns out!!
Kari says
We made this tonight, and it was good, we just wanted to mix it up a bit. Added kidney beans, a chili seasoning packet, and a canned of diced tomatoes and it was perfect!
Jessica says
Mmmm!!!! Those additions sound amazing, especially the chili packet! Thank you for sharing your ideas! I may have to try that next time!
Teresa cruz says
Made this today for my kids. I used 3 cups of vegetable broth, used more onion and garlic powder, and cooked 5 minutes. They loved it, not to mention my 8 yr old is extremely picky. Also the recipe does not say what hamburger meat to use as far as the percent of fat, and didn’t mention draining the grease either so I used ground round and did not drain since there is not much fat in ground round, and it came out perfect, thank you so much for the recipe 😁
Jessica says
Hi Teresa! Thank you so much for coming by and giving this a try! I love the additions that you made to this recipe too! Thank you for mentioning that about the beef. My parents provide beef for us each year from their cattle farm and it’s SUPER lean, so I often forget about mentioning that in the recipes. YES! Using a lean beef would be best, but if using a ground beef with a lot of fat, draining may be best. I’ll go add a note to the recipe! Thank you!! XO
Jess says
I made this tonight, everyone loved it!
My IP started to “burn” after it got up to pressure but before the timer started. I let it go for 4 minuets anyway then released pressure. I stirred everything and found some of the pasta stared to stick to the bottom, but nothing was burned. The pasta was cooked perfectly so no harm done! Next time I’ll probably add 3c of broth. We ended up having an extra person for dinner so in order to stretch it a bit I stirred in a small bag of frozen corn and a small jar of salsa after it was cooked. Delicious! Quick and easy, and filling, perfect for weeknights!!
Jessica says
Oh wow!! Yes! Trying 3 cups of broth next time may work even better! So glad that you loved it, and the addition of adding salsa and corn sounds amazing! Thank you for sharing!
The addition of the salsa reminds me of the salsa and cheese burritos that I make HERE! If you loved this, then you may love those too! 🙂
Laurie says
so this was easy and good. I used beef broth and cream of mushroom soup since it was what I had on hand. I think next time, I will use 3 cups broth and increase cook time to 5 minutes. It was a little dry so I added milk when I added the cheese. Thanks for a good basic easy recipe!
Jessica says
Thank you so much Laurie for letting us know what you used, and the kind words! 🙂 I’m so glad you thought to add milk with the cheese. I actually used milk too for the leftovers, as it soaks up with the noodles after it sits more! Thank you again!