This Instant Pot chicken parmesan pasta recipe is an easy go-to weeknight dinner. All the flavors of classic chicken parmesan made into a one pot, comforting meal.
Commute, homework, basket ball, guitar lessons… one pot meal is such a life saver on week nights.
Better yet cooked in an Instant Pot.
This is an easy chicken parmesan recipe with the addition of pasta. A meal that is often requested by the kiddos.
It’s all good things here. Pasta. Chicken. Tomato sauce. Cheese.
And, all you have is one pot to clean!!!
Chicken is melt-in-your-mouth tender.
An amazingly easy three step Pasta recipe-
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Saute onion, garlic and chicken in olive oil.
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Cook with pasta, sauce, water and seasonings.
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Stir in cheese.
Eat.
Instant Pot Chicken Parmesan Pasta
This Instant Pot chicken parmesan pasta recipe is an easy go-to weeknight dinner. All the flavors of classic chicken parmesan made into a one pot, comforting meal.
Ingredients
- 2-3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite sized chunks
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 and 1/4 cups marinara sauce, I used Prego
- 1 cup water, refer notes
- 8 ounces penne pasta
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 to 3/4 teaspooon salt, refer notes
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
- 3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
- chopped parsley or basil, to garnish (optional)
Instructions
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Set Instant pot to saute setting. When hot, add olive oil and then chopped onion and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently for 1 minute. Add chicken pieces and cook, stirring frequently for 2 minutes.
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Press cancel and then add marinara sauce, water, pasta, Italian seasoning, salt and ground pepper. Stir well. Close and lock lid (making sure that valve is set to sealing). Select manual setting (or pressure cooker) for 7 minutes.
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After 7 minutes, let Instant pot in the warm mode for 10 minutes. Turn valve to venting to release pressure. Open lid, sprinkle both cheeses, close lid and let cheese melt for one minute.
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Open Instant pot, stir to mix in melted cheese and serve hot with chopped parsley or basil.
Recipe Notes
If you'd like your pasta al dente then use only 3/4 cup water.
Salt depends on the type of marinara sauce used and your taste preference. I used Prego (tomato, basil , garlic) sauce and used 3/4 teaspoon salt.
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37 Comments
I love when I have a yummy dinner on the table in the least possible amount of time..I love it more when I have less dishes to was :). Bookmarking this amazing recipe for those days Maria!! The Pasta looks too good!
Thank you dear:)
I love that this is made all in one pot!! I so need to get me an Instant Pot! This pasta looks so hearty and filling too 🙂
this sounds perfect! and i can imagine how happy my younger self (let’s be real, even my today self) would have been if my mom packed the leftovers in a warm thermos for my lunch (:
Thank you Heather:)
This recipe sounds amazing Maria. Really makes a perfect weekday meal, so full of delicious flavours 🙂
Made it. Love it. Great recipe. Thank you!!!!
Thank you so much for trying. So glad that you liked it 🙂
I don’t have an instant pot but I do have a crockpot.
Would this still turn out okay with the crockpot?
I have no experience with a crockpot, so I’m very sorry that I can’t be of much help to you.
However, if you are interested in making it on the stovetop then here is the method that you can adopt – Choose a pan with a tight fitting lid – Proceed step 1 in the pan. then add 8 oz pasta + 1 1/4 cup marinara sauce + 1 1/2 cup water + other seasonings in step2. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook over medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes, until pasta is cooked to your liking. Stir in cheese to finish. Hope it helps:)
How would you change this if you wanted to increase the number of servings? I would like to use 12.5 oz of pasta and ~2 pounds of chicken.
Here are the measurements for 12 ounces of penne –
4-5 boneless skinless chicken thighs
4 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups marinara sauce
1 cup to 1 1/2 cups water (1 cup for al dente)
12 ounces penne pasta
3/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
3/4 to 1 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3/4 cups grated mozzarella cheese
slightly heaped 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Proceed with the same instructions
Hope it helps:)
Thanks!
I made this with the increased measurements. It turned out very good, but I would use the entire bottle of Marinara (24 oz) next time, also I did use the 1 1/2 cups water, but the pasta was al dente and I like it more tender so next time I will increase the water by 1/4 cup. Also I had chicken tenders. I used 8 (I think), maybe this was more meat than 4-5 thighs, that may be why I needed more marinara sauce. Over all, a great recipe, thank you!
So glad that you loved it Maryann and thank you for all the suggestions. It really helps 🙂
Quick and tasty little dish worked out very well – I used spelt pasta and tomato pasata just added extra garlic and oinion to flavour up.
Also had no parma cheese so went the stretchy option of mozzarella.
Mozzarella sounds delicious, so glad that you liked it:)
Is the setting for 7 minutes in lower or high pressure?
High.
Any thoughts on doing this with frozen chicken?
Hi Kate, sorry I didn’t understand. Do you mean frozen, raw chicken or frozen cooked chicken nuggets/chicken fingers ??
I would also like to know your thoughts on doing this with frozen raw chicken
Though it is convenient to cook chicken in an Instant pot from a frozen stage, my guess would be that it might not work when working with pasta. Since, the cooking time of frozen chicken and pasta will vary, one might be undercooked or overcooked. Hope it helps:)
I’m so happy I found this recipe!
YAY!! Hope you love it 🙂
Loved it. I added fresh mushrooms to mine.
YAY!!!!
WOW I am so impressed with this recipe. It came out perfect! The chicken was very tender and nothing stuck to the bottom of the pan. My company loved it! I used 2/3 cup water and pasta cooked absolutely perfect!
Thank you so much Robin, so glad that you liked it)
When do you cook the pasta. I’m sorry, I’m new to the instant pot and didn’t see when to put it in. Maybe I missed it?
Thanks!
Mel
In step 2. You add the sauce, water, PASTA and seasoning. Hope it helps:)
Could I use chicken breast cut up instead of thighs?
Totally!!!
I could not decide on what to make for dinner, and it was getting late….so, I stumbled upon your recipe on Pinterest and I tried it. I haven’t cooked pasta in my instant pot yet so I was nervous. I used chicken breasts because that is what I had defrosted. I followed the recipe and the flavor was awesome. I have one question… I used rigatoni noodles because that was all I had and I used 1 cup of water and 1 1/4cups of sauce…..some of my noodles were a little hard on the edges….could this be because the noodles are a little bigger than penne? Should I have used more water or smaller pasta? Or, is this how pasta comes out? The flavor was awesome and so convenient only using one pot! Thanks!
Hi Shell,I’m so glad that you tried the recipe and liked it. My guess would be because of the size of rigatoni when compared to penne, hence cooking a minute or two longer might have solved the uneven cooking. Hope it helps:)
Am i suppose to let it naturally release pressure for 10 minutes? Then quick release any pressure afterwards?
Hi Jackie, After 10 minutes at warm mode, you quick release pressure. How it helps:)