Updated recipe - Instant pot pasta with meat sauce made with ground chicken instead! Easier and healthier instant pot pasta recipe that is sure to become a family favorite for weeknight dinner or meal prepped for the week. Instant pot pasta with chicken meat sauce for the win!
Another Instant Pot Chicken Pasta Recipe.
Guys. I know how much you love your Instant Pot. Better yet, instant pot pasta recipes! Like this mega popular Instant pot chicken pasta.
This Instant pot pasta with chicken meat sauce is a mashup of that chicken parmesan pasta in instant pot and the classic spaghetti with meat sauce. Why are you gonna love this chicken pasta in instant pot as well?
- Super easy
- Budget friendly
- Comforting
- Pasta and meat sauce are cooked together to make a one pot meal
- Lean ground chicken <--- Healthier alternative
- Made in Instant pot <--- easy clean up
- Uses jarred pasta sauce
- Kid-friendly
- All pantry ingredients + ground chicken
- Weeknight dinner
- Delicious
Team players in this instant pot pasta with chicken meat sauce:
- Pasta – I tend to often use penne pasta since my children have somehow loved this shape since their young age. Maybe it’s easy to eat with a fork. Instant pot chicken penne pasta is so wonderful because penne works well in all Instant pots, even the 3-quart one (I tend to struggle with longer pastas like fettuccine/ spaghetti at times.
- Chicken - I opted for leaner ground chicken instead of ground beef. You could totally use ground turkey instead.
- Marinara sauce – Use your favorite brand. I have always loved Prego, tomato basil and garlic (this is not a sponsored post) and use only that sauce for all my recipes and the flavor is A-H-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Have you heard of pasta pizza? Any leftover pasta with tomato sauce can be made into a delicious Leftover Pasta Pizza
- Chicken stock - I have used 33% less sodium chicken stock. If you use regular or no sodium, then adjust the salt accordingly.
- Cheese – We are going with the classic, PARMESAN.
- Flavorings – Onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
- Fresh Basil - Use dried basil if you don't have fresh on hand
How to make instant Pot pasta?
Step-1: Set Instant pot to saute. When hot, saute ground chicken in some olive oil. When no longer pink, stir in chopped onion, garlic and red pepper flakes. Continue to cook, until all moisture has evaporated and meat begins to brown.
Step-2: Press cancel and mix pasta, marinara sauce, chicken stock, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Cook for 7 minutes on manual and then let it be in warm for 4 minutes.
Step-3: Stir in grated parmesan and chopped basil.
Done and DONE.
Just 3 steps to family favorite instant pot pasta with tomato sauce!
Few notes on making Instant pot pasta with chicken meat sauce:
- Pasta cooks just right in the given time and. However, if you like your pasta more al dente, then release pressure as soon as the 7 minute cook time is done.
- Red pepper flakes does not make the instant pot chicken and pasta recipe spicy. It just elevates the flavor in my opinion. But, you could totally skip it.
- Ground turkey may be used instead of ground chicken.
- If you don't have fresh basil on hand then add some dried basil along with the Italian seasoning before cooking the pasta.
Instant Pot Pasta with Chicken Meat Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound ground chicken
Group-1
- ¾ cup chopped onion
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 pinches red pepper flakes
Group-2
- 2 cups marinara sauce ( I used prego, tomato basil & garlic)
- 1 cup chicken stock (I used 33% less sodium)
- 1 and ¼ teaspoon salt, refer notes
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 8 ounces penne pasta
Group-3
- 3 tablespoons grated parmesan (plus more for serving)
- ¼ cup chopped basil
Instructions
- Set Instant pot to saute setting. When hot, add olive oil and then ground chicken. Saute occasionally, breaking up lumps.
When no longer pink, add chopped group-1 ingredients and continue to saute occasionally until all the moisture has evaporated and chicken begins to brown. - Press cancel, add all group-2 ingredients (except pasta) and stir well. Place pasta on top of the liquid (DO NOT STIR), pressing lightly for them to be slightly immersed in the liquid, but do not stir. Close and lock lid (making sure that valve is set to sealing). Select manual setting (or pressure cooker) for 7 minutes. (If you like pasta more al dente, then release pressure right after cooking time)
- After 7 minutes, let Instant pot be n the warm mode for 4 minutes.Turn valve to venting to release pressure. Open lid, stir in 3 tablespoons parmesan and chopped basil.
- Serve Instant Pot Pasta with Chicken Meat Sauce with additional parmesan.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information, based on third-party calculations, should be seen as estimates, not guarantees, as various factors like product types, brands, processing methods, and more can alter the nutritional content in recipes.
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Katherine | Love In My Oven
Sounds like the perfect easy dinner for a busy weeknight this fall, Maria! I love that you used ground chicken. It's a nice change from beef sometimes!!
Jodi
Love making recipes where I have all the ingredients. But I got the burn notice twice on my Instant Pot. So I scraped the bottom and added some more chicken broth but still burned on the bottom and never got to finish cooking. But the pasta was done so we ate it.
Maria Doss
That's no good! This is a standard measurement for all our instant pot pasta recipes and they usually work out very well. You can check out a very similar, hugely popular recipe - https://www.kitchenathoskins.com/instant-pot-chicken-parmesan-pasta/. That being said, I'm very sorry about the burning part.I will go back to see if the liquid measurements was right and the valve was at sealing position. Hope it helps:)
Jennifer
I’m making this for dinner tonight and just got the burn notice too. I turned off the IP and put the lid back on to let the pasta cook a bit more. Hopefully that’ll work!
Maria Doss
Hi Jennifer, I hope it worked out for you. However, we have updated the recipe with a clever trick that avoids the dreaded BURN signal. Thanks, Maria