Instant Pot Mac and Cheese (small batch) | Instant Pot Mini Recipes (2024)

Published: Jun 26, 2018 · Modified: Nov 14, 2020 by Christina Lane · This post may contain affiliate links · 52 Comments

Instant pot mac and cheese, made in the instant pot mini. Fun recipe for a small batch of pressure cooker macaroni and cheese!

When I first bought my instant pot mini, I thought I would only use it in the winter for comforting soups and stews. I thought of it as a replacement for my slow cooker. But I was so wrong about that!

Since summer hit, I'm using my instant pot mini all the time! I love being able to make dinner without heating up the house.

This instant pot mac and cheese is probably my daughter's favorite thing to come out of my instant pot (besides the instant pot chicken stock that I make weekly).

Here's my collection of instant pot mini recipes. I also have to mention that this is the perfect portion of mac and cheese for a Thanksgiving for two side dish.

All of the ingredients for this instant pot mac and cheese are pictured above, except the vegetable broth.

I adapted the recipe from Epicurious, and it has a slightly strange method to it: the noodles are cooked in broth and butter at high pressure for 5 minutes, and then the rest is stirred in and allowed to melt slowly.

I happen to love this method, because as the pot comes to pressure, it gives me plenty of time to grate cheese and measure everything out. When the timer goes off, I do a forced pressure release, and dump everything in and walk away.

It's basically a hands-off side dish that is so welcome this time of year.

Reasons to love instant pot mac and cheese:

-it's all made in one pot

-it takes just 20 minutes to cook, start to finish!

-the macaroni noodles cook in broth, so if you're out of milk, you can still make this mac and cheese!

This instant pot mac and cheese recipe makes about 2-3 big bowls of macaroni and cheese. For my family of 3, we use it as a side dish two nights in a row. (My toddler hardly eats more than 5 of 6 bites of anything). We occasionally enjoy it alone with a salad and a glass of white wine! Or, sometimes we pick up barbecue from our favorite place and use this as a side dish.

For those wondering, I haven't tried to scale up this recipe for anything larger than my 3-quart Instant Pot Mini. Small-batch recipes are what I do on this site, but if you double the recipe succesfully, please let us all know; I'd love to hear about it in the comments section below! (You can also check the full-size recipe on Epicurious, from which I scaled this one down for help).

This is the instant pot mini that I use and love!