5 Ingredient Instant Pot Mac and Cheese {with Velveeta)

This super simple, super easy recipe for 5 Ingredient Instant Pot Mac and Cheese is picky eater approved! Almost as easy as the boxed version, but with all the love of homemade. This is perfect for toddlers, kids, and even picky adults! Uses Velveeta for that creamy, addictive, and cheesy flavor we all love.

Mac and cheese is my love language. It's true.

I'm just getting started with sharing recipes on this blog, but something you will quickly learn is how much I love macaroni and cheese. I would expect that over the next year or so, you can expect no less than 5 or 6 macaroni and cheese recipes...and that's just the basic variety! I'm so obsessed with this classic comfort food, that I'm always coming up with new ways of preparing it.

This 5 Ingredient Instant Pot Mac and Cheese is probably the easiest yet. First of all, it's made in the Instant Pot. It rarely gets any easier than that! And secondly, it has just 5 ingredients! This is a recipe I developed specifically for my picky toddler, who tends to like things on the simple side. He's very much a bread, pasta and cereal eater. Which is really not what I expected, since I was rather adventurous during my pregnancy and throughout his early months of starting solids. But we all end up with unique challenges, no matter how hard we try to avoid them.

A Simple Mac and Cheese Recipe

And so I'm always looking for simple, relatively plain ways to prepare our favorite foods. Otherwise, my son would live on air alone! I always thought I would be one of those moms that ONLY lets their kids eat fresh fruits and vegetables, but nope. After a year or so of struggling to get him to eat anything, I'm simple happy WHEN he eats.

Thus, I dedicate this super simple, super easy, picky eater friendly 5 ingredient Instant Pot mac and cheese to all you moms out there who struggle with getting one (or more) of your kids to eat much of anything. Solidarity mama, solidarity!

Just 5 Ingredients

I'm calling this recipe "5 Ingredient Mac and Cheese" because it calls for just 5 "real" ingredients. In addition to the 5 ingredients, you will need water and salt. I'm not including those as my ingredients since I assume that everyone has those on hand all the time and do not need to add them to any sort of grocery list. If you happen to not have salt, don't worry about it too much. The salt from the butter and the Velveeta processed cheese will be plenty to season the macaroni and cheese.

You will also see some optional seasoning ingredients at the end of the ingredients list. These are completely optional, and just add a little extra flavor if desired. If you have a super picky eater though, you may opt to forgo any additional seasonings!

Ingredients

• Macaroni: You will need a small cut pasta for this recipe. Elbow macaroni is highly recommended! Any larger (or significantly smaller) cut pasta will throw off ratios for sauce and cook times, so it's best to stick to something very similar in size to elbow macaroni.
• Butter: You will need ¼ cup of salted butter. 1 tablespoon will be used for cooking the macaroni, and the remainder will be for making a roux for the cheese sauce.
• Flour: I recommend using unbleached all purpose or regular all purpose flour for this recipe.
• Milk: You will need some milk to make the base of the cheese sauce. I prefer whole milk for this recipe, but you can use 2% or 1% if desired.
• Processed cheese: You will need a half of a pound of processed cheese (like Velveeta), cut into ½" cubes. This is also known as American cheese.
• You will also need 2 cups of drinking quality water, and about ½ teaspoon of table salt.

Optional:

• Ground black pepper: If you don't have ultra picky eaters, a little ground black pepper can be a welcome addition to your homemade mac and cheese!
• Dry ground mustard powder: This is a classic ingredient in homemade macaroni and cheese recipes, but isn't necessary for this recipe. It is a nice addition, and so if you have some on hand I would encourage you to add some.
• Seasonings, to taste

Instructions

To get started, add the elbow macaroni to the insert of your Instant Pot. You can use either a 6qt or an 8qt. I haven't tested this in a 3qt Instant Pot, but it will probably work without a hitch!

Add the water, ½ teaspoon of salt, and 1 tablespoon of salted butter.

Place the lid on the Instant Pot and set the valve to "sealing. Cook on high pressure for 4 minutes.

Once the cooking time is up, flip the valve to "venting" to do a full manual pressure release.

Once the pin drops, indicating the pressure has been fully released, carefully open the lid of the Instant Pot.

Stir the macaroni and drain in a colander in the sink. Place a plate over the top of the colander to keep the pasta warm while you prepare the sauce.

Making Macaroni and Cheese Sauce in the Instant Pot

Once your pasta is drained, set your Instant Pot to the "sauté" function.

Once the pot is hot, add the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter to the Instant Pot.

Add the flour to the melted butter and whisk to combine.

Keep whisking the flour until no dry bits remain. Continue cooking, whisking frequently, until a light golden hue is reached the the flour smell is no longer present.

Slowly drizzle some of the milk into the instant pot, whisking until smooth.

Continue whisking the mixture, slowly adding milk and whisking between each addition.

Once the milk has been added, cook for an additional few minutes until thickened.

Add the cubed processed cheese.

Adding in the Macaroni

Whisk in the processed cheese, continuing until the sauce is smooth and the cheese is fully melted.

Add in the cooked macaroni and fold it into the sauce until it's completely covered.

If desired, add additional seasonings like black pepper, dry mustard powder, paprika, or cayenne.

Serve immediately!

Substitutions

Variations

Bacon Mac and Cheese: Add some cooked and crumbled bacon into the macaroni.

Queso Mac and Cheese: Add in 1 small can of diced green chilies into the cheese sauce.

Broccoli Mac and Cheese: Add in 2 cups of steamed broccoli florets to the sauce. Toss to coat.

More Easy Meal Ideas:

• Instant Pot Homemade Hamburger Helper
• Instant Pot Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup
• Slow Cooker Queso Chicken Tacos
• Slow Cooker Lemonade Chicken
• Air Fryer Chicken Fajitas

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