Instant Pot Chicken Alfredo Pasta Is a Weeknight Winner
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The fact that you can cook dry pasta in an Instant Pot full of sauce is one of my biggest epiphanies of the year. The world of one-pot cooking just got a whole lot bigger, and in less than half an hour it’s possible to make a rich, creamy, velvety chicken Alfredo pasta like this one, without even having to use a second pot to boil the pasta. If you’re trying to convince someone that the Instant Pot is a game-changer, send them this recipe.
Many great Instant Pot recipes start with the sauté function, because being able to sauté in the same pot you’ll use for slow- or pressure-cooking is the best thing about the Instant Pot. In this case, you’ll sear a couple of seasoned chicken breasts until they’re browned, then remove them and sauté some garlic as well. Deglaze the Instant Pot with chicken broth and use a spoon to scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pot, then add cream and a pound of uncooked penne pasta right into the pot, put the chicken breasts back in, and set the pot to cook on high pressure for six minutes.
“Six minutes” on the timer is not the same as six minutes of cooking time with Instant Pot recipes, because it takes about 10 minutes for the pot to come to pressure, which means it’s more like 16 minutes of cooking overall. But that’s still not very much, and when you take the lid off at the end of that, the chicken will be fully cooked and the pasta will be ready to eat in a rich, creamy velvety sauce.
Just slice the chicken into pieces, or shred the chicken with a pair of forks, and mix it into the pasta, then stir in a cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. The whole dish is ready to eat, with plenty of extra for leftovers and lunches, and the whole thing is cooked in a single pot in less than 30 minutes from start to finish.
Get the recipe: Instant Pot Chicken Alfredo Pasta from No. 2 Pencil
