One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese

By cindyandmojo

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 onion, diced
• 8 ounces ground beef
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 3/4 cup canned white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 3/4 cup canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 10 ounces elbows pasta
• 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Details

Servings 4
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 30mins
Adapted from damndelicious.net

Preparation

Step 1

So about this mac and cheese. Now it’s definitely not your ordinary mac and cheese. It’s mac and cheese combined with a super easy homemade chili using pantry ingredients, combining two of your favorite kind of comfort foods in a single one pot meal. It’s quick, easy and sure to be a hit with the entire family. You can’t beat that!

Heat olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add garlic, onion and ground beef, and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.

Stir in chicken broth, tomatoes, beans, chili powder and cumin; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a simmer and stir in pasta. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until pasta is cooked through, about 13-15 minutes.

Remove from heat. Top with cheese and cover until melted, about 2 minutes.

Thank you for adding to my recipe collection

This is such easy mac n cheese. I rarely make it b/c it always takes me forever to make…so this is perfect!

Similar to what we made when growing up. Used tomato juice instead of chicken broth. May try both liquids when I make. Thanks for the recipe brings back great memories. Cute puppy. Love the name. My two kitties were Honey and Barley!

Yes – with the addition of the chili, this is a fun twist on the traditional mac and cheese.

Recipe looks delicious! One of the pictures looks like it has tomatoes- don’t think I saw any listed in the recipe. Should I add a can of diced tomatoes?

That baby Corgi is so damn..lol.CUTE!!!..cute babies and puppies make me grit my teeth..and looking at Butter so cute I’m doing it. Haha..love the recipes. I’ve made several of your recipes. .sooo good. No they are Damn Delicious!! Also your photography is Awesome..love your blog!!! THANK YOU!

This is just so much goodness in one place!! Love it…pinned.

I have some frozen chili in the freeze and I think I’m going to try this recipe by adding broth and pasta to it.

Made it last night! My family loved it! It was so easy. For some reason I had to add more liquid. I may have used too much pasta.

Your new baby is just adorable. I hope Butters will be with you for many happy years. Speaking of butter, I have your butter chicken cooking in my crockpot and it smells delicious. I will make your Mac and cheese in the near future. Thanks for some great recipes.

Aww…Butters is adorable! So precious. I bet your hearts are swelling with joy over this new addition to your family. But, this recipe? Perfect! Mac and Cheese Chili. Where has this been my whole life?

Nice way to combine two great dishes!

Wow looks so yummy! I’ll prob use ground turkey (always adding a little worcestershire sauce to help turkey taste richer); I haven’t used ground beef in months! My hubby and kids can’t tell the diff!

Sorry, I was reading the list on my phone and somehow missed that you did state drained and rinsed. Luckily that’s exactly what I did. Thanks for the quick reply too. I just finished eating this for lunch. I also found that mine did not turn out as “soupy” as the picture like another person stated, more like chili mac because the noodles absorbed the liquid. I still very much enjoyed it! I’m sure you could cook the noodles separately and add them in right before eating, but I like it the one pot meal. I used chicken stock and fire roasted diced tomatoes because that’s what I had on hand. I think it could be cheesier, but I am watching what I’m eating so it’s probably for the best! Thanks!

If you want to make this for a serving of 4, then cut the amount of the ingredients in half. I made this tonight to serve 4 but in reality it is closer to a serving of 8-10. It did taste good though. I substituted tomato sauce for the tomatoes as my wife does not like canned tomatoes.

Butters sound like a name I’d want to give my future kid. LOL! That and Cookie, Crumble, Cocoa, Berry, Sugar… stuff like that. And mixing 2 food items into one pot? You’re smart.

This was the first Pinterest recipe I’ve ever made! And in fact I made it for supper today. Skipped the parsley & only used 1/2 an onion (all I had around). Great lil recipe, very filling & it was delicious! I would add more chilli powder next time & maybe some green onions. Thank you for sharing! I’ll definitely be going back to this one in the future

Can I make this in a crockpot? How long would you cook it for?

I love your blog…but recipe makes me crazy because you’re using partial cans of beans. I’m going to use an entire lb of ground beef (because that’s how it’s packaged) and full cans of beans. Thankfully, I”m an experienced cook and can figure out how to make adjustments to recipes to serve my family….plus I want leftovers!!!

I made this for dinner last night and it was SOOO good! Such a warm, hearty food after a long day. I subbed whole wheat rotini (because that’s what I had on hand) and just one can of kidney beans rather than partial cans of kidney and white. So delicious! Thanks

I made this tonight and it was kind of bland. I added more cumin and chili powder and in the end added a spoonful of salsa which gave it more flavor. If I were to make it again, I would double the ground beef and cut the noodles in half. I thought the ratio was a little off. There is definitely room to experiment a little! You have to add more liquid if you want to make it more like Chili. If you want it more like mac and cheese, I suppose you could use the recommended liquid add more cheese and throw it in the oven for a bit.

Molly, it really depends on how you want this to be – more mac and cheese or more chili. This is really a hybrid recipe, so although I could’ve added more spices, I wanted to keep a nice balance without overpowering any of the flavors.

Out of 6 kids 2 adults only had one not like it and I think he was just having a bad day and didn’t want nothing but his corn bread. I did have to play with it alittle since I was cooking for 8 and I wanted left overs for the weekend. I had hot Mexican chili powder so I was scared to add more so I added some of my homemade taco seasoning. I wanted a little deeper red color so I added two T of tomato paste. Next time I will add green peppers and might try it with corn.

Made this tonight and it was delish!! I did use turkey instead of beef and added a can of corn. A little too soupy but I will add some tomato sauce next time to thicken it up a bit. Very very tasty I will be making this again, thank you so much for sharing!

Yes, canned corn contains a lot of fluid, even if you drain it first, so some adjustment is necessary. What I always do is have on hand a box of very small pasta (orzo, acini de pepe, or those little Mexican stars), and about halfway through if my chili or spaghetti sauce is looking like it will be too soupy I throw in a tablespoon or two of the tiny pasta to absorb the excess liquid. Because they’re so small they cook faster than the other pasta so as long as you don’t wait too long to add them it should all come out fine.

I added fresh cilantro…used rotel tomatoes, and the shredded Mexican blend cheese….delicious…the fresh cilantro, if you like it, is a huge flavor enhancer in this meal!

I have looked at several grocery stores nearby (Walmart and Kroger) and haven’t found white kidney beans so I’m just going to make this tonight with all red. And since I had a bag of dried I’m going to soak and cook those instead of canned. If anyone else knows where to find the white ones please tell me where I’m missing them!

Making this for the 2nd time tonight-it’s been a huge hit with everyone. I watch a little girl who is dairy free-I scoop out her portion first and then add the cheese. The first time I made it with bacon and that was really good, going with the beef today.

I made this tonight and it was DELICIOUS!!! I add our favorite toppings just like we were having chili, delicious. I could’t believe how easy this was.

Have you tried freezing this recipe? Would you add the cheese before freezing or after it’s been heated once it’s been thawed out?

so I cannot answer this with certainty. I recommend using your best judgement for freezing/reheating options.

Good recipe and all, but the portion it makes is much too small if men are eating.

Made this last night and must say it was a huge hit! I want to make it every week now. Thanks!

I made with ground chicken and used all white beans (was cooking for someone who doesn’t eat beef) and this was really good. I’ll make again for sure. I want to try with beef as well. Thanks for the recipe.

Just wanted to drop in and say how much we enjoyed this easy, one pot dinner! I actually doubled the recipe…boy did it make a ton! Lucky for my neighbors and friends, they enjoyed your chili mac recipe tonight also

I used what I had…added a can of tomato sauce, and used pinto and white northern beans. The rest I followed per directions. When doubling the recipe, I just used a 1lb box of macaroni and it seems to work out perfectly.

This looks amazing! Gonna make it tonight, but substituting veggie ground round for the meat. Can’t wait!

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