This cheesy chicken pasta has Velveeta, Rotel, shredded chicken – all the amazing things you need for an incredibly delicious, hearty and totally easy meal. And the best part is, no need to pre-boil the pasta.
Truly a dump and go recipe, let your pressure cooker do ALL the work for you QUICKLY. Plus, you can use spaghetti noodles, penne (as shown) or even macaroni pasta.
*affiliate links may be included below in article * condensed printable version of recipe located at the bottom to assist you while cooking*
Pressure Cooker Recipes
Before we get started, and no this isn’t a long drawn out story, I did want to praise working with a pressure cooker.
While I have 100’s of recipes on my blog, I really have found working with the Ninja Foodi to be most rewarding.
Its the easiest suggestion I can make to someone intimidated in the kitchen.
If you are new to working with a Ninja Foodi pressure cooker and looking for recipes, you may want to also try pressure cooker white chicken chili, pressure cooker whole artichokes, ninja foodi hard boiled eggs, ninja foodi air fryer chicken wings, and last but not least, ninja foodi air fryer salmon (ITS WOW!)
Its been such an amazing kitchen tool for me personally. If you do not own one but want dinner to be easy, you really should consider the investment. What I like about the Ninja Foodi is that I can pressure cook, saute, slow cook, air fryer – literally all kitchen tools in one.
I have found that this machine products the best results in an instant and having tested the Instant Pot, Vortex, and the Ninja Foodi, I ADORE this machine.
Check out the specs and see if its a fit for you: Ninja Foodi 7 in 1 current Price on Amazon
Make sure you check out my video and ask any questions below. I love to try new takes on my recipes, so please make sure to leave me a comment and tell me how you altered my recipe in your at home kitchen.
Your feed back helps me make my recipes better.
Velveeta Chicken Pasta
All you need to hear are these three words to know tonight’s dinner is going to be filling: Velveeta, Rotel, Chicken.
Before someone asks – I realize that I used Penne in this pressure cooker meal, but when people are looking for this recipe, its super simple to substitute out and works either way.
Here are what ingredients you need to gather to get started:
Pressure Cooker Used: 6.5 Quart Ninja Foodi
- chicken breasts – chicken breasts should be full cooked and shredded prior to starting this dish. You cannot add raw chicken to the recipe as is, but the pressure cooker IS a great way to cook it first.
- Penne noodles – Penne noodles have a perfect center and hold cheese and Rotel like a boss! While this dish can be made with a variety of pastas (so no need for a store visit just for Penne if you have other options), I say use Penne for the best results if you have a choice.
- cream of mushroom – Condensed cream of soups come in a ton of flavors and cream of mushroom is my favorite way to make this dish. However, it is fine to alter with other Campbells cream flavors.
- Rotel Tomatoes
- Velveeta
- 3 cans of water
- fresh garlic
RELATED RECIPES: Ninja Foodi Chicken Wings, Ninja Foodi Macaroni and Cheese, Ninja Foodi Crispy Potatoes and Bacon, Ninja Foodi Popcorn, Ninja Foodi Corn on the Cob, Ninja Foodi Artichokes, Ninja Foodi Beignets, Ninja Foodi Cheesy Chicken Pasta
Spaghetti Noodles or Penne Pasta?
Here is the great thing with this pasta recipe – you can use either traditional spaghetti sticks OR a box of Penne. Penne tends to be so much more filling and is great when you are eating chicken, and I love how the cheese oozes out of the noodles, so that is my choice.
You can also substitute a box of raw spaghetti if you prefer. And while I haven’t done it, I also think large macaroni or shell noodles would be fine.
The best part is there is no need to pre-boil these noodles – they cook right in the pressure cooker.
That’s what makes this meal so easy!
Pressure Cook the Chicken First
Do not put the chicken in the pressure cooker raw with the rest of your ingredients. The chicken has to be pre-cooked.
You can either boil chicken and shred it, pressure cook it prior (doesn’t take long!) or simply buy plain old rotisserie chicken for this meal.
This chicken spaghetti recipe takes into the fact that you have already cooked the chicken first before proceeding. If you do not know how to pressure cooker chicken breasts, its really easy.
- Place defrosted chicken breasts into pressure cooker with 1 1/2 cups of water.
- High, 8 minutes, and then natural release for 10 minutes.
- Remove chicken with tongs and carefully shred.
How to make Pressure Cooker Chicken Pasta
You won’t believe how amazing and easy it is to make this gooey cheesy chicken pasta for dinner tonight. First, let me apologize for these crazy pictures.
Taking pictures of noodles smothered in cheese and chicken isn’t really that easy.
It all melts together and quite honestly, I make this and record the video, so the steam from the pressure cooker kept fogging up the camera.
At some point I just said, oh well, it tastes good and that is ALL that matters. There is literally no way to get this kind of meal to LOOK good- which is like the story of every casserole and Mexican recipe ever.
Just know that its delicious and kid friendly and keep moving forward.
First dump in your penne (or spaghetti noodles broken in half) in the bottom of the ceramic pressure cooker pan.
Layer cooked shredded chicken, Rotel, cream of mushroom, Velveeta, and garlic.
Take your cream of mushroom can and fill up three times with water and dump right into your dish.
Stir everything together to combine.
Seal the Ninja Foodi pressure cooker lid and pressure cook on HIGH for 7 minutes.
Once the 7 minutes are done, QUICK RELEASE.
Open carefully, stir, and serve immediately while hot and melty.
Pressure Cooker Ultimate Chicken Pasta with Rotel
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
- 1 box of 16 oz Penne noodles see note in article about pasta kinds
- 1 can cream of mushroom
- 1 can of Rotel Tomatoes
- 16 oz. Velveeta cubed
- 3 cans of water fill up the cream of mushroom can 3 times
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
Instructions
- Before you get started on this recipe, you need to have cooked and shredded chicken. Place defrosted chicken breasts into pressure cooker with 1 1/2 cups of water. High, 8 minutes, and then natural release for 10 minutes. Remove chicken with tongs and carefully shred. You can also use rotisserie chicken or boil your chicken.
- Note that a 6.5 quart Ninja Foodi was used in this recipe
- Dump Penne (or spaghetti noodles broken in half) in the bottom of the ceramic pressure cooker pan.
- Layer cooked shredded chicken, Rotel tomatoes, cream of mushroom, cubed Velveeta, and minced fresh garlic.
- Now take your cream of mushroom can and fill up three times with water and dump right into your pressure cooker pot with other ingredients.
- Stir everything together to combine.
- Seal the pressure cooker lid and pressure cook on HIGH for 7 minutes.
- Once the 7 minutes are done, QUICK RELEASE.
- Then open carefully, stir, and serve immediately while cheese and chicken are hot and melty.
Video
Notes
Can I use Spaghetti Noodles instead of Penne?
Yes, you can use traditional spaghetti noodles, however spaghetti is thinner and may not hold the heavy volume of cheese easily in this dish.Can the chicken be added raw?
No! While a pressure cooker is a great way to cook chicken, this dish is made with chicken breasts already prepped. To pressure cooker chicken breasts prior:- Place defrosted chicken breasts into pressure cooker with 1 1/2 cups of water.
- High, 8 minutes, and then natural release for 10 minutes.
- Remove chicken with tongs and carefully shred.
What are side dishes that go well with Cheesy Chicken Pasta?
Anytime pasta is served, side dishes that go well will be healthier in nature. Try adding some fresh steamed vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower or carrots to this dish.Can I add any other ingredients into this creamy chicken pasta?
Of course! If you want a little spice, try some chilis or diced jalapenos, add in a packet of taco seasoning to alter the flavor to more of a spicy flavoring or change the regular Velveeta cheese to Velveeta QUESO cheese. Once you understand the base recipe, its fine to mix up and make the meal your own!Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer: The nutritional data provided here is auto-calculated and intended for your convenience only. As it’s generated via automation, its accuracy may be compromised. For precise nutritional insight, please compute the values utilizing the actual ingredients in your recipe through your chosen nutrition calculator or application.
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Comments & Reviews
Chasity L Earley says
When the recipe calls for 1/2 block of Velveeta, is this a 32oz, 16oz, or 8oz block?
Trisha Haas says
I apologize for the confusion and will update the post. I use a classic box, which is 32 oz and use half of that, but since that totals 16 oz, you can use half of the larger or a whole of a 16 oz. I suppose I never thought about them coming in a variety of sizes as I have never purchased those sizes. Thanks for catching that!
Alexandria says
I recently made this in my ninja foodi and it burned at the bottom and gave me the water warning! However when I opened it, the meal was done. I also used bow tie pasta instead of penne. Any reason why this would happen? Also how big of a can of cream of mushroom did you use? I think that would determine how much water you would need so I didn’t use enough.
Trisha Haas says
Alexandria, I havent heard of this error happening on this recipe but in your case, it could very well be that the change in pasta to bowtie soaked up the water a lot quicker, which produced that error. I have only tested it with penne and spaghetti. As far as a soup can, its the regular cans, which I think are 10.5 oz. I will do another test on this recipe to try to duplicate your error with the bowtie pasta.
Niki says
The taste is great, I’d give it 4 stars!
The quantity of water to add is out to lunch lol. I followed the recipe to a T and continuously got the dreaded “Add Water” warning. I had to stop and restart 3 times, adding an extra cup of water each time, so in total, an additional 3 cups of water.
Trying to quick release the pressure in order to add that extra water… resulted in my Ninja spewing creamy liquid all over the kitchen, me running around swapping towels to try to contain it… all around a huge dramatic display for some dang “quick” dinner lol
So do yourself a favour and add that extra liquid before you start. I also altered the recipe a bit and did broth instead of water (other than the 3 cups I added after), which helped tremendously with the flavour and also in not making it bland after adding the extra cups of water.
Lindsey says
Can I keep left overs for next day
Trisha Haas says
Yes, they should be good for a few days in the fridge 🙂
Vicki Stanley says
I absolutely live this dish, it’s always a hit at my house. I use cream of chicken instead of cream of mushroom. I also add more rotel than it calls for.. serve it with cheesy garlic toast and a salad… it’s easy, fast and delicious….