Hot Stuff Casserole–beefy rigatoni with chili seasonings, cheese, sour cream, Rotel tomatoes and more. A delicious and easy weeknight dinner recipe you can make with the help of your Instant Pot.
Hot Stuff Casserole
Hot Stuff Casserole is served hot and has a bit of heat (spice) in it too! This particular recipe has chili powder, Rotel tomatoes with green chiles and smoked paprika. But don’t worry all these ingredients give lots of flavor but don’t make the dinner too spicy to eat. Just a bit of a kick! Feeling hot hot hot 😉
This recipe starts with a meaty base that is seasoned with chili seasonings. The pasta is cooked quickly in the Instant Pot. While the pasta is cooking sour cream and cottage cheese are whisked together. Then the pasta, meat sauce and creamy mixture are layered and baked with cheese on top. It’s sort of like lasagna meets chili. It is so good! We took this down in a few minutes and sadly there are no leftovers.
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Lean ground beef–I used 93/7. You can also use ground turkey.
- Chili powder
- Cumin
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Smoked paprika
- Garlic powder–or granulated garlic
- Minced dry onion–I buy the big container at Costco or Sams
- Beef broth–or water and Better than Bouillon beef base
- Rigatoni–or ziti, macaroni, penne
- Rotel diced tomatoes with green chiles–use mild if you don’t like spice
- Tomato sauce
- Tomato paste
- Sour cream
- Cottage cheese–or ricotta cheese
- Chopped chives–I used freeze dried chives
- Shredded sharp cheddar cheese–or mozzarella
Steps
Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. When display says HOT add in the beef and break it up. Add in the chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and onion. Brown for about 5 minutes.
Stir in the broth and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking.
Sprinkle in the pasta.
Dump in the Rotel, tomato sauce and tomato paste. Don’t stir.
Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 3 minutes. When time is let pot sit for 5 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl stir together the sour cream, cottage cheese and chives.
Stir the contents of the Instant Pot. Scoop half of it into the bottom of a square 9×9 inch baking dish.
Then spread the sour cream mixture over the top.
Spread the rest of the pasta mixture over the top.
Sprinkle with the cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Notes/Tips
- Serve with a green salad and a side of garlic bread.
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Have half a can of tomato paste left? Use a cookie scooper that is 1 tablespoon and scoop out the rest of the tomato paste onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Freeze. Once frozen, take the tomato paste lumps and put them into a freezer Ziploc bag. Freeze until you need in a recipe. This is so easy and saves the tomato paste from getting moldy in the refrigerator.
- What is Rotel? Rotel is a popular canned product that combines diced tomatoes and green chilies. I find it next to the canned tomatoes at my grocery store. There is an original or mild version. I usually choose mild.
- Other recipes you can make with rigatoni are Instant Pot Rigatoni And Sausage and Winter Doldrums Dinner.
Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc.? Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for.
Hot Stuff Casserole
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
Beefy rigatoni with chili seasonings, cheese, sour cream, Rotel tomatoes and more. A delicious and easy weeknight dinner recipe you can make with the help of your Instant Pot.
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef (I used 93/7)
- 1 Tbsp chili powder
- 1 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 Tbsp minced dry onion
- 2 cups beef broth
- 8 ounces rigatoni
- 1 (10 oz) can Rotel diced tomatoes with green chiles
- 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup cottage cheese
- 1 Tbsp chopped chives
- 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. When display says HOT add in the beef and break it up. Add in the chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and onion. Brown for about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the broth and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking.
- Sprinkle in the pasta. Dump in the Rotel, tomato sauce and tomato paste. Don’t stir.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 3 minutes. When time is let pot sit for 5 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl stir together the sour cream, cottage cheese and chives.
- Stir the contents of the Instant Pot. Scoop half of it into the bottom of a square 9×9 inch baking dish. Then spread the sour cream mixture over the top. Spread the rest of the pasta mixture over the top. Sprinkle with the cheese.
- Bake for 25 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
- Category: Beef
- Method: Instant Pot and Oven
More Instant Pot Beef and Pasta recipes…
Indiana Casserole
Instant Pot noodle casserole with tomatoes, mushrooms, ground beef, corn and cheese.
Deceivingly Delicious Casserole
Ground beef, pasta and three cheese casserole that is better than it looks!
Hall of Fame Casserole
Homemade meatballs with pasta, two types of cheese and roasted garlic sauce, all made in your Instant Pot.
North Dakota Casserole
Seasoned ground beef with macaroni, tomatoes and corn. Lots of flavor and not a lot of work. Make it in your Instant Pot or on the stove.
Cruncheroni Casserole
An easy Instant Pot pasta dinner with ground beef, Rotel tomatoes, cheddar and crispy fried onions.
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Absolutely loved it. Hubby didn’t even know there was cottage cheese in it. What would I need to do if I decided to cook the entire box of pasta?
I would double everything and keep the cooking time the same…should be great 🙂
WOW, nice recipe. Pretty straight forward and made exactly as it called for. Quite flavorful. My husband loved it. It had a little too much heat for me but I made do. You could not tell that there was any cottage cheese it. I forgot to read the entire recipe through before preparing it so I failed to remember I needed to bake it so it wasn’t eaten the same night I made it. Thanks for another keeper Karen!
You’re welcome Dawn! Thanks for the 5 stars 🙂
I followed this recipe as is and it’s definitely a keeper! The seasoning is a amazing and the pasta is cooked perfectly. my husband went for seconds and doesn’t normally like cottage cheese but he said the texture wasn’t noticable and the flavor worked well in the dish. Thank you so much for an easy and tasty recipe.
So glad he and you both enjoyed it Jen. Thank you for the review and the 5 stars.
Can this be done on the stove/ oven method?
Sure. You could brown the meat in one pan. Boil the noodles in another. Combine in a 9×9 inch dish and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
thank you!
would i still use all that beef broth?
no broth needed
The recipe sounds good, but my husband doesn’t care for the texture of cottage cheese or ricotta. Could I use cream cheese instead?
Sure you could do that!
I don’t have an insta pot. Need slow cooker recipes please.
Go to the crock pot recipes section. They are clearly divided and you can subscribe to only crock pot recipes.
I only want crock pot recipes! this came to me for instant pot