Instant Pot Beef Chow Mein Casserole is a classic Midwestern hot dish with ground beef, rice, creamy soup, and celery that is topped with Chow Mein noodles. Grandma used to make it in the oven and now you can make it in half the time in your Instant Pot.
Get the SLOW COOKER recipe here
Instant Pot Beef Chow Mein Casserole
I’ve had chow mein casserole recipe in a old family cookbook for years. It is one my mom and grandma would make every now and then. I always thought it was a family recipe but after googling a bit I am realizing there are plenty of other people that had this exact same dish growing up!
Today’s version is made in the Instant Pot instead of the oven. I cut down on sodium by using the Healthy Request version of the cream soups and low sodium soy sauce. It still tastes like home and is good old fashioned comfort food.
For this casserole recipe I used the pot-in-pot method. I knew that if I stirred the cream soups, rice and water together it would definitely receive the burn message if it was cooked directly in the pot. To circumvent this issue I cooked the casserole inside an oven safe dish inside the Instant Pot liner. I like to use a 3 quart Instant Pot liner* inside my 6 quart or 8 quart Instant Pot liner. It works perfectly for pot in pot casseroles. To lower the pot into place I like to use my OXO trivet/sling*.
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Instant Pot Beef Chow Mein Casserole
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes (plus 5-10 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
A classic Midwestern hot dish with ground beef, rice, creamy soup, and celery that is topped with Chow Mein noodles. Grandma used to make it in the oven and now you can make it in half the time in your Instant Pot.
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 (10.5 oz) can Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Chicken Soup
- 1 (10.5 oz) can Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom Soup
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 (8 oz) can sliced water chestnuts, drained
- 1 1/4 cup parboiled rice or long grain white rice
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 3 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- 1 1/2 cups chow mein noodles
- Diced green onions, for topping
Instructions
- In a pan on the stove or in your Instant Pot on the sauté setting, brown the ground beef and sauté the onions. Add the mixture into a pan that fits inside your Instant Pot used for pot-in-pot cooking. Clean out bottom of Instant Pot (if you used it for browning the beef).
- Stir the cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, celery, water chestnuts, rice, water and soy sauce in with the beef.
- Pour 1 cup water into bottom of Instant Pot. Place filled pan on top of a trivet/sling and lower it into the bottom of the Instant Pot.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 25 minutes. When time is up let the pressure release naturally for 5-10 minutes and then move the valve to venting. Remove lid.
- Lift out the pan and stir. Sprinkle chow mein noodles on top. Scoop onto plates and serve topped with green onions.
Notes
I used a 3 quart Instant Pot liner* inside the 6 quart Instant Pot liner. It works perfect for pot-in-pot cooking. You can also use a Fat Daddios 7 x 4 inch pan*.
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. Make in the 8 quart pot with no changes except adding 1.5 cups of water beneath trivet instead of 1 cup water.
- Category: Beef
- Method: Instant Pot
*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.
So I screwed up and was out of white rice and my pot in pot was too small for all the ingredients. So I improvised and put the ingredients except for the water and rice on the stove to simmer and used my instant pot to make brown rice and served the beef chow mein over it. We all loved it and I ordered a 3 qt liner so I can make this again soon, in the instant pot this time. Delicious!
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It sounds like it was all fine in the end! Glad it worked out!!
What is a good substitute for the cream of mushroom soup? Allergic to the mushroom soup. Thank you.
Can you do any cream of soups? I’d do another kind.
I always use jasmine rice. Confused on what you mean by par boil
What is parboiled rice? Don’t confuse parboiled rice with pre-cooked or minute rice. Parboiled rice has been processed in its husk by soaking, steaming, and drying. As a result, all the nutrients from the husk are absorbed into the grain before it’s removed. The starch content alters in the process, making cooked parboiled rice less sticky than regular white rice. The rice kernels aren’t clumpy and glued together instead they are more separated. I found a bag of parboiled rice at Walmart next to the normal long grain white rice.
I have a sprinform pan that fits in my Instant Pot. Would I be able to use that?
Yes I think that should work. Sometimes my springform pan leaks but if you have a tight seal it hopefully will be okay.
Would I be able to make this with instant brown rice and if so should I adjust the time? And if that is not feasible could I just cook it without the rice and how long to cook?
Yes I bet instant brown rice would work. Here is the website that says how long to cook Instant rice in the IP: https://minuterice.com/faqs/cooking/ Brown Rice: Use equal amounts of rice and liquid. Stir. Use the “manual” setting with High Pressure. Set timer for 5 minutes. When cooking time has elapsed, use the “Quick Release” to vent all the steam. Remove lid and fluff rice. Serve.
My mom made a similar recipe but baked in a casserole and with chicken instead of beef. Also she would add pimento ( very popular to put pimento into every casserole in the 50’s). And I remember that she would add a big scoop of mayonaise?!? Well I loved it even though now the mayo seems weird.
I wiil try your recipe, and maybe I will make it with chicken too, but without the mayo!
Thanks for another great IP idea.
Haha! all the interesting foods our moms used to make us!!
I made this for dinner last night and it was amazing. I did not have a dish that all the ingredients would fit in, so decided to cook right in the instant pot container. It did get pretty brown on the bottom but it didn’t affect the taste of the dish. I’m going to order an insert for my instant pot (I’ve been wanting one for awhile anyways) so next time it will turn out perfect and we can eat every single bit of it.
I really appreciate your recipes and I have made quite a few, but this time I felt I needed to comment because this was so tasty. Thanks for sharing all of your recipes and wisdom with us.
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Oh this is so nice to hear! And glad you didn’t get the burn message!
looks great, I need to try it soon.
Hope you like it!
How does the lid seal if you have a sling sticking out, or does that get stuffed inside?
And, yes, why do you need to use the Pot-in-a-pot method?
Go back and read Karen’s full writing. She explains why.
thanks, that helps…..
yes it gets stuffed inside!
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Will we need to allow extra headroom in the inner pot to allow for rice expansion? Or does it not expand much?
It doesn’t expand much!
I thought ‘mein’ meant noodle.
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Not sure if that’s true but it’s named after those LaChoy chow mein noodles that you put on top of the casserole.
Why couldn’t you make it IN the regular Instapot or Foodi pot?
Go back and read Karen’s full writing. She explains why.
For this casserole recipe I used the pot-in-pot method. I knew that if I stirred the cream soups, rice and water together it would definitely receive the burn message if it was cooked directly in the pot. To circumvent this issue I cooked the casserole inside an oven safe dish inside the Instant Pot liner.
Thanks for the explanation! i just did another of your recipes with rice, and it did burn a little! (my fault, not yours! ) I just ordered the smaller pot, cant wait to try it! i love your recipes! 🙂