• Home
  • Email List
  • Cookbooks
  • FAQs
  • Instant Pot Secrets
  • Sponsor Me

365 Days of Slow Cooking and Pressure Cooking

Easy slow cooker and Instant Pot recipes for each day of the year

  • Filter Recipes
  • Instant Pot
  • Slow Cooker
  • Chicken
  • Beef
  • Pork
  • Meatless
  • healthy
  • Soups

July 24, 2021

Instant Pot Chick-fil-A Mac and Cheese

  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe

Instant Pot Chick-fil-A Mac and Cheese–a copy cat version of Chick-fil-A mac and cheese. It’s a classic macaroni and cheese recipe with 3 types of cheeses made easy with your Instant Pot.

Pin this recipe for later!

Instant Pot Chick-fil-A Mac and Cheese

Instant Pot Chick-fil-A Mac and Cheese

Creamy and cheesy and ultra comfort food. Mac and cheese is something that only takes a few ingredients and a few minutes but every time I make it the kids go crazy. They think they have hit the jackpot. This version is a copy cat version of the Chick-fil-A’s mac and cheese. It’s got American (or cheddar) and parmesan cheeses stirred in with the cooked macaroni and then Colby jack crusted on top with the help of your air fryer lid (or oven).

The hardest part of making mac and cheese is grating the cheese. I like to grate the cheese straight off the block because it melts better and there are no powdery additives like you get with the pre-shredded cheeses. I do have a cool gadget* that helps me grate my cheese really fast but even if you don’t it’s worth it! Just pop the water, macaroni and salt into your Instant Pot and while that is cooking grate your cheese.

This recipe does use heavy cream (mmmm) for ultimate creaminess. However you could easily substitute with half and half or whole milk (or skim milk if you really want to).

American cheese is the recommended cheese to make with this recipe because it melts so well, doesn’t get stringy and the oils don’t separate out of the cheese. You can ask at the deli counter for them to cut you off a large chunk of it. If you don’t want to use American cheese you can also use shredded sharp or medium cheddar.

This recipe makes about 4 large dinner portion servings or 8 smaller side dish servings. You can easily double this recipe in the 6 or 8 quart pots. Just double all the ingredients but keep the cooking time the same.

Pin this recipe for later!

Instant Pot Chick-fil-A Mac and Cheese

More Mac and Cheese Recipes You’ll Love…

Instant Pot 3-Cheese Macaroni And Cheese with Bread Crumb Topping

Instant Pot Broccoli Chicken Mac and Cheese

Instant Pot Spinach Artichoke Mac and Cheese

Instant Pot Cheeseburger Macaroni and Cheese

Pin this recipe for later!

Instant Pot Chick-fil-A Mac and Cheese

Want More Tried And True Instant Pot Recipes?

  • Sign up to receive daily Instant Pot recipes (it’s FREE)
  • Join the 365 Days of Instant Pot Recipes Facebook group 
  • Subscribe to my YouTube channel 
  • Buy the 365 Days of Pressure Cooking Cookbook
Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon

Instant Pot Chick-fil-A Mac and Cheese


★★★★★

4.5 from 2 reviews

  • Author: 365 Days of Slow and Pressure Cooking
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 5 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 8 servings (as side) 1x
Print Recipe
Pin Recipe

Description

A copy cat version of Chick-fil-A mac and cheese. It’s a classic macaroni and cheese recipe with 3 types of cheeses made easy with your Instant Pot. 


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 cups water or broth
  • 8 oz elbow macaroni
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 6–8 oz American cheese (cubes) or shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • 2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
  • 2 oz shredded colby jack cheese

Instructions

  1. Add water, macaroni and salt to Instant Pot.
  2. Cover and lock lid into place. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 5 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 5 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid. 
  3. Stir in the cream. Stir in the American and Parmesan cheeses until melted. 
  4. Add colby jack on top of the pasta. Place air fryer lid on top and cook for 3 minutes at 400° F, or until cheese begins to brown. If you don’t have an air fryer lid you can do this step under your oven’s broiler. 
  5. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

 You can make this in your 3, 6 or 8 quart pot with no changes. Doubles easily in the 6 or 8 quart pot.

  • Category: Pasta
  • Method: Instant Pot

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @365dayscrockpot on Instagram

Pin this recipe for later!

Instant Pot Chick-fil-A Mac and Cheese

*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.

  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

16 Comments Filed Under: 5 ingredients or less, All Recipes, Dump and Go, Instant Pot, Pasta, Side Dish Tagged With: copy cat recipe

Recommendations

Comments

  1. Jocelyn says

    March 17, 2023 at 9:51 am

    Could you use sliced American cheese from the deli instead of cubes? That’s what I have on hand.

    Reply
    • Karen says

      March 17, 2023 at 1:36 pm

      yes that will be just fine!

      Reply
  2. L Mang says

    July 30, 2022 at 9:28 pm

    Please tell me: what is American cheese. Is it Velveeta? We have no such product and would like to know what I could use. Love your recipes.

    Reply
    • Karen says

      August 1, 2022 at 9:25 am

      American cheese is sort of like velveeta. Velveeta could definitely be used in its place

      Reply
  3. Sandy Gotter says

    June 30, 2022 at 1:53 am

    Can you make this chick- fil- Mac and cheese in a slow cooker ? Thanks

    Reply
  4. Kim says

    January 5, 2022 at 6:23 pm

    Can you freeze the leftovers

    Reply
    • Karen says

      January 7, 2022 at 12:55 pm

      Yes!

      Reply
  5. Martita Pasieka says

    December 16, 2021 at 5:08 pm

    I tried this tonight. The pot went to “Burn” with 2 cups water and the noodles. I added 2 more cups of water and it still went to “Burn”. The whole time it was trying to come to pressure the steam was coming out. What did I do wrong?

    Reply
    • Kim says

      February 15, 2022 at 3:17 pm

      Sounds like you didn’t put the valve to “sealing”.

      Reply
  6. Stephanie says

    December 10, 2021 at 5:59 am

    Finally a homemade Mac and cheese my son likes! I always had trouble with it being grainy with the flour recipes.

    I have a question. What’s the most I can multiply this recipe by? Could I triple it? Quadruple it? I have a big Christmas family gathering with a lot of people to feed. Do all the ingredients get multiplied the same? Water? Cream? Cheese?

    Thank you in advance for your reply. Your recipes are my instant pot go-to! (I just saw the Louisiana chicken pasta from CF that I can’t wait to try. My family loves that, but the traditional method is a ton of work.)

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Karen says

      December 11, 2021 at 7:15 pm

      So happy he likes it! I bet you could triple the recipe in a 6 or 8 quart pot. Triple all ingredients. But I would actually reduce the pressure cooking time to 3 minutes because the pot will take a while to come to pressure. Good luck!

      Reply
      • Stephanie says

        December 14, 2021 at 7:09 pm

        Thank you!

        Reply
  7. Carol Hampton says

    September 9, 2021 at 11:07 am

    I’m out of cream. Do you think I can use greek yogurt instead?

    Reply
    • Karen says

      September 10, 2021 at 9:35 am

      Sure!

      Reply
  8. Jan says

    August 23, 2021 at 4:51 pm

    Made this yesterday and doubled the ingredients. Was very good except next time I would not double the cream. It was very runny and I had to drain it, thus losing a lot of the cheese. Fed a group of 12 as an extra dish and there were no leftovers. Will make again

    ★★★★

    Reply
    • Karen says

      August 24, 2021 at 1:11 pm

      So glad you liked it!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

Welcome!

Karen photo

Hi, I’m Karen. I know that dinner time can be less than relaxing. Busy schedules and cranky kids and a hundred other things can lead to weariness when it comes to putting dinner on the table. I can help! I make homemade, family-friendly slow cooker and Instant Pot dinners and share the recipes with you.

Stay In Touch

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Categories

Archives

Amazon Associates Disclosure

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.

365 Days of Slow Cooking © 2023 · Privacy Policy

MENU
  • Home
  • Filter
  • Instant Pot
  • Slow Cooker
  • Chicken
  • Beef
  • Pork
  • Meatless
  • Healthy
  • Soups
  • Email List
  • Cookbooks
  • FAQs
  • Instant Pot Secrets