Instant Pot Cowboy Spaghetti–an easy spaghetti recipe with bacon, ground beef, Rotel, barbecue sauce and cheese. A hearty pasta dish that comes together quickly with the help of your Instant Pot.

Instant Pot Cowboy Spaghetti
Cowboy spaghetti might just become your family’s favorite way to make spaghetti! It’s a fun change of pace from normal spaghetti with marinara sauce. This version of spaghetti adds in a little barbecue sauce and bacon for a fun cowboy twist. Oh and don’t forget the mozzarella and the cheddar cheeses at the end!
This makes 4 large servings or 6 medium servings. If you do have leftovers they taste really good the next day for lunch! Lots of flavor and the spaghetti rewarms great in the microwave or in the Instant Pot.
This recipe can easily be doubled in the the 6 or 8 quart pot if you’re serving a crowd. I would use the same cooking time of 3 minutes with a 5 minute natural pressure cook time. You can also cut this recipe in half to serve 2-3 people.
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Ground beef–or ground turkey. I used lean ground beef.
- Onions–or 2 Tbsp minced dehydrated onions
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Garlic powder
- Beef broth–or water and Better than Bouillon
- Spaghetti–you can also make this with rotini pasta, penne, macaroni, etc.
- Tomato sauce–or spaghetti sauce
- Rotel diced tomatoes and green chiles–I use mild
- BBQ sauce
- Bacon crumbles–or cooked and crumbled bacon. I buy the big bag of bacon crumbles at Costco and then keep it in my freezer. It comes in handy for many recipes.
- Mozzarella–I grate mine off the block
- Cheddar–I grate mine off the block
The Basic Steps
- Brown the ground beef using the saute setting.
- Deglaze the pot.
- Scatter the spaghetti into the pot in a criss cross pattern. This will help the pasta cook evenly and not get stuck together in clumps.
- Add in other ingredients. Don’t stir. This will help prevent the burn error message.
- Pressure cook.
- Stir in the bacon and cheeses.
- Scoop onto plates and enjoy!
Notes/Tips
- Serve with a green salad and a side of garlic toast.
- 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.
- Other recipes you can make with bacon crumbles are Instant Pot Man Lovin Potatoes and Instant Pot Cheesy Cowboy Soup.
- How I drain grease off of ground beef: Tilt the Instant Pot to one side while holding the ground meat against the other side with a wooden spoon. This should make most of the grease pool on the tilted side. Lower the Instant Pot down, the meat should stay to its side and the grease on the other. Place a couple paper towels into the grease and use the spoon to sop up the grease. Discard the paper towels.

More Instant Pot Recipes that Use Spaghetti…
Instant Pot Million Dollar Spaghetti
Spaghetti but a whole lot better. A ground beef sauce is served with spaghetti noodles and then cream cheese is stirred in for an ultimate creamy dinner. Kids and adults love this spaghetti!
Instant Pot Pizza Chicken Bake
Chicken and spaghetti with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. An easy dump and go Instant Pot recipe.
Instant Pot Chilighetti
A delicious mash up of spaghetti and chili. Make this easy one pot meal in minutes with your Instant Pot.
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.


Instant Pot Cowboy Spaghetti
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 23 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
Easy spaghetti recipe with bacon, ground beef, Rotel, barbecue sauce and cheese. A hearty pasta dish that comes together quickly with the help of your Instant Pot.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 cup diced onions
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 cups beef broth
- 8 ounces spaghetti, broken in half
- 2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
- 1 (10 oz) can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chiles (with juice)
- 1/4 cup BBQ sauce
- 1/2 cup bacon crumbles
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. When display says HOT add in the ground beef and break it up. Add in the onions. Brown the beef for 5 minutes. Drain off excess grease. Stir in the salt, pepper and garlic powder.
- Pour in the broth and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking.
- Scatter the spaghetti into the pot in a criss cross pattern.
- Dump the tomato sauce, Rotel and BBQ sauce evenly over the spaghetti to cover. 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 up let pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Stir well. Stir in the bacon and cheeses.
- Scoop onto plates and enjoy!
- 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.
I was out of spaghetti so used linguini and cooked for 5 minutes. My husband really loved this.
★★★★★
Thanks for the 5 stars Cherie!
This was such an interesting mash up – I had to try it. So good!!! I used regular Rotal since we like a bit of kick. Whole grain spaghetti, Sweet Baby Ray’s sweet/spicy BBQ sauce – followed the recipe exactly after those minor changes and loved it. Corn bread muffins rounded our meal off. This will definitely be on our rotation.Thank you for your great Instapot recipes.
★★★★★
Love these ideas! Thanks for the 5 stars Karen!
can you use entire box of spaghetti and would you just add more broth? this is for insta pot .
yes you can do that. Increase broth to 4 cups.
You’ve done it again, this was terrific. thank you for another wonderful recipe.
★★★★★
Thank you so much Leon. I’m so please you enjoyed it!
well, I thought at first that God would strike me down cooking pasta this way or murdered by a Gang of Italian Nonas.
This was sooooooo good. I only used half the cheese. I did not have a tin of tomatoes, so I chopped a tomato and added more broth. And no bacon.
Every recipe needs a tweek or 2 to suit different tastes.
Thank you!!!!!!!!
★★★★★
So glad you tried it and you liked it! I tweak all the recipes I try too 😉
Amazing! I used the instant pot sautee function to cook a few strips of bacon, removed it and drained the fat, then followed the directions to the letter. It turned out perfectly! The noodles were not mushy, and the flavor was great!
★★★★★
SOUNDS SO GOOD!!! Thanks for the 5 stars
Can you use a crock pot instead of an Insta Pot?
Not for this recipe! sorry 🙂
Can you use gluten free pasta? If so does this change the cook time?
I haven’t used gluten free pasta ever so I’m not sure how it would work. I have heard that it gets mushy quickly and that you use less cooking time.
I used Gluten Free Spaghetti and it turned out great!!! I cooked for 3 minutes and waited 10 minutes before releasing the vent. No mushy noodles.
★★★★★
Thanks for the helpful info!
Oh my goodness this looks amazing! Looks like just the thing to prevent meal-fatigue during the holidays and a real timesaver! Thanks for this one.
★★★★★
You’re welcome Debbie! Enjoy 🙂