Instant Pot Cranky Mom Dinner

Instant Pot Cranky Mom Dinner–when you’re too tired, overwhelmed, busy or cranky to make dinner make this EASY dump and go pasta recipe in your Instant Pot. It’s only got 6 ingredients and a 1 minute pressure cooking time and all your kids will like it!

Pin this recipe for later!

Instant Pot Cranky Mom Dinner

Okay it’s that time of year when there is tons of stuff on the calendar every single night for moms and dads! End of year performances, soccer and baseball games, concerts, graduations, etc. all take up time and make us parents overtired and stretched thin. I often get cranky when I have too much stuff going on. It’s not my favorite thing to be busy. I like to keep my calendar very blank if I can…lol! So if you’re like me and you can feel yourself getting tense and cranky and you realize that people in your house still need dinner tonight then make this dinner. It’s super fast, easy and it tastes great. Throw stuff in the pot and walk away!

With chicken, pasta and spaghetti sauce you know most kids will like this dinner. There is a little twist with the addition of cream cheese. The cream cheese turns the sauce a little pink-orange and it kind of creates a marinara-alfredo type of taste.

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Cooked chicken–I used frozen Rotisserie chicken. I buy the chicken at Costco and remove the meat and store it in ziplock bags in my freezer in 2-3 cup increments. It comes in handy for recipes like this one!
• Chicken broth–or water and Better than Bouillon
• Egg noodles–or another type or pasta like penne (4 minutes) or rotini (3 minutes)
• Marinara sauce–use your favorite brand of spaghetti sauce
• Cream cheese–or you can stir in a half cup of tempered sour cream after the pressure cooking time is over
• Shredded cheese–I used a cheddar, mozzarella and provolone blend that I bought at Sam’s Club

Steps

Add chicken and broth into Instant Pot. I used frozen rotisserie chicken and 1 Tbsp Better than Bouillon chicken base with 3 cups water.

Sprinkle in the the egg noodles. The broth won’t cover the noodles and that’s okay.

Dump marinara sauce evenly over the noodles. Add the cream cheese on top. We are layering the dish so we don’t get the burn error message.

Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 1 minute for egg noodles (other types of pasta will need more time). When time is up let pot sit for 5 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid. 

Stir. Sprinkle cheese on top and let melt or stir it in.

Serve and enjoy!

Notes/Tips

• If you’d like you can serve a green salad and some garlic bread alongside this dinner.
• You can use any other type of short cut pasta that you like. To figure out pressure cooking time you will just take the stove top time on the back of the box and divide by two and then subtract 1 minute.
• If you want to make this dairy-free leave out the cream cheese and the cheese.
• If you want to make this meat-free then use veggie broth and leave out the chicken.
• 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 rotisserie chicken: 30+ Ways To Use A Costco Chicken

Pin this recipe for later!

More EASY Instant Pot Recipes…

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. 

Pin this recipe for later!

Print

Pin this recipe for later!

*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.