Instant Pot Parmesan Lemon Pasta–a creamy dreamy lemon-y sauce that envelopes fettuccine noodles. You can add chicken breast or leave it meatless, it’s up to you. This dinner takes just minutes to make with your electric pressure cooker.
Instant Pot Parmesan Lemon Pasta
I am totally on a lemon kick after making these soft lemon sugar cookies. With this savory lemon recipe, I just wanted to dive into this sauce and drink it! Yum. Lemon and parmesan and garlic are a winning combination! My family’s only complaint was that the recipe didn’t make enough.
Have you tried making pasta in your Instant Pot yet? I love using my Instant Pot to cook pasta. I can turn my back and not worry about the water boiling over on the stove. These fettuccine noodles came out perfect with just 3 minutes of pressure cooking time. If you want you can also use a different type of pasta, like orecchiette or cavatappi.
More Instant Pot pasta recipes you’ll love
Instant Pot Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta
Instant Pot Cheeseburger Pasta
Instant Pot Chicken Margherita Pasta
What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Parmesan Lemon Pasta I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I love this Instant Pot because it has the yogurt making function which I use almost weekly. It has two pressure settings (high and low), and there are also little slots in the handles so that you can rest the lid there instead of putting it down on your counter-top.
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Instant Pot Parmesan Lemon Pasta
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 18 minutes
- Yield: 3-4 servings 1x
Description
A creamy dreamy lemon-y sauce that envelopes fettuccine noodles. You can add chicken breast or leave it meatless, it’s up to you. This dinner takes just minutes to make with your electric pressure cooker.
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, divided
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 8 oz uncooked fettuccine noodles
- Optional: 1 pound of chicken cut into bite-size pieces
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 3/4 cup half and half
- 1 cup grated/shredded parmesan cheese
- Optional: cornstarch
Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot to the saute function. When the display reads HOT add in the butter. Once the butter is melted add in the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add in 1 Tbsp of the lemon juice. Add in the chicken broth. Break the fettuccine noodles in half and lay them in the pot. The liquid should cover them almost completely. If using chicken add in the pieces of chicken on top of the noodles and sprinkle them with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. If not using chicken don’t add in the salt and pepper.
- Cover the pot and make sure the valve is set to “sealing.” Set the manual/pressure cook button to 3 minutes. When the timer beeps let the pot sit there for at least 5-10 minutes before moving the valve to venting. Remove the lid and stir.
- Add in the half and half, parmesan cheese and the 2 Tbsp of lemon juice. Salt and pepper to taste. It will be a little bit liquid-y but if you turn on the saute function the pasta will absorb the sauce. You can also thicken the sauce with a cornstarch slurry. Mix 1-2 Tbsp of cornstarch with equal parts cold water. Stir the mixture into the pot. The sauce will thicken almost instantly.
- Serve the noodles and enjoy!
Notes
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*.
You can use other types of pasta besides fettuccine. Cavatappi, orecchiette, bowties or linguine would work well.
If you don’t have half and half you can also use half milk and half cream.
- Category: Pasta
- Method: Instant Pot
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 of the recipe (no chicken)
- Calories: 376
- Sugar: 1 g
- Sodium: 278 mg
- Fat: 16 g
- Carbohydrates: 40 g
- Protein: 18 g
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This is one of my favorite quick pasta dishes. If I don’t know what to cook, I always turn to this recipe. It is so simple, and really delicious! Next time I have to double the recipe though because there is never enough left over to take in our lunches 😉
★★★★★
No leftovers…That’s a good sign! So glad you love this recipe
Want to add shrimp at the end instead of cooking with chicken. Do I need to adjust broth amt to make up for lack of liquid coming from the chicken? Thanks.
I might add in an extra quarter cup of liquid
Love this recipe! Instead of chicken I sauté shrimp in butter and Italian season dressing packet and add at the pasta once done cooking. Family favorite
★★★★★
Love that idea!
Can I use vegetable broth, instead of chicken broth? I won’t be adding the chicken.
Thanks for your help.
Frances
sure that should be fine!
If you are using gluten free or quinoa pasta for these recipes how much time would you cook it for? ( even if you haven’t used it) to prevent it from getting all mushy?
Couldn’t find fettuccine, so used spaghetti. Doubled the recipe and added peas for a pop of color. No need for the cornstarch slurry I had made. SO good…will definitely make again!
★★★★★
Yay! Glad you liked it Logan.
We have an 8-quart Duo…how much broth should I use? Can’t wait to try this!
I’d keep it the same!
This is one of my all time favorite pasta recipes. I follow as directed and add cooked and deveined shrimp (that I have thawed out) when I add the half and half, etc. It always turns out great. I do add a little cornstarch to the cold half and half.
I have also added spinach at times. I liked that.
★★★★★
Sounds like you have it down pat! Thanks for sharing!
Can I use macaroni for babies and toddlers?
yep! that should work just fine 🙂
Thank you so much for this recipe. I think you have a hit here. Family really enjoyed this one. It was easy to prepare and had a wonderfully light taste.
I made a couple of minor adjustments. Adjusted the ingredients to 2X based on other’s comments about not having enough.
Ended up using 1 large lemon (squeezed). Provided a little over 6 Tbsp of juice. (Thoroughly enjoyed the lemony taste) Just dumped it all in.
Also used 12 ounces of pasta instead of 16 ounces. Wish I had used a full 16 ounces. I had one box of pasta and it was a 12 ounce box. Did not thicken with cornstarch. The finished product was a little more liquid than I expected, but using a pasta ladle, we dipped it out into bowls and it was wonderful. We did add the chicken bites and pressure cooked for 4 minutes.
★★★★★
Thanks for sharing your experience Larry!
I made this with gluten free fettuccine noodles. I halved the rest time to five minutes. The noodles were cooked probably and not mushy. But sometimes gluten free noodles can clump together when cooking. Which happened this time. Also I’d recommend putting in the entire 12oz box rather than the amount suggested. There was way to much liquid. Very soupy even after adding corn starch. I think the next time it would be better using the Penne Gluten Free pasta. Overall great flavor and super easy. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing. I get a lot of questions about gluten free pasta and I never know the answers because I don’t use it. This will be helpful to others.
What adjustments would you suggest if using Gluten-Free pasta?
I haven’t tried it myself but I asked my community and here is what some comments were:
-I primarily use GF pasta. I have noted that the rule of ‘take the cooking time indicated on the box and cut in half” rule, seems to be off by about 1 minute. Some say, to cook LESS one minute, but I have found it needs to cook at least one minute MORE, and my friend even feels it could cook TWO more. I hope this helps. To satisfy both of us, I cooked it ONE more minute and did a NPR of ONE minute. LOL
-I use Catelli when I use GF and found the cut package time in half is perfect. It may depend on the brand of pasta but that’s what works for me with Catelli.
-I cut time in half . When I did it the first time I made the mistake and cooked for the full time and ended up with a giant pot of mush
-I use Barilla GF pretty regular. The penne and elbows both hold up well in recipes – not rotini. I do use whatever time the IP recipe calls for and add 1-2 min of natural release. I am at altitude so the extra time is likely only my altitude and not the gf.
Thank you so much!
This was excellent. Cooked the fettuccini for 5 minutes (vs. 3), and it was just right. Also added some diced carrots on top of the chicken. I also added the zest of the lemon along with the remaining lemon juice, 1/2 and 1/2 and parmesan cheese. I criss crossed the fettucine and had no problems with it clumping. Used less 1/2 and 1/2 to save calories and to make it less liquidy. Topped it with hot pepper flakes. There were no leftovers tonight.
★★★★★
I love lemon zest! It adds so much flavor 🙂
About to try this out. Do we cook the chicken first I assume?
no it’s uncooked
I don’t have half and half or heavy cream?!
Use milk or evaporated milk.
It was great. My husband said to make enough for the week.
Nice! So glad to hear!
I can’t wait to try this! I am wondering if you could use rice instead of pasta?
I bet you could. What type of rice will you be using? Time and water amounts will vary with different types of rice.
A long grain white rice or basmati are my usual go to.
So with long grain white rice I would put 1 cup rice and 1.5 cups of broth. (instead of the pasta and broth mentioned in the recipe above). Cook for 3 minutes with a 10 minute pressure release.
One more time, you hit it out of the park! Usually 2 out 3 kids like something, but this time it was a big thumbs up from all three!
Only problem was that we didn’t have enough for them to all have seconds. Could you possibly give instructions and amounts for enough to serve 6-8?
Or can I just double this with no adjustments?
★★★★★
I would use 3 and 3/4 cups of broth and double everything else. Same cooking time. So glad you liked it!
Every one of your recipes are a big hit for me!!!! Trying this one out tonight.
Thank you, thank you! I love cooking again!
YAY!!!! Goal accomplished.
I’ve made this twice now, my whole family loves it. I add in capers at the end – soooo good!
★★★★★
YASSS on the capers!
Is the chicken supposed to be cooked already or raw?
raw
Made this tonight for my family.. absolutely delicious! This is the first time I’ve come across your site and I’ll definitely be back for more. I added asparagus into the instant pot and cooked with it. YUMMY!
★★★★★
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What is the green herb garnish in the photo? Parsley? I didn’t see it in the ingredient list.
Yes, it was just some dried parsley that I sprinkled on.
Don’t the noodles stick to the bottom of the pot?
They didn’t for me!
How would you adjust for the frozen shrimp from Costco? I completely forgot to take out any protein for this. I’ve got artichokes, which would be great but I’d love to have a protein.
Shrimp cooks very fast even if it is frozen. I would put it in a foil packet and place it on top of the noodles. I bet it would cook at the same rate as the noodles if in foil.
Loved this. Served with fresh asparagus for meatless Monday. Flavor was great.
Leftovers reheated well for lunch the next day.
Asparagus sounds like a perfect pairing with this pasta!
Any suggestions on doubling the recipe? If I double the amount of pasta, I don’t necessarily double the liquid correct?
Thank you
Good question. I am not 100% sure on the answer but I would go with 3 1/2 cups of water instead of doubling it to 4.
This was a hot with my family. I’m interested in doubling the recipe as well. Would the cooking time change?
I’m glad they liked it! I would keep the cooking time the same.
The fettuccine was not cooked after 3 minutes and 10 minutes of release. Did I do something wrong? I have the Instant Pot Duo.
hmmm, maybe try cooking for 4 minutes instead next time.
I just made this and it is SO good! I added about 12 oz. chicken thigh meat. This has a wonderful texture and flavor. Better than any mac and cheese I’ve had!! Every one of your recipes I’ve tried has been a hit! Thank you for sharing such good food!!
Hi Linda, thanks for the nice comment! I am so glad you liked it. I love chicken thigh meat yum yum! That sounds great.
What if I don’t have an Instant Pot?
You could possibly make this on the stove top.
PLEASE give this recipe for a slow cooker. Looks delicious but I do not have an instant pot.
I don’t think this would be a good recipe for the slow cooker. I will work on a stove top version.
I do not have an electric pressure cooker, but I do have a pressure cooker. Can you help me with this recipe (and others) using it?
So you have a stove top pressure cooker?
Does the chicken pieces need to be precooked before adding to the top of the noodles?
No they don’t. I used raw chicken.
Thank you!
I had to come back and let you know that we loved this recipe. It is delicious. Loved the lemony flavor….
YES!
Hi there, just curious, was 3 mins long enough to cook the chicken thoroughly? Or do you need to increase the cook time if adding chicken?
Hi Kelly, As long as the chicken is cut into bite size pieces it should cook just fine!