Instant Pot Chicken Pasta is a delicious comfort food dinner for any night of the week! With only a five minute cook time and minimal ingredients, you will have dinner on the table fast!
Instant Pot Chicken Pasta is definitely one of my new favorite dinners. I love pasta and I love easy so this dinner is right up my alley. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, I highly recommend one! It is definitely the most used appliance in my kitchen and I have actually retired most of my well loved slow cookers to my basement pantry! I find myself reaching for the Instant Pot weekly at dinner time for delicious recipes like Instant Pot Loaded Baked Potato Soup or Easy Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes.
INSTANT POT CHICKEN PASTA RECIPE
I have tried countless versions of Instant Pot Chicken Rigatoni that I had found on the Internet, but to be honest, none of them were that great. They all called for way too much liquid. I love a saucy pasta, but don’t want it dripping in water! After trying a few failed recipes, I decided I was just going to write my own and I can say that this recipe is the very best of any I have tried! It’s deliciously creamy and has tender pasta with chunks of chicken and lots of fresh veggies!
HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN WITH RIGATONI PASTA IN THE INSTANT POT
What I love most about this dinner is that it uses ingredients that I always have on hand.
- Start by heating the Instant Pot to saute.
- Add chicken to the pot with some olive oil let it cook until it browns on one side, about 2-3 minutes. Stir and make sure no chicken pieces are sticking to the bottom, then press cancel.
- Add peppers and onions on top of the chicken and add the uncooked rigatoni pasta.
- Add marinara sauce to the chicken and peppers, then fill the jar halfway with water (about 12 ounces) and add that to the pot as well. Stir everything together so that the noodles are completely covered with the sauce. You can use either store bought or homemade marinara, but I find that a high quality store bought sauce works great for this. I used peppers and onions in this version of chicken rigatoni, but you can throw in mushrooms, as well! They add a great hearty texture to this meal.
- Put lid on the Instant Pot and turn to sealed. Use the manual function and change the timer to 5 minutes and cook. Once finished, do a quick release then add the half and half and parmesan cheese. Garnish with fresh basil for serving.
CAN YOU COOK PASTA IN AN INSTANT POT?
Making pasta in the Instant Pot can be scary but it really shouldn’t be. The key is to barely cover the pasta with some liquid, so that you get al dente pasta but not a soupy mess. It will cook nicely in just about 5 minutes for half of a pound. For a full pound of pasta, increase the time to 6 minutes, but no longer.
CAN YOU COOK FRESH VEGETABLES IN THE INSTANT POT?
When cooking fresh vegetables in the Instant Pot, make sure to cut them in large pieces. Small pieces will cook too much, even with only a 5 minute cook time, and they will get lost in the sauce. Keep your peppers and onions in large chunks for best results. Hearty vegetables like mushrooms and peppers cook best. Vegetables with a high water content like zucchini and eggplant should be avoided.
If you are looking for a quick dinner in the Instant Pot, then you will love this Chicken Pasta!
Here are some more delicious chicken pasta recipes you’ll love:
Instant Pot Chicken Rigatoni
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound rigatoni pasta
- 1 pound of chicken cut into pieces
- 24 oz marinara sauce keep jar to fill half way with water
- 2 peppers cut into large pieces
- 1 onion sliced
- 3/4 cups half and half or heavy cream
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
- salt pepper, garlic powder to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2-3 tablespoons fresh basil
Instructions
- Heat Instant Pot to Saute. Add olive oil. Once pot says HOT, add chicken. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder and then let cook till brown on one side, about 2-3 minutes. Stir and make sure no chicken pieces are sticking to the bottom. Hit cancel.
- Add peppers and onions on top of the chicken. Add pasta. Add marinara sauce and 1 cup of water. Push any noodles that are above the sauce into it.
- Put lid on the Instant Pot and turn to sealed. Use the manual function and change the timer to 5 minutes. Let cook. Once finished, do a quick release then add the cream and parmesan cheese. Stir to well distribute. Add additional seasonings to taste. Add basil and serve.
Nutrition
Looking for more Instant Pot Recipes?
Instant Pot Bacon Wrapped Balsamic Pork
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas
I can’t see anywhere in the method add the cream can you advise please
Hi Carmel, the author listed it in the instructions as Half and Half, but I changed that to cream. Thanks for calling it to my attention!
This was so good! My husband is from Rochester, so he makes a different version of rigatoni. He loved this recipe. I did use a no-sugar-added sauce for lower carbs. This recipe said it would make 4 servings–I feel it made much more than that! It was delicious. Thank you!
You are so welcome Candice! (Awesome feedback!) Thanks for stopping by.
This recipe turned out fantastic! I’m from Central New York, where this dish was created and still remains very popular among locals (we call them “chicken riggies”). Halved this recipe so that it would all fit in my Instant Pot Mini and I had absolutely no problems! Delicious, restaurant quality riggies in no time at all. Perfect for a weeknight dinner by yourself with a glass of wine and reality TV.
That’s awesome Josh! Thank you for the awesome feedback.
What a beautifully simple and straight-forward week night meal. I’ve been looking for some pantry staple recipes to use with our instant pot, and this fit the bill perfectly. I followed the recipe to a “T”, and am pleased as punch with the end result — tender chicken, creamy sauce, really rich flavor. Garnished with some fresh parsley and grated Parmesan and served with a really simple green salad. My only slight adjustment was using part regular milk and part half-and-half since I wanted enough half-and-half for my coffee in the morning 😉 Thank you!
You are so welcome Kayla! Thank you so much for your awesome feedback.
Delicious! Thank you. Family loved it and it was so simple and amazingly tasty. We doubled for leftovers and there is not a lot left (several took seconds)!
You are so welcome Anne! Thank you sharing your feedback.
Delish! Learn from my error (even tho I knew what the end result would be. The amount of chicken should match pasta sauce. I used more chicken but same 24oz jar of sauce, and it needed more. More water or cream would’ve made it too runny-not my preference. Make sure to get to the quick release faster than I did. My chicken was a tad dry actually. Again, my fault. The flavor was perfect!
Glad you were able to figure out, and I hope you try again with the right ratios. Thanks!
This was Delish! I swapped a few thing due to sensitivity, pumpkin sauce instead of tomato sauce and added more noodles, sauce and water.
Nice recipe!!
Thank you Nicole!
I got the burn error when it came to pressure. I’d even added extra water so I was surprised. I turned it off and let it sit for five minutes before I vented it and opened the lid. It looked done, but to make sure the chicken was thoroughly cooked, I put it on saute mode for a couple of minutes before I served it. So it turned out after all.
Glad it worked out for you Bobette!
Can you double this?
As long as your instant pot is big enough, yes.
I made this for dinner last night and am currently eating the leftovers for lunch today! So good even with the substitutions I made based on the ingredients that I had on hand. I used whole milk, casarecce pasta, and only 1 chicken breast. Next time I think I’ll try it when the cream instead as I’m sure it’ll make it all the more richer and creamier. I used the red pepper flakes and fresh basil which certainly give it a nice zing! I wound up sauteing it for a few minutes to get the noodles a little more tender (as that’s how we like them). Thanks for this recipe!
That’s awesome Amanda! Thanks for stopping by.