Instant Pot Mac and Cheese with Sharp Cheddar
No roux, no drained pot — the pasta cooks in broth and thickens its own sauce under pressure in under ten minutes.
- Serves
- 6
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 4 min
- Written
Method
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Add the macaroni, broth, butter, mustard powder, and salt to the Instant Pot and stir so the pasta is fully submerged.
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Seal the lid and cook on high pressure for 4 minutes.
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Quick-release the pressure the moment the timer ends, so the pasta stops cooking before it turns to mush in the residual heat.
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Stir in the evaporated milk, then add the cheeses a handful at a time, stirring until each addition melts before the next.
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Keep stirring off heat until the sauce turns glossy and coats the back of a spoon — it thickens fast as it sits.
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Season with pepper and serve right away, while the sauce is loosest.
Notes
Skipping the stovetop roux isn’t a shortcut so much as the point: the macaroni releases enough starch cooking directly in the broth that the sauce thickens on its own once the cheese goes in. Evaporated milk does the enrichment a roux would otherwise handle — it’s shelf-stable and low-moisture enough not to break under the residual heat the way fresh cream can. Quick-releasing immediately matters more here than in most pressure-cooker recipes, since the pasta keeps cooking in the trapped steam if you let it sit.
Monterey Jack melts smoother than a second helping of cheddar and keeps the sauce from turning grainy — swap in Gruyère for a nuttier version instead. This doesn’t hold up as a make-ahead the way a baked version does; the sauce tightens considerably as it cools; loosen leftovers with a splash of milk over low heat rather than the microwave.