Instant Pot cheesy kielbasa pasta
Smoky kielbasa and pasta cooked in one pot and stirred into a gooey cheddar sauce, pure comfort in about half an hour.
- 40 min total
- 15 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 6
- About $1.93 a serving
- 700 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 14 oz smoked kielbasa, 1 package
- 1 yellow onion, small, diced
- 1 tbsp butter
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 lb penne
- ¾ cup milk
- 2 cups shredded cheddar
From your pantry
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 700 calories, 29 g protein, 65 g carbs and 36 g fat, and costs about $1.93 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No chicken broth? Vegetable broth or bone broth works.
- No penne? Rigatoni or elbow macaroni works.
- No milk? Half-and-half works.
- No shredded cheddar? Cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese or Monterey Jack cheese works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the kielbasa into ¼-inch coins and the onion.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Turn the Instant Pot to Sauté, the butter, and cook the kielbasa 4 to 5 minutes, until at the edges. Add the onion and cook 3 minutes more.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Timer: 8 min
Pour in the broth and from the bottom of the pot until it’s clean.
Scrape up the browned bits. It means loosening the brown bits stuck to the pan with a wooden spoon, usually right after adding liquid. Those bits are concentrated flavor, and they melt into the sauce.
How you’ll know: The bottom of the pan looks clean again, and the liquid turns darker and richer.
Dolly’s tip: Anything stuck to the bottom can set off the burn warning.Stir in the penne, garlic powder and salt, and push the pasta down under the liquid.
Lock the lid, turn the valve to sealing, and pressure cook on high for 5 minutes.
Timer: 5 min
Dolly’s tip: The pot takes about 10 minutes to build pressure before the countdown starts. That’s normal.Turn the valve to venting to release the pressure, keeping your hand and face away from the steam.
Stir in the milk, then the cheddar a handful at a time, until the sauce is smooth and the kielbasa is hot through.
Dolly’s tip: Add the cheese slowly. Dumping it all in at once makes it clump.Season with the pepper, let it sit 2 minutes to , and serve.
Thicken. Thickening means cooking a sauce or soup until it’s less runny, by simmering it down or adding something like cornstarch. A thicker sauce clings to food instead of pooling on the plate.
How you’ll know: It coats the back of a spoon, and a line drawn through it with your finger holds its shape.
Timer: 2 min
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
Instant Pot sausage pasta
40 min
Instant Pot meatballs and pasta
30 min
Instant Pot spaghetti
40 min
Instant Pot baked ziti
30 min
One-pan dinners ›Cozy comfort food ›What to make with pasta and cheddar ›