Make easy Instant Pot Alfredo! A creamy, cheesy, one-pot meal made with or without chicken! Basic ingredients combine to make this quick and easy weeknight meal.
You might also like our skillet lasagna, our quick garlic breadsticks, or our shortcut stroganoff.
Watch out step by step video!
We love this one pot Alfredo! You can add chicken, shrimp, or whatever you'd like! The sauce is flavorful and creamy and comes together quickly. The best part is that it can be a one-pot meal.
Easy Instant Pot Alfredo With Penne and Chicken
This creamy pasta makes 6-8 servings and is delicious the next day for leftovers. All of the ingredients (minus the cream cheese and parmesan cheese) are placed in the Instant Pot to cook. No need to drain the pasta, simply stir in the cheese at the end until melted and smooth.
You can use leftover chicken or cut up a couple of boneless skinless chicken breasts and cook using the sauté feature on your pressure cooker.
Instant Pot Alfredo Ingredients
Chicken Breasts: this is optional. It is delicious with or without chicken. I use chicken breasts and cook them using the sauté setting on the pressure cooker.
Chicken Broth: the broth has very little to do with the alfredo sauce and everything to do with cooking the pasta. If you don't have enough broth the pasta will burn.
Heavy Whipping Cream: most alfredo recipes start with cream. You can use half and half if you prefer.
Pasta: penne, ziti, rotini, and bowtie all work great. I haven't tried making this with fettuccini or linguine, but I'm sure you could. See notes about cooking times.
Garlic Powder and Fresh Cracked Pepper, Salt: for flavor
Grated Parmesan Cheese: yep, the cheap stuff! This works great for the sauce.
Cream Cheese: this gives the sauce a creamy texture after cooking and helps thicken the sauce.
Shredded Parmesan: I like sprinkling shredded parmesan over the pasta before serving.
How To Make Instant Pot Alfredo
If you'd like to add chicken you can cook it separately or cook it in the Instant Pot on the sauté setting. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to your heated Instant Pot. Add chicken and sauté until cooked through. Cook the chicken in small batches to allow the meat to brown. Transfer fully cooked chicken to a plate and set aside.
Add chicken broth to the hot Instant Pot. Scrape the bottom to loosen any bits of chicken that might still be in the pot. Add heavy cream.
Add pasta. Don't stir, just press down to make sure that the pasta is completely covered with liquid.
Sprinkle garlic powder, pepper, and salt on top.
Secure the lid and pressure cook on HIGH pressure for 4 minutes (or whatever the calculated cooking time is for the pasta that you are using---see notes below).
Allow the pressure to naturally release for 10 minutes.
Quick release remaining pressure. There is a lot of liquid in the instant pot so it may sputter out of the valve. If that happens you can let it sit for another minute or two and try again, or carefully release the pressure and loosely cover the valve with a dishcloth to catch any sputters.
Remove the lid and stir the pasta. Add cream cheese and grated parmesan cheese and stir until melted and smooth. Stir in chicken.
Sprinkle with additional cracked pepper and shredded parmesan cheese.
Pasta Cooking Times in Instant Pot
I've only used shaped pasta in my instant pot (shells, ziti, penne, rotini, bowtie, etc.) and haven't tried spaghetti or fettuccine although I'm sure you could. The formula for adjusting the cooking time is to divide the cooking time on the box by 2 then subtract 2. For example, the penne that I used had a cooking time of 12 minutes. I divided that by 2 which dropped it to 6 minutes then subtracted 2 for a final cooking time of 4 minutes in the instant pot.
Divide pasta box cooking time by 2 then subtract 2 = instant pot cooking time. Click here for a past cooking chart.
Leftover Alfredo
This pasta is delicious as leftovers. Reheat in the microwave and sprinkle with parmesan before serving. I recommend eating the leftover pasta within 2 days.
Instant Pot Alfredo Variations
- Top with leftover grilled chicken or rotisserie chicken (instead of cooking chicken in the pressure cooker).
- Stir in cooked broccoli before serving.
- Use shrimp instead of chicken (can sauté in an instant pot and set aside until the end).
3 Delicious Breads To Serve With Alfredo!
Easy Instant Pot Alfredo Recipe
Easy Instant Pot Alfredo
Ingredients
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into small pieces
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 16 oz. penne pasta (or shells, ziti, etc.)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
- 3 ounces cream cheese
- ⅔ cup grated parmesan cheese
- shredded parmesan (sprinkle on top of finished pasta)
Instructions
- If you'd like to add chicken you can cook it separately or cook it in the Instant Pot on the sauté setting. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to your heated Instant Pot. Add chicken and sauté until cooked through. Cook the chicken in small batches to allow the meat to brown. Transfer cooked chicken to a plate and set aside.
- Add chicken broth to the hot Instant Pot. Scrape the bottom to loosen any bits of chicken that might still be in the pot. Add heavy cream.
- Add pasta. No need to stir, just press down with a spoon to make sure that the pasta is completely covered with liquid.
- Sprinkle salt, garlic powder, and pepper on top.
- Secure the lid and pressure cook on high for 4 minutes (or whatever the calculated cooking time is for the pasta that you are using---see notes).
- Allow the pressure to naturally release (REST) for 10 minutes.
- Quick release remaining pressure. There is a lot of liquid in the instant pot so it may sputter out of the valve. If that happens you can let it sit for another minute then try again, or carefully release pressure and loosely cover the valve with a dishcloth to catch any sputters.
- Remove the lid and stir the pasta. Add cream cheese and grated parmesan cheese and stir until melted and smooth. Stir in cooked chicken.
- Sprinkle with additional cracked pepper and shredded parmesan cheese.
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