Instant Pot Mac and Cheese

Instant pot mac and cheese: the perfect fast food

What's the only thing better than making mac and cheese? Making mac and cheese in record time. Enter the instant pot.

With instant pot mac and cheese, it takes just minutes to throw together the ingredients for a batch of creamy mac and cheesy delight. It takes just a few more minutes to cook in your instant pot. And then you can enjoy your mac and cheese at your own pace.

Here in Wisconsin, we tend to scarf down our instant pot mac and cheese down as quickly as we cook it. That's because our mac is always made with Wisconsin cheese. Which is, by the way, the best, tastiest, most award-winning cheese in the universe. So, when there's Wisconsin cheese on the table, it's kinda hard to hold back.

When you're ready to see what Wisconsin cheese can do for your instant pot mac and cheese, take a spin through our website to find some recipes and meet our favorite cheeses. Or read on for tips on perfecting your homemade mac and cheese.

Tips for great instant pot mac and cheese

While baked and crock pot mac and cheese recipes have their advantages, nothing is as fast and easy as instant pot mac. With an instant pot, you'll save tons of time by skipping the bechamel sauce that's typically the base for homemade mac and cheese.

Keep these tips in mind for turning out a perfect instant pot mac and cheese every time.

1. Choose your cheeses wisely. You'll need a cheese that has some flavor chops and a cheese that can melt on a dime. Varieties like havarti, smoked gouda, parmesan, and bleu cheese are big on taste, while fontina, mascarpone, Monterey Jack, and baby swiss are terrific melters. Cheddar and alpine-style cheeses like gruyere or emmentaler (your classic cheese fondue varieties) are flavorful melters that can do the job of two cheeses.
2. Egg your mac on. You'll get a more custard-like sauce by adding an egg with the liquid ingredients.
3. Try ultra-creamy. For a creamier mac, try substituting cream or half-and-half for some or all of the milk in your recipe.
4. Go slow. Be sure to add the cheese slowly to the cooked pasta. If you add it too quickly, you'll lower the temperature of the noodles and the cheese won't melt properly.
5. Stir it up. When adding the cheese, keep stirring to prevent the cheese from clumping.
6. No mushy mac. As soon as your instant pot mac and cheese gets creamy, transfer it from the pot to a bowl. Otherwise, you may end up overcooking it.

Instant pot mac and cheese? That's how we roll in Wisconsin.

The instant pot is pretty much standard equipment in Wisconsin kitchens. That's because we're always looking for more ways to make great dishes with Wisconsin cheese. Don't get us wrong – we love gourmet baked mac and cheese that's carefully prepared with ingredients like bacon, bourbon, Dungeness crab, butternut squash, pulled pork, broccoli, truffles, or pesto. (Not all in the same dish, mind you.) But we also love our down and dirty, Monday night mac that's whipped up in an instant pot as fast as possible.

Basically, we are head over heels for Wisconsin cheese. And who wouldn't be, when there's so much of it to choose from? You'll find more than 600 varieties, styles and flavors of cheese in Wisconsin, including nearly half of all the artisan cheese made in America. Not only that, but Wisconsin cheese is dang good. We've got more than 5,500 cheese awards to prove it – that's more than any other state or nation in the world.

So, next time you're fixing to throw together an instant pot mac and cheese recipe, you can use any and all the ingredients you like. Just make sure the cheese comes from Wisconsin.