Instant Pot Creamy Cajun Pasta with chicken and smoked sausage in a creamy, spicy sauce makes an easy and flavorful family meal. It can be made start to finish in under 30 minutes.
Since I got an Instant Pot in January, I have tried making lots of different things in it and I have been impressed with every single one. This is the second pasta dish I have made. Creamy Shells and Beef was my first. I especially like making pasta dishes in the Instant Pot. The pasta turns out so flavorful, but not overcooked.
This Instant Pot Creamy Cajun Pasta is full of onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, garlic, Cajun seasoning, paprika, and Italian seasoning. It also has chopped pieces of chicken, and diced tomatoes. At the end, Parmesan cheese, a little heavy cream, and some cream cheese are mixed in and they make the pasta so creamy.
The dish will be a little bit soupy. As it cools, it gets thicker. Leftovers reheat really well.
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Watch the short video below to see how easy this recipe is.
Instant Pot Creamy Cajun Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 medium sweet or yellow onion, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 6 white mushrooms, sliced
- 1 (14-ounce) package smoked sausage, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1 (14-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes undrained
- 1 tablespoon Cajun or Creole seasoning I use Tony Chachere's
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 12 ounces uncooked penne pasta
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened and cut into pieces
- 1 cup freshly grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot on "Saute" mode. Add oil and butter.
- Add onion and green pepper and cook until starting to get soft, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add mushroons, sausage and garlic and cook another 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add chicken, paprika, Italian seasoning, chicken broth, tomatoes, Cajun seasoning, and cayenne pepper.
- Add pasta and use a wooden spoon to push it all down into the liquid.
- Place lid on Instant Pot. Make sure the valve is in "sealing" position. Cancel the "Saute" mode and set to Pressure Cook on HIGH for 5 minutes.
- Manually release the pressure. Remove lid and stir in cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, and heavy cream until the cheese is melted.
- Sprinkle parsley on top.
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Recipe adapted from: Simply Happy Foodie
How would I make this for 8 servings?
just double it (if your pot can accommodate) and be thankful for leftovers 🙂
Do to the fact of what I had on hand I did some improvising shrimp instead of chicken can of each tomatoes sauce and Rotel instead of tomatoes I used frozen veggies and since my sausage was already a leftover I didn’t saute just dumped and went for 8 min also used gluten free pasta and out of parmesan used monzerella instead. Turned out great will for sure try again as recipe reads but improvising was delicious!
What type of sausage. We normally eat turkey sausage.
My family absolutely loves this recipe. I just don’t add the mushrooms because my kids dont like them.
I love almost everything I make in my instant pot but this is probably my top favorites. So glad I tried it I cooked it exactly as you the recipe said. I’ve already shared with many.
I never leave comments on recipes, but this one deserves all the praise. My boyfriend requests this meal at least once a week. Incidentally, I am eating the leftovers as I type this.
Excellent and so simple. Awesome. I did precook the chicken and that seemed to make it a bit tough. But it was still really good.
I could not believe how good this is! and how FAST it was to put together and prepare.
Cutting a few corners from the recipe, I basically put everything (except the heavy cream and cheeses) into the instant pot all at the same time, including the raw chicken pieces and the sliced sausage. Gave it all a good stir and clamped on the lid. It took about 15 minutes to come up to pressure and five minutes at high pressure was all it needed. Skipped the heavy cream, but stirred in the cheeses and it was “Oh so good!”
This seems to be a recipe that could be modified dozens of ways and it always comes out good.
I could see swapping out the pasta for white rice, then adding some precooked shrimp at the end with the cream cheese and making a creamy, jambalaya inspired variation of this dish. MMMMmmmmmm….
This is one of my all time favorite Instapot recipes!! The whole family including 2 picky girls loved this recipe!! I’ve made it at least once a month and there are NWVER any left overs!!!
Followed the recipe as is, and it turned out great! Oh, I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs in place of chicken breast. No need to pre-cook the chicken. Just stir it in. Five minutes at high pressure, and it’ll be perfect. I’m looking forward to enjoying the leftovers.
It has the mushrooms- Step 3.
This may be an updated version I just saw😀
When do I put in the mushrooms?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!!??!?!
Please update recipe!
Do you cook chicken before adding?
I usually do not comment on recipes but on this one I had to. This was so good!!!!! I had wanted to try it since you posted it and finally got around to it on my to do list. Thank you so much for such a tasty recipe!!
Ok, yum! I snuck a bite before adding the cheese and that was also delicious! I did add the cheese and half and half instead of heavy cream, but next time, i think I’ll just add parmesan. So good!!
Wonder dish. My wife says it’s not diet friendly but it has not slowed her down when it comes to eating this dish. It’s an easy to prepare so I give it high marks. (I’m the house husband, cook, janitor and bottle washer.) The family loves the taste. It’s a comfort food. Great meal Christin.
So happy you and your wife enjoy it Frank. Not diet friendly, but so good. 🙂
The whole family enjoyed this and it was so easy! We were fighting over the leftovers.
This was amazingly easy and delicious! It has a kick that we loved but that others might find too spicey. So know your guests’ tastes. We will be making this again for certain! BTW, I cooked the sausage separately so that we could drain the grease (over 1/2 cup!). Also I added the mushrooms in with the other vegetables. Perfect!
It doesn’t say when to put in the mushrooms…aaahhh…I for to put them in
Is the chicken store to be cooked before I put it in?
I wasn’t sure either. To be safe, I browned it first before startinging. It turned out good.
I didn’t read this until after I made it, but I cut mine up in bite sizes and cooked the entire recipe for 7 min. It came out cooked perfectly. I did not precook the chicken.
My kids crave for this since first making it!
Thanks for this deliciously simple recipe.