There’s nothing better to keep you going through that late night study sesh than a warm bowl of rich and creamy mac and cheese, and luckily it’s incredibly fast and easy to make using a basic rice cooker. So you can skip the blue box with its bright orange cheese flavored powder and make your own Rice Cooker Mac and Cheese from scratch in about the same amount of time. #WIN
Use a Rice Cooker or Instant Pot
Rice cookers are a convenient and inexpensive way to cook food for those confined to small spaces or without access to conventional kitchens, so I’m going to develop a few recipes specifically for rice cookers. Because Instant Pots can also be used as a rice cooker and have a steam setting, these recipes should also translate well for use in an Instant Pot. But because every brand and model of rice cooker or Instant Pot can vary, you may need to make slight adjustments for your equipment.
Jazz Up Your Rice Cooker Mac and Cheese!
The Rice Cooker Mac and Cheese below is the “base model” if you will. It’s a plain mac and cheese that is just flavored with cheddar and the vegetable broth used to cook the pasta. If you want to play around with add-ins, here are some fun things to try: garlic powder, smoked paprika, diced green chiles, Rotel, finely chopped broccoli florets, or diced chicken.
WHAT RICE COOKER AM I USING?
I chose to work with one of the most popular and most basic rice cookers on the market to make sure the recipes I develop have the broadest compatibility. That begin said, every model rice cooker is slightly different, and may yield slightly different results. I’m using the Aroma Housewares 8 cup cooked/4 cup uncooked Digital Rice Cooker (affiliate link).
Substitute with Caution
Each ingredient in this recipe has a distinct purpose, so substitute with caution. I do not suggest substituting a different shape or type of pasta, as that may change the amount of broth needed to cook the pasta correctly, or change the amount of time needed to cook the pasta through. The cream cheese helps emulsify the cheddar into the hot milk, so substituting this with something else may result in your cheese sauce failing. You can, however, substitute chicken broth for the vegetable broth. Keep in mind that the broth provides a lot of the salt and flavor for the sauce, so using water instead will result in a bland dish.
What About Leftovers?
I purposely made this in a small batch because as with most from-scratch cheese sauces (cheese sauces that are not made with “cheese product” like Velveeta), they are smooth and creamy when they’re hot and freshly made, but can get a bit clumpy as they cool. So, make and serve this one fresh for best results! (Not that I’d turn down the leftovers, but they’re definitely not as good as fresh.)
Check out my other Rice Cooker Recipes: Rice Cooker Teriyaki Shrimp and Rice, Rice Cooker Chili, Rice Cooker Spanish Chickpeas and Rice.
Rice Cooker Mac and Cheese
Servings 2Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked macaroni noodles ($0.17)
- 1 cup vegetable broth ($0.13)
- 1/3 cup milk ($0.06)
- 2 oz. cream cheese ($0.50)
- 3 oz. medium cheddar, shredded ($0.71)
Instructions
- Add the macaroni and vegetable broth to the rice cooker. Close the lid and cook on the “steam” setting for 5 minutes. It may take 5-7 minutes to come up to temperature before it begins counting down the 5 minutes of cook time. Stir the pasta twice during cooking, once when the cook time begins to count down, and again when there is about 2 minutes left. Close the lid promptly after stirring each time.
- While the pasta is cooking, cut the cream cheese into chunks. After 5 minutes of cooking, the pasta should have absorbed all of the broth (if not, cook a few minutes longer). Turn the rice cooker to the “keep warm” setting, and add the milk and cream cheese. Stir until the cream cheese has melted.
- Finally, add half of the shredded cheddar and stir until it has melted, then repeat with the second half. If the cheese sauce becomes too thick or dry for your liking, simply stir in an extra splash of milk. Serve hot.
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Equipment
Nutrition
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How to Make Rice Cooker Mac and Cheese – Step by Step Photos
Start by adding 1 cup uncooked macaroni noodles and 1 cup vegetable broth to the rice cooker.
Close the lid and set the rice cooker to the “steam” setting for five minutes. It may take 5-7 minutes or so for the rice cooker to come up to temperature before it begins counting down the 5 minutes. Stir the macaroni twice during the 5 minute cook time, once when it begins counting down, and again when there is about 2 minutes left.
While the macaroni is cooking, cut 2 oz. cream cheese into chunks and shred about 3 oz. medium cheddar.
After cooking for five minutes, the pasta should have absorbed all of the broth. Turn the cooker to the “keep warm” setting, then add 1/3 cup milk and the 2 oz. of cream cheese. Stir until the cream cheese has melted into the milk.
Add half of the shredded cheddar to the rice cooker and stir until it has melted into the sauce, then repeat with the second half of the cheese.
And that’s it! Serve this Rice Cooker Mac and Cheese while it’s hot for the smoothest, creamiest sauce.
I sprinkled a little smoked paprika on top for fun. :)
My daughter is gluten free and I’ve been trying to find a recipe in which I can substitute GF elbow macaroni. Don’t have a rice cooker. If I can figure it out, this should work on the stove, right? Just cook pasta in broth until absorbed, then do the sauce in another pan and combine? I guess I’ll have to figure out how much broth to use though. ..
Yep, the rice cooker pretty much just acts as a hot plate here, so you can do the same thing on the stove top. I’m not sure how GF pasta will change the results, though.
Hi Amy:
I use GF pastas (brown rice version) all the time. I find that they substitute very well for regular pasta, and should be no exception in this recipe. I’m not as comfortable saying this about other GF pastas that are not rice based, though. They do not stand up for a long time in the water/broth, but do hold up well in sauce, so make sure all water is absorbed, or drain well before adding sauce ingredients.
Waaaaay less cream cheese imo
I just made this and it was awesome!! I didn’t have elbow macaroni so I did substitute it for bow tie, just needed to cook a bit longer, the noodles turned out perfectly cooked. I also added Black Pepper, onion and garlic powder. Next time, I am going add chicken and vegetables. I also used chicken broth because I didn’t vegetable broth on hand. Delicious!! Definitely a keeper!
My rice cooker is “old school” and has one setting yet this recipe worked beautifully.
We found this recipe to be absolutely DELICIOUS and TWO KID approved! Now that’s a big deal! :)
Yay! I’m so glad it was a hit! :)
My rice cooker only has a “cook” and “keep warm” switch. Will this still work?
Yep, just use the cook setting to boil the pasta (make sure to stir often so you can keep an eye on how much liquid is left in the pot), then switch it to keep warm while you add the rest of the ingredients.
Excellent! Teaching my middle schooler how to make this! So much better than the boxed stuff!!
This was super fast to make and tasty. Since I am the only person in my household who likes mac and cheese, the small serving size was also perfect. I added garlic powder, salt, paprika, a pinch of dry mustard, and pepper… delish! I also subbed half and half for the milk., and used a Japanese rice cooker with only one setting (cook), which worked pretty good.
It was a fun experience as I’ve never cooked pasta in a rice cooker before but to be absolutely honest I think I still prefer the traditional recipe (it was good though !). I’ll try your chili mac next ! :D
I am eating this right now. It is awesome!!! I’m so excited about this recipe! I had no idea how incredibly easy cooking pasta (at least elbow, or small pasta) is in the rice cooker! This recipe worked out perfectly and the serving size is perfect for when your husband leaves you home alone for dinner and all you want is a big bowl of macaroni and cheese. Thank you!!
I am going to refer this to a friend who uses rice cooker a LOT :)
Would you try making this with GF macaroni sometime and let us know how it is?
It works great! I used Tinkyada elbows. It was still a little wet when I put in the cream cheese but I let it stand 5 mins at the end and it thickened right up. Such a great GF recipe!!!
I try this recipe at home, Our all family members love it. It is a very good experience for us. We all love it to cook this recipe again & again.
If/when someone tries this with their Instant Pot, please let us know how that goes? Which settings, how much time, etc? I made perfect rice with my IP but I’m afraid pasta will get soggy and over cooked. My daughter will go crazy over this recipe!
Just treat the noodles like rice just gage your water levels and when the macaroni is Al dente the carry on with the other ingredients and the noodles and sauce should come together as it sits on the warming temperature. Also, play around with the timer. I have a older model Aroma rice cooker, but I’m definitely anxious to try it out in the model I have, and YES! it turn out some awesome rice and I believe it can do wonders with this recipe.
I read your blog in Newsify. Your last two posts have a mllion exes (xxxxxxx…….) after the amounts listed in the recipe, has something changed on your end,
It looks normal on my end.
I use Feedly and I see the same thing.
This is happening for me on Feedly as well.
I can’t think of anything that changed, but I checked the feed and saw what you are referring to. I’ve got an email in to tech support already, so hopefully it will be fixed by the next recipe we publish! :)
This looks great, but our rice cooker is the old-school kind with just one button which is ‘cook’ when you push it, and ‘warm’ otherwise. Any ideas how to adapt? I’m guessing put the water+milk+pasta in and press cook and see what it looks like when it pops?
I would just do the pasta and broth, press cook, and just stir every few minutes or so until the pasta has absorbed the broth, then change it to warm and follow the recipe from there. :) So basically instead of using the timer, you’re just checking the pasta manually to see when it is done. Add the milk after the pasta has cooked, not before, just as I did with mine.