After going through a week of hunger in week one of the SNAP Challenge, I knew I had to rethink my strategy. Luckily, the hunger allowed me to pinpoint certain ingredients that really keep me full and satisfied for a large part of the day. For me, that’s pasta, beans, and cheese. I wanted to do a “one pot” dish because they’re easy and I don’t have to bother planning side dishes. Everything that I’m eating is in one easy-to-reheat bowl. So, the first thing that came to mind was my Chili Cheese Beef n’ Mac. I love that stuff, but decided to add a few extra ingredients, like beans, diced tomatoes, and corn, to make it more chili-like and a little more well rounded as a meal. The result? This DEEE-LICIOUS One Pot Chili Pasta.
And after eating this all week, I’m a happy camper this week, for sure.
P.S. Click here for a vegetarian version of this recipe: Cheesy Vegetarian Chili Mac
Can You Freeze One Pot Chili Pasta?
Yes! I find that this dish freezes very well. I suggest dividing the recipe into single-serving portions first, then cooling completely in the refrigerator before transferring to the freezer. Once frozen, you can keep this One Pot Chili Pasta for about three months.
How to Reheat One Pot Chili Pasta
To reheat from the refrigerator I suggest using the microwave, heating on high for 30-60 seconds at a time, stirring between, until heated through. To reheat from the freezer, either first let it thaw in the refrigerator over night, then use the refrigerator reheating instructions, or reheat straight from the freezer using your microwave’s defrost function.
One Pot Chili Pasta
Servings 9 1 cup eachIngredients
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.42)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1/2 lb. ground beef ($2.46)
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour ($0.02)
- 2 Tbsp chili powder ($0.30)
- 1 15oz. can tomato sauce ($0.79)
- 1 15oz. can diced tomatoes ($0.79)
- 1 15oz. can black beans ($0.99)
- 1 15oz. can kidney beans ($1.09)
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels ($0.60)
- 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni ($0.85)
- 2 cups beef broth* ($0.08)
- 1 cup shredded cheese ($1.00)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Cook both in a large pot with olive oil over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, or until soft and transparent. Add the ground beef and continue to stir and cook until it is fully browned. If using a high fat ground beef, drain off the excessive after it is browned.
- Add the flour and chili powder to the pot and stir to coat the meat. Continue to stir and cook the coated meat for 1-2 minutes more. The flour and chili powder may coat the bottom of the pot, but that’s okay. Just be careful to not let it burn.
- Drain and rinse the black and kidney beans. Add the beans, tomato sauce, diced tomato, and corn kernels to the pot. Stir well and dissolve the flour/chili powder mixture from the bottom of the pot.
- Add the dry macaroni and two cups of beef broth to the pot and stir to combine. Place a lid on top, turn the heat up to high, and let the pot come to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, give it a quick stir to loosen any pasta stuck to the bottom of the pot, replace the lid, and turn the heat down to medium-low. Let the pot simmer on medium-low for about 15 minutes, or until the pasta is soft and has absorbed most of the liquid. Stir the pot one or two times during the 15 minutes to loosen any pasta stuck to the bottom.
- Once the pasta is fully cooked, turn the heat off and add the cheese. Stir the cheese into the pasta until it has melted in and become slightly creamy. Serve hot.
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Notes
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make One Pot Chili Pasta – Step by Step Photos
Start by dicing one medium onion and mincing two cloves of garlic. Cook the onion and garlic in a large pot with 1 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat for one to two minutes, or until softened.
I used 1/2 lb. of ground beef and promptly froze the other half for later use. Add 1/2 lb. to the pot and continue to sauté until the beef is fully browned. If you’re using a higher fat beef, drain off the excess fat after it is browned.
To the browned ground beef add 2 Tbsp all purpose flour and 2 Tbsp chili powder. The flour will help thicken the sauce later. The chili powder is NOT cayenne pepper or hot chile powder, it is a mild blend of spices that is sold in the U.S as “chili” powder, not “chile” powder. If they don’t sell that where you’re at, you could actually also use a single packet of chili or taco seasoning.
Stir and cook the flour and chili powder with the browned beef. It will begin to coat the bottom of the pot, but that’s okay because it will dissolve off in the next step. Just be careful that the heat is not so high that it will burn it. Cook this mixture for about two minutes more (this cooks out that raw flour-y flavor).
These are the canned goods that go into my chili (no time to cook my own beans this week). It’s one 15-oz. can each of tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, black beans, and kidney beans. Drain and rinse the beans before adding to the pot.
Add the drained and rinsed beans to the pot along with the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and one cup of frozen corn kernels. Stir this mixture well and dissolve the flour off the bottom of the pot as you do so.
At this point you already have a pretty damn good lookin’ chili, but we’re going to go one step further and add some pasta to help make it an entire meal in a bowl.
I used whole wheat pasta just to add a bit more fiber. You’ll need to add 2 cups of uncooked elbow macaroni and 2 cups of beef broth. I was out of my beloved Better Than Bouillon and a recent price hike meant that it didn’t fit in my weekly SNAP budget. Luckily, this powdered bouillon was on clearance and I got it for $2! Score.
Add the pasta and broth to the pot, place a lid on top, turn the heat up to high, and let it come to a boil. Once it reaches a bowl, give it a quick stir to loosen any pasta stuck to the bottom, then replace the lid, turn the heat down to medium-low, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the pasta is tender and has absorbed most of the liquid. You’ll want to stir one or two times during the simmering, too, to keep the pasta from sticking.
This is what it will look like once the pasta is cooked. Still a little liquidy, but it will continue to absorb the flavorful liquid.
Add one cup of shredded cheese and stir it in until melted and creamy. I just happened to have “taco cheese”, but plain cheddar or monterey jack would also work well. Just avoid mozzarella, which tends to be more stringy when melted.
And this delicious one pot chili pasta is what has been keeping me full and satisfied all week. I love it! :D
Great recipe! It was so quick and easy to make – love that! I added a can of olives to mine which added a nice flavor to the whole dish.
Made this last night and it was delish!!! Will make this again but with more beans and no pasta…trying to watch the waistline!
This looks so good. Your chili mac is on a weekly rotation at my house. I always add whatever veggies I have from my CSA that need to be used up. I’ve added carrot, zucchini, leek, spinach, and kale (at different times). My kids would love the black bean and corn addition. Thank you so much for the yummy recipes!
Yum! Thanks for this recipe :) I made this tonight and it was very comforting on a chilly evening. Made a few substitutions- veggie burger crumbles and veggie broth instead of beef; had time for dry beans, so cooked a pound and used half for this recipe; added a little extra corn. Between the substitutions and my grocery store’s sales this week, my total came to just about $8 and the recipe made a big potful! I divided it into 6 big servings (I’m pregnant and my husband is very active, so we have hearty appetites). Easy enough that I would make it on a weeknight, too, which is another plus. Scores high in all categories: inexpensive, nutritious, flavorful, and easy to cook. This will definitely be in our fall and winter meal rotation.
I have yet to try a one-pot dish, and this looks like a great one to start with. Bookmarking to try soon!
Made this as my ‘base dish for the week’ – it did not take long. I substituted ground turkey for ground beef because I don’t like the texture reheated beef sometimes has. I also used bullion, and I didn’t have frozen corn so I threw in a small drained can of corn.
I am generally not a pasta fan, but this stuff is darn good. Flavorful (but not spicy), and it’s also very filling.
I intend to freeze a good portion of it for when I get home from work and I am hostile and Need Food Now.
Chili is definitely filling and adding pasta is a easy way to stretch it out! I think I would eat 2 cups as one serving (although one should probably stick to one cup). I bought this McCormick Mexican chili powder and I think it’s similar to regular chili powder. I made a chorizo chili with it and it tasted pretty good.
I wonder if leftover brown rice instead of pasta would work?
I think I’d spoon the chili over the rice in a bowl, rather than mixing it into the pot. That would be pretty good. :)
Made this tonight. We didn’t have enough beans in the pantry, so I threw in some canned mushrooms and some shredded carrots that I had on hand. I also added a couple of glugs of Worcestershire sauce. Hubby and I loved it; my kids found it a little spicy, so for them I added a dollop of sour cream to cut the heat. This recipe is a keeper!
How are you saving this for the week to come?
Also all I have is turkey meat, will it work?
Yep, ground turkey will work great in this. I used the same resealable food storage containers for this as I did the Soy Dijon Chicken. They can be kept in the fridge or the freezer and can be used in the microwave, so they’re perfect!
Menudo spice mix is also a solid replacement for chili powder — it’s mild to medium chiles, with oregano, thyme, and black pepper usually, and costs about $1 for a ~1.5oz packet/sachet from the Mexican foods rack, and which yields something like 6 tbsp? Very useful when you’ve just run out of chili powder, and fresher/tastier IMO, too.
When I was young, my family would always cut up a couple of potatoes and cook them with our ground beef — for just about anything that required ground beef. I haven’t thought of that in ages, but looking back it was a really good way to bulk up the chubs of 70-30 ground beef we bought, where you lose 1/3 of your weight in rendered fat, and then more in evaporated water. (Incidentally: this looks *much* yummier than the hamburger helper that was a staple in my home growing up.Will definitely be trying, probably with ground chicken or turkey since I’m somewhat put off of ground beef in anything but hamburger form.)
Also of note: google translate on the/a smartphone has been amazing as I stand before the racks of herbs and spices that weren’t covered in my Spanish classes (you think we’ll never need thyme in bolivia, señora?), looking the name of the thing that looks like I think dried the herb I want should look. Or confirming that yep, the ancho chiles I’m looking at won’t singe my tastebuds off, they’re just dried smoked poblanos, which are in fact large and 1 up from a green bell pepper mild.
Ain’t technology great ?!!? :)
I’ve used my phone in front of the spices also and helped a fellow shopper find a substitute for chervil.
And the calculator
I’m a computer programmer but never thought I’d use my phone the way I do now!
Just made this today. Unfortunately, when I opened my last package of macaroni (which I just bought two months ago!) I found meal moths. Gahhh. Dropped the macaroni, added a little beef broth for flavor, and simmered it a bit to thicken it. It still tastes yummy.:)
I made something very similar a couple weeks ago, and my 14 yr old loved it. It does freeze and reheat well too. I didn’t use corn in mine, but that sounds good.
This looks so good! That’s actually my favorite brand of bouillon. I was searching high and low for an affordable option that has no MSG.
I like cartons of organic broth but, 56 cups for $2-3 or 4 cups for $3-4. Yeah, not a difficult decision at this point.
Where do you buy that bouillon? I’ve never heard of it. I love that there’s no MSG. BTB doesn’t always fit the budget. Thanks!
It was just on the shelf at my local grocery store. I’ve never looked for it anywhere else because this was the first time I’ve seen/used it. :)
I know Albertsons and Walmart Neighborhood Market both carry it by me
I’ve seen it at Walmart and Fred Meyer (which is owned by Kroger).
Have you ever tried Textured Vegetable Protein, It has the same consistency of ground beef but is much cheaper. I use it to thicken chili if I haven’t got enough meat,or I want to make a vegetarian version.
Where do you buy it?