The BEST Instant Pot Alfredo with Chicken (2024)

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Instant pot fettuccine alfredo is a quick, easy, and creamy way to make pasta in your pressure cooker.

A no muss no fuss one-pot meal that cooks in only 7 minutes, making instant pot alfredo will become your new favorite pasta recipe. It's a WHOLE LOTTA YUM!

Instant Pot Fettuccine Alfredo

Fettuccine alfredo has always been both of my kids' favorite pasta recipes. Whenever we go to Italian for dinner, 9 times out of 10 this is what my daughter orders for dinner. Whether it's simple fettuccine alfredo, with chicken, or shrimp, all she needs to read on a menu that it's any sort of dish with alfredo and she's hooked!

Because eating out can get costly, and frankly, cooking with whole foods at home almost always tastes better, I knew after becoming an instant pot convert that instant pot fettuccine alfredo would be one of the first recipes we'd adapt.

Using our easy and delicious homemade alfredo sauce recipe as a base, we adapted it to a pressure cooker and it is simply amazing! While the cooking time between making alfredo on the stovetop vs in an instant pot might be similar, my go-to method is almost always the instant pot.

The instant pot pasta recipe version just seems creamier and how can you go wrong with a one-pot method over juggling a couple of pots on the stovetop?

Why You'll Love This!

The fettuccini alfredo Instant pot version turns out creamier than cooking in on the stovetop
This one-pot method means there's no juggling multiple pots on the stove
Because it's seriously the BEST fettuccini alfredo recipe out there!
It gets dinner on the table FAST without having to keep an eye on the pot
We show you how to add chicken if you want to add protein to the recipe

If you love alfredo be sure to check out our recipe for low carb alfredo with zoodles too.

Ingredient Notes

The instant pot alfredo sauce just has 6 ingredients, many of which you probably have on hand at home. Making your own homemade sauce is so much easier than many people realize, after making your own it'll be hard to go back to a jarred pasta sauce. The taste of jarred sauce just can't compare to this delicious pressure cooker alfredo!

The ingredients to our instant pot fettuccine alfredo are the same as our easy 10-minute stovetop sauce, the difference is the addition of chicken broth that's needed to cook the pasta and to make this a one-pot dish.

chicken broth
heavy whipping cream
parmesan cheese, shredded
butter, cubed
garlic cloves, minced
sea salt
ground black pepper
fettuccini pasta, broken in half

The instant pot alfredo recipe makes for a very saucy sauce, if that isn't how you prefer it feel free to cut back on the whipping cream and add only 1 ¼ cups after the pasta finishes cooking. Do NOT cut back on the chicken broth since that quantity is needed to cook the fettucini noodles.

Equipment

If you don't yet have an instant pot, this is the same model we have and frankly, I love it!

Step by Step Instructions

The basic tips to make instant pot fettuccine alfredo are to layer the ingredients in a certain order, add the pasta, pressure cook, and then mix in the parmesan as the last step.

Making pasta in an instant pot is easy, as long as you don't stir the ingredients or try to substitute a dairy product other than heavy whipping cream under pressure. Pasta can be a little finicky that way.

Add Ingredients

In this order, add the following:

Add the chicken broth (or water), we prefer to use chicken broth since it gives more flavor to the pasta dish, but it's fine to use water and just increase the seasoning if desired.

Gently pour in the heavy whipping cream

Pressure Cook

Cook (either the Manual setting or Pressure Cook setting) on high 6 minutes or al dente pasta (or 7 mins if you want it softer).

NOTE: The general rule of thumb with cooking pasta in the instant pot is to take the stovetop time, cut it in half and then subtract one minute for al dente pasta.

It’s very important to add the ingredients in the exact order. Be sure not to stir the ingredients but make sure everything is covered with the liquid.

Do a natural release for 5 minutes before doing a quick release of the remaining pressure. The starch in pasta in notorious for causing foam to spew out the pressure cooker valve when it gets released, so letting it sit for a few minutes helps to reduce this.

Another trick is to cover your valve with a kitchen towel so you don't end up with anything coming out the valve.

Add Cheese

Open up the lid, add in the shredded parmesan cheese and stir. The instant pot alfredo will still be very saucy as you can see from the photo below. It will thicken upon standing and absorb into the pasta.

Recipe Tips

To add chicken to the fettuccini alfredo Instant Pot recipe, put uncooked chicken cubes on top of the pasta in the pot, and then pressure cook the recipe as instructed.
Do not stir the ingredients as you add them to the pot, layering the ingredients is crucial in preventing getting a burn notice.
The Instant pot alfredo recipe can be doubled if you have an 8-quart pressure cooker.
The sauce thickens upon standing, so don't worry if things seem too wet after you remove the lid from the Instant Pot.

Common Questions

How Do I Make Low Fat Fettucini Alfredo?

Generally, when it comes to using dairy in an instant pot, you want to add it after the pressure cooker is done cooking. The exceptions to this are high-fat content dairy products like heavy whipping cream and butter.

Why? Because lower-fat dairy can curdle under pressure.

If you're looking to lighten the recipe up a bit by either using half and half or substituting evaporated milk, you'll want to mix that in with the parmesan cheese at the end and not add it when you add the heavy whipping cream.

Half and half isn't as thick as heavy whipping cream, so you'll want to either reduce the amount of dairy you're using or you'll want to make a roux with a little flour and mix it into the pasta.

Feel free to cut back a tiny bit on the butter or parmesan also! But if you cut out too much of the dairy fats in this recipe, it's either going to be super liquidy or it just won't taste like a rich fettuccine alfredo.

Can the Fettuccini Alfredo Instant Pot Recipe be Doubled?

We made the Instant Pot alfredo in a 6 quart instant pot model. If you have either a 6 qt or 8 qt pot size, then you can definitely double the instant pot alfredo sauce and noodles recipe. Both models have plenty of space to cook an entire 16 oz package of alfredo pasta.

When I just make the instant pot fettuccine alfredo recipe with 8 oz of noodles I don't usually get the sauce spewing out of the valve after doing a quick release, but when I double the recipe and cook an entire pound of pasta, the instant pot alfredo does spew out of the top a little. The trick to prevent this is to cover the valve with a kitchen towel.

Instant Pot Alfredo with Jar Sauce?

If you already have jar sauce and want to know how to make instant pot alfredo with jar sauce instead of homemade, that's also simple to do.

All you have to do is cook the fettuccine pasta in the instant pot and then once it's done, turn the pressure cooker to the saute setting add the jarred alfredo sauce. Stir and cook until heated throughout.

We'd recommend cooking a ½ lb-1 lb of fettuccine pasta for 6 minutes in the chicken broth or water (it'd be 3 cups for a whole pound of fettuccine pasta), and then stir in the jar sauce and heat. You'll end up with easy instant pot alfredo with jar sauce!

Related Recipes

Instant Pot Chicken Fajita Pasta
Instant Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup
Instant Pot Broccoli
Easy Alfredo Sauce Recipe (10 mins stovetop)
Cheddar Cheese Sauce

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Instant Pot Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken

Yield: 4

Prep Time: 8 minutes

Cook Time: 6 minutes

Additional Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 19 minutes

Easy instant pot alfredo will become your new favorite one pot pasta recipe. You can make creamy and perfect fettucini alfredo in just 20 minutes in a pressure cooker. It's easy to make with or without chicken!

Ingredients

1 ½ cup chicken broth
1 ½ cup heavy whipping cream
¼ cup butter, cubed
2 teaspoon garlic cloves or ½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
8 oz pasta, broken in half
1 lb raw chicken breast, cut into bite-size cubes (optional)
1 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
Garnish - chopped fresh parsley, shredded parmesan, salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In this exact order, add the chicken broth, whipping cream, butter, salt, pepper, and garlic. Do not stir as it could cause the cream to burn on the bottom of the pot during cooking.
Break the pasta in half and add to the liquid, do not stir the pasta into the pot, but it's ok to gently press the pasta into the liquid to make sure it's covered. Adding chicken cubes is optional, but if you're adding chicken place it on top of the pasta, do not mix it in.
Pressure cook (or Manual cook) for 6-7 minutes (6 min for al dente). Natural release for 5 minutes and then quick release.
Remove the lid, add the parmesan, and stir the pasta.
The instant pot alfredo will be very saucy but will thicken upon standing. Serve and enjoy!
Makes 4 servings.

Notes

Do not stir the ingredients as you add them to the pot, layering the ingredients is crucial in preventing getting a burn notice.
The recipe can be doubled if you have a 6-quart or 8-quart pressure cooker.
The sauce thickens upon standing, so don't worry if things seem too wet after you remove the lid from the Instant Pot.
Do not swap lower-fat dairy and cook it under pressure since it'll curdle.
Serve with steamed broccoli or mix bite-size cooked broccoli in at the end before serving.

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