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Rice Cooker Mac and Cheese? Not only is it creamy and delicious, but it’s so easy and fun to make with kids!
I don’t know many kids who don’t like macaroni and cheese. Come on, cheese and pasta, what’s not to like?
I love making my own mac and cheese, but even for someone like me who wants to make everything homemade, it’s not always easy. Between cooking the pasta, making the sauce and then baking it, the process can take time that many mothers (including myself), just don’t have! But as time consuming as the homemade kind can be, I just can’t break down and buy the powdered cheese, boxed version, no matter how easy it may be to prepare.
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If you have a rice cooker (and I hope you do because it is one of the great kitchen time savers), this recipe is going to change you and your kid’s world! All you have to do is put all of the ingredients into the rice cooker and let it do all the work for you.
The best part is that you can tailor this recipe to your child’s favorite tastes and flavors. For example, if you want to give it some added nutrition, just add an array of veggies. This is also a great way to involve your kids in cooking since they can have fun placing all of the ingredients in the cooker.
Now, what are you going to do with all of that time you just saved being a kitchen hero to your kids?
P.S. Click here for the Rice Cooker I love by Zojirushi!!
Photos by Matt Armendariz
Rice Cooker Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 2 cups pasta (I used macaroni, but you could also use rotini, faralle or bite size pasta)
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock (I use low sodium stock)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese ( I use a 3 cheese blend of cheddar, mozzarella and monterey jack)
Instructions
- Place the first 3 ingredients in the rice cooker and cook for 15 minutes.
- Open the lid, add the milk and cheese, stir to combine, close the lid and cook for an additional 20 minutes (25 minutes if you want it to have a crust on the bottom).
- *Rice cookers can cook at different heats, so make sure to check the mac & cheese after if cooks for 30 minutes once or twice.
- Serve.
Notes
- * Option: You can also add a cup of finely chopped broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, butternut squash or frozen peas. Do so in step #2.
Perhaps those who are saying it’s soupy measured 2 cups of uncooked pasta rather than putting in a 16oz bag?
I used the bionaturae gluten-free pasta with good results (even though my rice cooker caused me some problems). I have found that brand to cook the most like regular pasta.
It would probably similar, I haven’t made this recipe with gluten free pasta so I wouldn’t be so sure. I suggest following the recipe and watching it. If the pasta cooks fast then you might want to add it in later or if the pasta is still not cooked, you might want to add extra time. Let me know what happens! 🙂
Has anyone tried following the recipe using gluten-free pasta? My son has multiple food allergies and we are avoiding wheat, among other foods. I have been using rice pasta which he loves. The tricky thing is rice pasta gets sort of melted if cooked for too long. Do you have suggestion how to adjust the recipe if using gluten-free pasta? Thanks!!
Dumb questions but does chicken stock verses broth make a difference. I just made this for the second time and it was still soupy…..I used broth instead of stock
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I have never posted here before but I wanted to say THANK YOU for all your fantastic simple recipes. I found this site a few months ago and I visit everyday. The rice cooker mac and cheese is one of our favorites!! Thanks again.
Did you stir all your ingredients well? You may have just had to cook it longer since every rice cooker is different. I would cook it longer next time for the cheese the melt.
Just made this and the cheese didn’t melt very well. It’s a very lumpy consistency. I used the store brand colby-jack mix. Also my rice cooker only has a cook mode and a warm mode. What did I do wrong? Use the wrong cheese?
The burned crispy noodles on the bottom are my favorite!! I’m glad you all enjoyed them 🙂
I made this last night for my 13-month-old daughter. I can’t rave about how she loved it because sometimes she’s really hungry and sometimes not, but we both tried some and thought it was good! My ricecooker has only one heat setting and had burned noodles to the bottom before the first timer went off. I may have to adjust liquid levels for next time (or get a new rice cooker!).
Thanks for the idea!
Yum! Just found weelicious yesterday and tried this recipe today. Super easy and everyone of course loved it! Mine didn’t come out like the picture though, slightly soupy. I used skim milk and wheel pasta, maybe this is why? My rice cooker only has a “cook” setting, so maybe this contribuited too. I will definitely make again and am thinking that next time I’ll use regular macaroni and see how it turns out. The apple banana muffins are next on my to try list!
Yes. Your prize is: the people’s ovioatn and fame forever , which is the prize from the original Japanese version of Iron Chef. Since they aren’t using it anymore, I’m stealing it and giving it to you.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe…we have a Sanyo Rice Cooker (3.5 C) that we purchased after living in Japan for 2 years. Great to know I can cook more than rice & oatmeal! Ours does not have a ‘time cook’ setting, so we used the “white rice” setting with superb results. Also – our son is allergic to dairy, so we had lots of luck substituting soy milk for regular milk, as well as using soy cheese shreds. Who knew it would be so easy & tasty!! FYI – we halve the recipe for 2-3 toddler servings. Now, we make 1 batch for the toddler…and 1 all-dairy batch for the parents. Delicious!
I too put it on the brown rice setting, it could have been the 2% milk that did it since it does not have enough fat in it. Try using whole milk next time and let me know!
I have tried at least a dozen of your recipes–all hits (thank you thank you!). Unfortunately, this didn’t work for me last night. I have your rice cooker, but we put it on the brown rice setting and only had 2% milk on hand. Would that explain the soupy mess that came out? (We kept cooking and cooking, but no luck.) Any tips appreciated!