Instant Pot Tuna Casserole is comfort food that fills you up and tastes so creamy and delicious! We love this pressure cooker tuna noodle casserole recipe. It’s so much easier and faster to make tuna casserole in the Instant Pot!
Instant Pot Tuna Casserole
I don’t know very many people who didn’t have a tuna noodle casserole in their family’s meal rotation while growing up. We sure did, and it was always one of my favorite meals! Still is.
For this tuna noodle casserole recipe, I have adapted my recipe that I have made for years, and raised my kids on. They all love it. What I found it that it is much better made in the Instant Pot®!
What makes Instant Pot Tuna Casserole better than oven baked?
- I didn’t expect it to be better, but to my surprise it is!
- It cooks much faster than in the oven. Minutes vs an hour!
- No pot of boiling water to deal with. Noodles cook with the sauce.
- One pot! I love a one-pot meal!
- The tuna casserole comes out more saucy and creamy.
- The flavors seems more pronounced.
Here’s why I think it’s better:
Can I add a crunchy topping?
Yes you can. See the notes section of the recipe card. But in a nutshell, you can transfer the casserole to a baking dish and add a panko/butter/parmesan topping and broil it.
Or just add crushed potato chips to your serving. Now that’s old school!
How Can I avoid the Burn message?
That’s always a bummer. The best way to avoid getting the burn message is to follow the recipe carefully.
- Weigh your pasta!
- If you put too much pasta in it will soak up more of the liquid. Then there isn’t enough to create the steam needed to build pressure.
- Weighing the pasta is the most accurate way to measure it.
This is the biggest reason people get the burn message when cooking pasta.
Layer the Ingredients.
By not stirring in the thick cream of mushroom soup, you are keeping the thin liquid on the bottom where it can boil and create the steam needed to build the pressure.
I have only had a tiny bit of scorching with this Instant Pot Tuna Casserole recipe, but not enough to give me a burn warning or affect the taste of the tuna casserole at all.
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If you make this pressure cooker tuna casserole recipe, please leave a comment below with a star rating. I’d love to know how you liked it!
Instant Pot Tuna Casserole is comfort food that fills you up and tastes so creamy and delicious! We love this pressure cooker tuna noodle casserole recipe. It's so much easier and faster to make tuna casserole in the Instant Pot!
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 3 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
- 1 sm Sweet Onion, diced
- 3 cups Chicken Broth, low sodium
- 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/2 tsp Pepper
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Onion Powder
- 1/2 tsp Dill Weed, dried
- 2 (6 oz) cans Chunk Light Tuna, in water, mostly drained
- 12 oz Wide Egg Noodles, uncooked
- 2 (10.5 oz) cans Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup (or 1 mushroom and 1 celery)
- 1 cup Half and Half
- 2 cups Frozen Peas
- 2 cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded
- 2 Tbsp Fresh Parsley, chopped
Turn on the Sauté setting. When hot, add the oil, butter and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion starts to turn translucent.
Add the broth, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and dill. stir.
Add the half and half. Turn off the Sauté setting.
Add the egg noodles. Do not stir.
Add the tuna, spreading evenly over the noodles. Do not stir.
Add the mushroom soup and spread to cover the noodles. Do not stir.
Close the lid and set the steam release knob to the Sealing position.
Press the Pressure Cook/Manual button or dial, then the +/- button or dial to select 3 minutes for soft noodles (2 minutes for firmer noodles). High Pressure. The pot will take several minutes to come to pressure.
When the cook cycle has finished, turn the steam release knob to the Venting position to Quick Release the steam/pressure. If any soup starts to come out of the steam vent, close it and release the pressure in bursts until the pressure has gone down enough to open it fully.
When the pin in the lid drops back down, open the lid.
Carefully take the pot out of the pressure cooker housing and set on a heat safe surface (this keeps it from cooking more).
Add the peas and give a gentle stir.
Add the cheese and stir. The casserole will thicken as it cools.
When the cheese has melted, serve with a sprinkle of parsley as a garnish.
What if I want a crunchy topping?
You can transfer the casserole to a baking dish and add a 1/2 cup Panko / 1 Tbsp melted butter / 1/2 cup parmesan topping (mix those together and sprinkle on top). Then just broil it for a few minutes.
You can also just add crushed potato chips to your serving.
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I can’t believe how easy this was to make! We loved it. This will be a regular recipe at our house!
I’m happy to know this worked for you!
Maid it today added 5 extra onces of mushroom soup wanted more gravey not dry perfect mom Said 11 best she ever had she is 92. Next time will ad cut up mushrooms
This tuna casserole recipe is the bomb! It is super tasty and super easy. No-meat Fridays just got easier. Thank you.
Thank you, Julie! Tuna casserole is a classic. I love not having to use the oven!
This recipe did turn out O.K. and we enjoyed it; however, it started BURN. I think I followed the recipe exactly. It just burned the bottom of the instant pot.
This will happen when there is too much pasta (weighing it is best), or the ingredients are not layered (or you stirred it).
So amazing!! I loved it.hubby and boys loved it-absolutely make again as it is going into my monthly menu.I would like to make it with chickpea or another lentil pasta. Thoughts on liquid and cooking time?
I’m so glad you liked it! As a general rule of thumb, cooking the pasta for half of the time that the package directions say for boiling usually works with most kinds of pastas. The liquid I’m not 100% sure about. Maybe try it as written, then adjust up or down for next time?
Stir frozen peas in at the end? Is that enough to warm and cook them? Or should I cook them first before stirring them in?
Yes, just stir them in and the residual heat from the casserole will cook them.
How do you half a pasta recipe for a mini instant pot? do you cut the liquid in half too?
Yes, halve the ingredients but keep the cook time the same.
Can I substitute chicken for the tuna?
Yes! Canned chicken or a chopped up rotisserie bird would be really good!
How about canned turkey?
Sure! or chicken!
Would this recipe work with gluten free pasta?
Yes, I have heard that GF pasta works well in the IP.
I found this on 9/30/19 and made it the same day. It is wonderful and I will be making this several times over. I was wondering if you had one for turkey or chicken pot pie filling.
Fabulous!! Made it with gluten free pasta and soup. My husband was craving tuna noodle casserole -comfort food following a knee replacement. Oh my goodness! This was so easy and so good! Enough for Meals for days!! Thank you!
That’s great! Thank you. My sister also just had a knee replacement. Happy healing to your hubby!
This was great! My husband loved it too! After reading some of the comments this morning, I was very happy that I weighed the pasta! It was perfect and had wonderful flavor!
I halved this recipe and cooked it in the mini. Delicious!
How to get the top crusted with flavored bread crumbs?
Add the casserole to a baking dish, sprinkle on the bread crumbs, and broil for a few minutes.
I used mini shell pasta and added the frozen petite peas before cooking. I also only had 1 cup of shredded cheese so I added 3 tablespoons of cream cheese. At 65 years old, I’ve learned what to substitute for a great taste.
Thank you Sandy for giving me recipes for the instant pot for some of the recipes that I used to use with the old school pressure cooker with the pressure valve on the center of the pot lid that made “shooh, shooh. shoosh” noises as it cooked.
And if the pressure got too high the valve could blow off and there would be dinner on the walls, ceiling and floors. It almost made my mother almost swear..
The Instant Pot is sooooo much easier!!
Oh yes, I remember those old school pressure cookers! I’m so glad this recipe worked for you!
My husband and children loved this dish! so creamy ,noodles weren’t mushy at all .5 stars we will be making this again.
Just made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious! In only had 1 c of cheddar so used Monterey Jack as well. Very tasty and my kids loved it. Will make this again for sure! Thank you!!
This site is difficult to leave a message on! However, want to let you know that I made this last night and it was SO DELICIOUS AND EASY!! Brought back memories of childhood. Plan to work my way through all your recipes!!
Hi Dixie, I didn’t realize that the comments are difficult to leave. Can you explain what is the difficult part? I can have my tech team look into it. Thank you for your comment, I’m happy that you liked this recipe!
This was amazing, so glad I found this recipe.
Thank you for posting this recipe! It is excellent! I will definitely make this again. I did forget to add the cheese. I poured the casserole into a pan and topped it with the panko bread crumbs before turning around to see the cheese still sitting on the table. Oh well! Next time I will add the cheese!
I give this recipe a 5 star rating. Unfortunately I can’t add the stars above. Not sure if it is on my end or not but this is a great recipe!
5 stars! For some some reason it wouldn’t let me click on a rating. Tried this tonight for dinner and it came out super tasty. Diced up some fresh albacore tuna my fiancé had caught and it worked great. My first time using the instant pot! Thanks for sharing!
5K Stars. Great recipe .I’m a month into using an Instant Pot & this was a great success. Some of the other online recipes I’ve tried I was disappointed with. I will look for a cookbook by you!
5 stars all the way. Couldn’t click on star rating but 5 stars it is. The hubby and the sun are both exceedingly pick eaters and they both devoured it. Love the idea of not adding the soup to the bottom but pouring it on top. Whole family loved it
Can you use fresh dill? If so, when should we add it?
Thanks!!!
Yes, I would some before cooking, and some after!
Very tasty! It was a hit with my Hubby! Perfect dish for Ash Wednesday.
Thank You! 5 stars!
I made this tonight ant was great! Everything came out perfect. Didn’t have peas (wish I did) but no matter. I also had 1 can mushroom and one can celery. Thanks for the easy recipe!!!
Shouldn’t Step #6 also say don’t stir? Someone on Facebook just reported getting the burn sign for this recipe.
Yes. That’s why I say to spread the soup over. One of the reasons people get a burn message is by not weighing the pasta, and not measuring the ingredients.
Thank you for the clarification, Sandy. Love your recipes! So easy to convert to 3 qt., if conversion is even needed at all. Plus, it’s good to see your 3 qt Mini list of recipes is getting longer! Hope you and your family are okay as I know you are near a “HOT“ area. Please take care! Your “neighbor” in the Portland Metro Area.
5 stars!!! I cooked this casserole last night and it was absolutely delicious!
I have the 10 qt crockpot express. How can I adjust this for this pot.
You should be able to follow this recipe.
If I could give your recipe 50 stars, I would! I, too, am a senior and remember being a kid and loving this stuff. I hadn’t bothered making it in the traditional way for fear of messing it up! Thank you and thanks to Instant Pot for revolutionizing my cooking world!
I’m so pleased to read your review! This is why I love my job! To know I helped you make a great meal is awesome!
This was GREAT! Thank you for your expertise and for sharing! I thought I was in trouble because I instinctively stirred the noodles and it HIT me that I wasn’t supposed to! 😂 So I was very careful to follow the rest of the recipe closely. NO I DIDN’T BURN IT!!! My saving grace was my non-stick ceramic pot. 😊
PS I wasn’t able to rate the recipe. It wasn’t responsive to my touch, but I would have rated it 5 stars!
Made this tonight, my post-op husband had a craving for it. Easy and fast and just delicious! We loved it, and easy clean-up after plus he was happy to see leftovers for tomorrow. I had extra veggies so in went mushrooms with the butter, big chunks broccoli, asparagus, even some Dill. Later realized I forgot the cheese so sprinkled parmesan on mine, but he had already finished his! I appreciate this tasty and flexible recipe! 5 stars
I TRY to follow the recipe first time, but some substitutions happen based on what’s on hand. I was surprised I had DILL but not ONION POWDER. CALIFIA BETTER HALF for .5/.5. GREEN BEANS for PEAS. I also didn’t have chicken broth, so 3 tsp Better than Boullion did the trick. It all came together very nicely and tasty. Looking forward to the leftovers. Thank you!
Made this last night for dinner…score! I hate cooking but LOVE my Instant Pot…dump everything in, turn on and walk away…dinner ready in minutes. I did make a couple changes to your recipe because of what I had on hand…used fresh pressed garlic and dehydrated minced onion in place of the powders, used (1) can each of Cream of Chicken and Cream of Celery soup (not of fan of mushrooms), used 1 cup milk and 4oz cream cheese (cubed) in place of half and half and added celery with the peas (had to be used before it went bad) and it was really good! Even my youngest had some and he hates tuna…he thought I used canned chicken and I didn’t tell him otherwise…bad mom, LOL. Will definitely make this again!
2nd time making, this pot with Sorghum Noodles and mushrooms. YUMM!
My hubby was craving comfort food from his childhood, so I decided to try this recipe. I did alter it a bit, using whole milk instead of half and half and using one regular can and one 98% fat-free can of cream of mushroom soup (high fats bother my hubby’s tummy).
First of all, I could not believe how quick and easy this recipe is! Second, it turned out amazing. Hubby was so happy and excited and said it hit the spot. Such a little thing made a huge difference during this COVID-19 crisis. Thanks for your quick, easy, and DELICIOUS recipe!
This recipe was delicious. I wondered if the noodles would be cooked enough and they were perfect. I will be doing Tuna Noodle Casserole this way from now on. No more oven. I followed the recipe exactly except I did omit the cheese as my I’ve never put cheese in/on my Tuna Noodle Casserole.
Was so yummy. Have already made it multiple times.