Instant Pot Bang Bang Pasta is an easy and delicious recipe. Everything cooks in the Instant Pot – including the pasta! – for a low-fuss easy weeknight dinner.
Today, I’m sharing Instant Pot bang bang pasta – it’s a super easy pasta recipe. I love making pasta in the Instant Pot. The noodles come out perfectly cooked, and there is no need to drain water from the pasta. I am especially grateful for this because I’ve hurt my wrists one too many times trying to lift a large pot full of water.
Bang Bang pasta is one of our go-to meals. The bang bang sauce is creamy, savory, spicy, and sweet. I shared my original bang bang pasta recipe several years ago. I also created a lighter version with my skinny bang bang zucchini noodles meal prep.
This instant pot version is one of my easiest recipes yet. It’s great for weeknight meals.
Ingredients
- Spaghetti
- Water
- Precooked shrimp
- Chopped fresh parsley
- Light mayonnaise
- Thai sweet chili sauce
- Honey
- Sriracha sauce
- Lime juice
Can you use frozen shrimp?
Yes, you can use cooked frozen shrimp, but you will need to thaw them first.
Cooking the pasta
To make sure your pasta cooks properly, you will need to break the spaghetti noodles in half and spread them out as much as possible across the bottom of your pot. This ensures that the water will reach all of the pasta and will help prevent the pasta from sticking together when cooking.
When the noodles are done cooking, you’ll initially find water still in the pot. However, that water evaporates fairly quickly as you stir the noodles. After about 2 minutes, all the water was gone from my pot, and I was left with perfectly cooked noodles.
Bang Bang Sauce
The pasta sauce does not need to be cooked. All you need to do is whisk a few ingredients together, and then you toss it with the hot pasta.
The key to the flavorful sauce is Thai Sweet Chili Sauce which can be found in most Asian grocery stores or the International aisle at American grocery stores. Make sure to get Thai Sweet Chili Sauce and not regular Thai Chili Sauce, which can be quite spicy! The Sweet Chili Sauce is only mildly spicy and mostly savory and sweet.
Additional Recipe Tips
- To make the sauce healthier, you can substitute half of the light mayonnaise with nonfat plain Greek yogurt, which is what I did for my Skinny Bang Bang Pasta recipe. I think the sauce still tastes very flavorful and creamy with this substitution though the color of your sauce will be more of a salmon pink rather than orange.
- The shade of orange of your sauce will vary depending on the brand of Thai Sweet Chili Sauce you buy. Make sure you are buying Thai Sweet Chili Sauce and not regular Thai Chili Sauce.
- You can make this pasta with chicken, tofu, or no proteins at all.
- The cooking times and measurements are based on the Instant Pot 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Pressure Cooker (6 Quart Version)*. Ingredients and times may need to be adjusted for other versions of the Instant Pot.
*Some of the links contained in this post are affiliate links. Much like referral codes, this means I earn a small commission if you purchase a product I referred (at no extra charge to you).
More Instant Pot Pasta Recipes
If you want more ideas, be sure to check out my post with lots of Instant Pot and Slow Cooker Recipes.
Instant Pot Bang Bang Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb spaghetti noodles
- 3 ½ cups water
- 1 lb precooked shrimp if buying frozen, make sure to completely thaw
- handful of fresh parsley finely chopped
Bang Bang Sauce
- 3/4 cup light mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp Thai sweet chili sauce
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp sriracha sauce
- 1 ½ tbsp lime juice
Instructions
- Break spaghetti noodles in half and place into the inner pot that comes with your Instant Pot. Try to spread the noodles out as much as possible across the bottom of the pot, so that they are not stuck together and are not stacked too high. Pour water over noodles.
- Seal your Instant Pot and set to manual mode, 4 minutes, high pressure. When Instant Pot is done, perform a quick release.
- When it is safe to do so, remove the lid from your Instant Pot. Initially, there will still be some water in your pot. This is normal. Keeping the pot in warm mode, stir your noodles to make sure noodles at the surface are mixed in and fully cooked (sometimes some of the noodles in the top layer are still slightly under-cooked, but they can continue to cook if you quickly mix them in with the other noodles). You should also stir to break up any noodles that may have gotten stuck together during cooking. As you stir, you should notice that the water is evaporating. Continue to stir until all the water is gone from the bottom of the pot and your noodles are mostly dry. (This took me about 2-3 minutes).
- Add the cooked shrimp into your noodles and stir a few times until shrimp are warmed and evenly mixed in.
- Pour in sauce and stir until noodles are evenly coated in sauce. Dish out noodles. Garnish with parsley before serving.
Notes
- The cooking times and measurements are based on the Instant Pot 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Pressure Cooker (6 Quart Version).* Ingredient amounts and cooking time may vary for other versions of the Instant Pot.
- To make the sauce healthier, you can substitute half of the light mayonnaise with nonfat plain Greek yogurt, which is what I did for my Skinny Bang Bang Pasta recipe. I think the sauce still tastes very flavorful and creamy with this substitution although the color of your sauce will be more of a salmon pink rather than orange.
- The shade of orange of your sauce will vary depending on the brand of Thai Sweet Chili Sauce you buy. Make sure you are buying Thai Sweet Chili Sauce and not regular Thai Chili Sauce.
- You can make this pasta with chicken, tofu or no proteins at all.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
it would help if the instructions for the preparations for the sauce could be included in recipe
All you need to do is mix the ingredients for the sauce together. Hope that helps!
This is absolutely amazing. After finishing this the first time, I went back to the store and grabbed the ingredients to make it again! I think this has become my new favorite dish, especially because I’m a complete newbie at cooking, and it genuinely couldn’t be easier. This will definitely be a staple in my cooking routine!
Also, a tip, run your frozen shrimp under COLD water and not hot. Hot will start to cook them and make them a weird texture.
So glad you enjoyed it!
How would I adjust this for gluten free spaghetti?
I have not tested it with gluten free spaghetti
I tried it with gluten free pasta and the time to cook needed to be longer. It also turned out very pasty. The flavor was good but the consistency was not.
Yes, gluten-free pasta is very different from regular pasta. You might like to try our stovetop version of this recipe – you can cook the pasta separately and make the sauce in a different pan.
Is there a non-spicy instant pot recipe?
I have many non spicy Instant Pot recipes: https://kirbiecravings.com/category/recipes/instant-pot/
So is the shrimp cooked on the stove before or are you mixing in cold, thawed pre-cooked shrimp until cooked through?
As stated in the recipe ingredients, the recipe uses precooked shrimp. If you are using frozen precooked shrimp, they need to be thawed before adding.
This recipe was excellent!
I used regular best foods mayo. Every noodle was creamy and the sauce was amazing.
This recipe has now made me want to use the instapot for pasta instead of boiling. So much easier than a pot then straining water out.
Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed!
Made it this week and it was sooo good! Could you freeze the sauce?
I have not tried freezing the sauce so I am not sure.
What can I use instead of honey. Thanks
Most sweeteners should work
Can I use any type of pasta? (Penne, Rigatoni, etc)
Other types of pasta will need different cooking times
Made this for dinner. Was a little bit too mayonnaise-y for my husband but will tweak if needed
feel free to reduce the mayonnaise to get it your husband’s liking
Made this over the weekend. I’ve had my IP for two weeks. I used chicken breast cut into about 1″ chunks. Cooked the chicken with the pasta then added the sauce, like the recipe said. It was soooooo good!! Even better as leftovers — most pasta dishes are better the 2nd day. Sauce was just at touch too sweet for my family so I’ll tweak that a little next time. Otherwise this is a new family favorite. Thank you!!
I’m glad you liked it overall. You can definitely adjust the sweetness to your liking.
Hi I was wondering what 1/2 cup + 1 tsbp of Thai sweet chili meant and how much I should add thank you
It means 1/2 cup thai chili sauce plus an additional 1 tbsp of thai chili sauce.
Can I use whole wheat spaghetti? or will that change the taste?
I have not tested whole wheat spaghetti. Cooking time would most likely differ for cooking whole wheat pasta.
Hi! If I don’t have the Instant Pot, will it be okay to cook Pasta in the regular way?
If you do not have Instant Pot, please use this version instead https://kirbiecravings.com/bang-bang-pasta/