We’ve reached the “1 pound of meat isn’t cutting it for our family of 5 anymore” portion of the program. Translation: I am constantly looking for ways to stretch ground beef, especially, and my American Goulash recipe is the perfect way to do it!
This easy and economical beef goulash recipe not only cooks in one pot with ingredients I always have on hand, but it goes from stovetop to table top in under 30 minutes. Every time I make it I ask myself, “Is this really it? Am I missing a step?” NOPE! It really is that simple.
What’s the Difference Between Hungarian Goulash and American Goulash?
Goulash comes from the Hungarian word gulyáshús which means “meat prepared by cattleman”. This dish has been around since the 9th century! Hungarian Goulash is a thick meat and vegetable stew flavored with spices, while American Goulash is a quick dish made from ground beef, tomato sauce, herbs, and elbow macaroni noodles. It’s total comfort food and my whole family practically licks the pot clean every time I make it.
Now, what’s the difference between American Goulash and spaghetti? American Goulash combines the meat sauce and noodles in one pot to cook together, while the meat sauce and noodles are cooked then served separately in spaghetti.
How to Make Goulash Healthier
Almost anytime I make a dish with ground beef I use it as an opportunity to hide vegetables inside because the texture becomes undetectable. Here are a few ways to make this dish a little healthier:
- Add 1 – 2 cups frozen shredded cauliflower when browning the ground beef.
- Add 8oz minced fresh mushrooms when browning the ground beef.
- Use 99% ground turkey breast instead of ground beef.
American Goulash Variations
What I love about this dish is that its versatile – think of the goulash as a blank slate to add seasonings and ingredients to in the spirt of traditional Hungarian Goulash. Here’s a few ways to switch things up:
- Add shredded sharp cheddar cheese to the top of each bowl for a mac and cheese meets spaghetti flavor. SO good.
- Add shredded mozzarella cheese and diced pepperoni, or your favorite pizza toppings, to the top of each bowl for a pizza spin.
- Add shredded cheddar cheese, chili powder, and a can of beans to the pot to turn it into Chili Mac.
Can I Freeze Goulash?
Cooked pasta does not typically hold up well to freezing then thawing. That said, you can prepare this goulash recipe as written stopping shy of adding the pasta. Cool completely then ladle into a freezer bag and freeze flat. Thaw 24 hours before eating in the fridge then pour the contents of the bag into a pot, bring to a boil, add the noodles, and continue cooking per recipe instructions.
How to Make American Goulash
Start by browning ground beef with chopped shallots or onions, garlic, worcestershire sauce, homemade seasoned salt, and pepper.
Next add tomato sauce, petite diced tomatoes, chicken or beef broth (whichever you’ve got in the cupboard,) dried Italian seasoning, more homemade seasoned salt, and a bay leaf then simmer for 10 minutes to help marry the flavors.
Last step is to add gluten free elbow macaroni pasta then simmer, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is tender, 12-14 minutes. I prefer using a corn/rice blend of pasta in this dish as brown rice pasta tends to turn to mush quickly, and soaks up more liquid.
If you don’t need to eat gluten free you can use regular elbow macaroni pasta.
That’s all she wrote! Scoop the American Goulash into bowls then serve with a side salad or roasted vegetables. I hope you love this easy, totally tasty, family-friendly dish – enjoy!
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American Goulash
Description
My easy American Goulash recipe will be a hit with the whole family! This one pot dish is made with fridge and pantry staples in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1lb lean ground beef
- 1 large shallot or small yellow onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 8 shakes gluten free worcestershire sauce (~1/2 Tablespoon)
- 1 teaspoon + extra dash homemade seasoned salt (see notes)
- pepper
- 1-1/2 cups chicken or beef broth
- 15oz can tomato sauce
- 15oz can petite diced tomatoes
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup uncooked gluten free elbow noodles
Directions
- Heat a large skillet or Dutch Oven over medium-high heat. Add beef, shallot or onion, and garlic then break beef up with a wooden spoon. Season with worcestershire sauce, a dash of homemade seasoned salt, and pepper, then brown. Add remaining teaspoon seasoned salt, broth, tomato products, Italian seasoning, and bay leaf then turn heat up to bring to a bubble. Turn heat down to medium/medium-low then gently simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add elbow noodles then continue to simmer, stirring often, until noodles are tender, 12-14 minutes, turning the heat down slightly near the end to maintain a very gentle simmer. Remove bay leaf then taste and add additional seasoned salt and/or pepper if desired. Serve.
This recipe is courtesy of Iowa Girl Eats, http://iowagirleats.com.
This looks very good! I make a super simple goulash: GF pasta, 1 can tomatoes, onions and a can of GF tomato soup. We’ve eaten that goulash since childhood!
Love it!! I plan on my kids growing up with this dish too!
I hear you on the one pound of meat problem! My kids are 12,9, and 4 and now I always make 2 pounds of chicken (we always have some leftovers) and taco’s or hamburgers I always make 1.5 pounds now.
I will make the goulash this week! We have everything and even my son could make this!
So, so simple – I hope you all love it, and he has fun cooking it! :)
You’re not draining the grease before adding the tomatoes, etc.?
I personally don’t, but you could spoon out any excess grease if you wish. I’d avoid turning the whole pan out into a strainer because you run the risk of losing the worcestershire sauce flavor, shallots/onions, and garlic.
Thoughts on doubling this? Can I double everything or do I need to be cautious of some of the salty stuff like the seasoning salt/worcestershire?
I think you could double everything and be just fine!
Keep the “how to stretch a pound of meat” recipies coming! My littles have a big appetite and meals I used to count on for leftovers now only make it one meal. This one looks fast and easy!
Same! I always used to count on leftovers for lunches. Not happening as often anymore!
Iowa Girl Eats comes through again! Got this in my email and immediately texted my family ‘dinner tonight??’ It was a positive response all around!
Will report back tonight!
Wooo! I hope you guys loved it, Carolyn!
This is one of our Sunday night favorites! As my kids have grown and tastes have matured, I now swap out a can of HOT Rotel for the diced tomatoes. The heat is wonderful in this goulash.
Yummm – great idea, Tanya. I’ll keep that one in my back pocket!
Would ground turkey instead of the beef be OK in this dish?
For sure!
Looks delicious – pinned for future reference! 😀 I’d love to hear more about your recipes using frozen riced cauliflower & broccoli (I’m trying to get more veggies in and that sounds like a perfect way!)
I will always throw at least a cup of crumbled frozen cauliflower into any ground meat or rice dish I make. You cannot tell, AT ALL. Another easy favorite of mine is to saute frozen crumbled cauliflower, broccoli, and sweet potato (all in the freezer aisle) in extra virgin olive oil with either chopped shallot and garlic OR the minced dried version of both of those if I’m feeling really lazy, then toss that with cooked pasta, homemade seasoned salt (https://iowagirleats.com/homemade-gluten-free-seasoned-salt-10-ways-to-use-it/) and a little bit of butter. Couldn’t be easier and all my kids love it. You could add chopped chicken or shrimp, or chickpeas for protein if you like!
Oh how I WISH my 3 kids under kindergarten would eat ground beef! Only my youngest will wolf it down but only plain. No sauce! Crazy huh? But I hear you on how other meals just don’t have leftovers anymore because they’re eating more. You know I used to split the Costco 3 pack of 4 lbs of organic ground beef into actually 1 lb packets but I imagine once my kids actually start eating ground beef, I won’t have to anymore. Now I know why Costco packs them as 1.3 lb packs. Ha. I love a good ground beef recipe. Will try this week. Thanks!
HA – yes, there’s got to be a reason behind it! Sounds like it will come in useful for you hopefully soon!
Made this recipe tonight. It was absolutely delicious!
I made this recipe
As easy to make as it looks and so good. My husband wants me to make it again tomorrow night.
This looks awesome, I am absolutely making it for my nieces (and me, I love Beefaroni!). My mom was a goddess of meat stretching. She could feed me, my 6 siblings and my dad who, to put it kindly, enjoys his food. She would sometimes use textured soy protein and we never knew under she told me years later.
I made this tonight and everyone absolutely loved it! Thanks!
Delicious!! will have to try it out
This makes me so happy! My almost 4 year old and I have a running joke that every time she asks me what’s for dinner I say Goulash. I don’t know why since I’ve never tried it before. It will be so much fun to actually make her Goulash! I just may not tell her it’s actually Goulash until she’s tried it :)
Ok that’s amazing!! Let me know how it goes over if you end up making it!!
What do I do if I only have brown rice pasta?
Hi Gracie! It will still work – leftovers might just not hold up quite as well. :)
Kristin – you did it again! I’m out of town with my three young kiddos for the summer. My husband is only coming out on weekends and it’s been … a time of growth for me ;) This is my first recipe dinner since we arrived two weeks ago and I just tried my first bite. It’s a total winner! Snuck some chopped carrots in at the beginning because we basically had snowcones for dinner last night. Off to serve it! Thank you!
Just made this today for my picky ass nieces and my sister who isn’t picky and they all loved it! I did as well, definitely going into regular rotation.
Hungarian Goulash is typically made with sliced or diced meat. This is not attempting to be Hungarian Goulash.
SO good. My crew of boys (5, 6, 8) and my husband loved it. Definitely will be making it again!
This was delicious and easy to make. I did dice up three carrots to add to it. As I was taking my last bites, it occurred to me that some celery would have been good too. My family loved it too. I didn’t take a picture. I was too busy eating. At the end end I almost threw in some frozen mixed vegetables, but I didn’t.
Loved this!! So very tasty. I do not need GF so just made with regular ingredients. Very pleased with the outcome. And one pan is also a definite plus!
This goulash is sooo good! And what makes it even better is how easy it is to make…basically my only dish was the Dutch oven and cutting board. I bought no salt added tomato products and they were perfect!
I made this and all I could taste was the Italian seasoning. Thought it overpowered the dish. If I were to make it again I would completely eliminate or cut back to maybe 1/2 tsp. Could you post a pic of the seasoning you used.
Hi Mary! I just made this for dinner a couple nights ago after a few weeks off and did a double take of that 2 teaspoon measurement too, but it is correct and turned out just as it always has for me. I use this Italian seasoning blend: https://www.tones.com/product/italian-seasoning-blend What seasoning did you use?
I made this last night for dinner. Loved it! Tasty & filling. Great recipe.
Not sure why, but my mom always added a can of green beans to our goulash. It seems odd in a dish with Italian seasonings, but it’s actually really good!
Ooo, I like that idea!
This was excellent! The only changes I made were swapping ground turkey for the beef and using regular pasta instead of GF. Super easy and turned out perfectly!
this was WOW, i doubled, i would recommend adding maybe 1/2 cup less of the broth if doubling!!! Put some in the feeezer and made a couple lunches out of it. Also i did not use gluten free products
I love all your recipes. I just made this and my 2yo who we struggle to get him to eat dinne is eating it. THANK YOU.
I can relate! My picky 2 year old inhales this too! Happy you could find a recipe that works for your family, Susanna!
We will be having this every week!
I saved this to my bookmarks when you posted it but never made it. I was browsing them today looking for something to make for supper when I settled on this. I wasn’t sure I had all the ingredients, but turns out I did! The diced tomatoes were Italian style, and I added a little riced cauliflower to the meat to see if the kids could tell. They were a little tired from their day but both ended up eating it! I’ve been following you for years and just want to say thank you for creating meals that are healthy, easy to follow, and taste yummy!
SO happy to hear this, Lindsay! This is a dish I turn to often as well because I always have the ingredients, and my kids inhale it! Thanks for your feedback!!
I made this recipe last night, adjusted the oregano to my taste, and it turned out fabulous. My husband commented on how the sauce was rich in flavor and he wants me to make it again.
Hi, I had a problem with the pasta cooking. I used penne instead of elbows. could that be the issue? It’s taken longer then the time you’ve stated in the recipe. thanks!
Hi Michelle! Penne usually takes 9-11 minutes to cook while elbows are generally in the 6-8 minute range.
My picky two year old gobbled this up! My husband and I loved it, too. I added a ton of fresh, chopped spinach to get some greens.
Thrilled to hear that, Michelle! I’ve taken to adding frozen riced cauliflower in with the ground beef while it’s browning to pump up the vegetables too!