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American goulash is an easy, old-fashioned, and comforting meal that is insanely delicious and perfect for the cold winter months. Everything cooks in one pot, even the pasta!
Everyone needs a hearty recipe that they can go to on those chilly days where you want to be warmed up from the inside out! Try this chicken stew, this fantastic beef stroganoff, or this yummy BEST EVER Beef Bourguignon!
What is American Goulash?
Goulash is a hearty dish of stewed beef and tomatoes that was first developed as a Hungarian dish. It typically doesn’t even have pasta, but this American version does and cooks right in the sauce. This makes it an easy and complete meal. It tastes similar to lasagna but without ricotta cheese. I love it because it’s a 1:1 ratio of meaty red sauce with noodles. The more beefy sauce, the better!
This time of year is all about the hearty meals that keep us warm and leave us feeling full and satisfied. American goulash will do precisely that! Plus, it’s easy to make. Get ready for this… You make it all in ONE POT. It only takes about 10 minutes to prepare, and then the rest of the time, it’s just cooking on the stove. This recipe makes a lot, so it’s perfect for feeding a big family, sharing with others, or eating the leftovers for lunch the rest of the week. Enjoy!
Ingredients in One-Pot Goulash
This delicious one-pot meal is perfect when you need an easy recipe for those busy, on-the-go nights. The ingredients are simple, and you probably have most of them already at home and ready to go! See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for exact measurements.
- Ground Beef: I like to use lean ground beef in this recipe.
- Onion: Dice up your onion into small, similar sized pieces.
- Garlic Cloves: If you don’t have fresh garlic cloves on hand then you can use minced garlic. 1/2 teaspoon equals about 1 clove of garlic.
- Water: The water is used as a base to cook the pasta noodles in.
- Beef Base (or bouillon): The beef boullion just ups the beef flavor and adds to the overall taste.
- Tomato Sauce: The tomato sauce will mix everything together.
- Diced Tomatoes: Canned diced tomatoes are easy and work perfect for this sauce.
- Bay Leaves: These add in that classic, deep flavoring to the overall dish.
- Soy Sauce: My favorite one to use is this soy sauce.
- Seasoned Salt: This adds to and enhances the flavors in the goulash.
- Italian Seasoning: You can use store bought or you can make this homemade Italian Seasoning and always have some on hand!
- Paprika: This sweet spices adds in a lot of flavor.
- Black Pepper: The pepper will only add in some seasoning, there isn’t enough for any heat.
- Elbow Macaroni Noodles: The best part about these is that you pour them in uncooked! No worrying about getting these ready beforehand.
- Cheddar Cheese: Freshly shredded cheddar from a block will melt in the sauce better.
- Fresh Parsley: This is used as a garnish for the finished recipe!
Let’s Make Some Dinner!
This American goulash is packed to the brim with beef, noodles, and cheese. The flavors are incredible, and my mouth waters just thinking about it!
- Brown the Meat: Brown ground beef in a large stock pot. Remove from pan and drain. Leave about 1-2 tablespoons grease in pan. Add the diced onion and then cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat until tender. Add the garlic and cook another minute.
- Simmer: Return ground beef to pot along with the water, beef base, cans of tomatoes and sauce, soy sauce, bay leaves, seasoned salt, Italian seasoning, paprika, and black pepper. Then, stir together, bring to a boil, cover, reduce to low and let simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add (uncooked) Noodles: Stir in the noodles then cover, and simmer 15-20 minutes or until al dente. Stir occasionally to prevent noodles from sticking to the bottom.
- Mix in Cheese: Just before serving, stir in the cheese. Serve garnished with fresh parsley.
What’s the Difference Between Hungarian Goulash and American Goulash?
Hungarian goulash is a thick stew filled with meat and vegetables. It sometimes has dumplings or potatoes in it rather than pasta. The classic sample ingredient in traditional Hungarian goulash is paprika. American goulash doesn’t have any extra vegetables (aside from the tomato-based sauce), and it has macaroni noodles and cheese. American goulash also goes by the name “American chop suey.”
Can You Freeze American Goulash?
YES! This is a fantastic meal to make ahead of time! Here is how you can freeze it after it’s been cooked and reheat it later!
- Freeze: Once your goulash has cooled then you can place it in a casserole dish and cover it with a double layer of foil. Or, you can put it in a ziplock bag and lay it flat in your freezer. Make sure to label your container with the date! American goulash can stay frozen for up to 3 months.
- Reheat: When you are ready to eat your goulash, take it out of your freezer and thaw it in your fridge overnight. Heat it up on the stove on medium heat until it is warm throughout! Enjoy!
How to Store Leftovers
This goulash recipe makes a lot so it’s likely that you will have leftovers! This makes a fantastic lunch or dinner the next day!
- In the Fridge: Place your cooled goulash in an airtight container and put it in your fridge. Leftover goulash can last 3-4 days in the refrigerator.
- Reheat: You can heat this back up on the stove on medium heat until it’s warmed through. Or, you can warm it up in the microwave. Cook it for 1-2 minutes on high and stir. Continue this until its warmed up!
What to Serve with Goulash
Goulash is a hearty dish that lends itself to just about every side out there! It’s easy to add things to this meal that your entire family will love! I like to add in some rolls or breadsticks, and a couple of veggies and maybe even a salad. I’ve gathered a few recipes that I have served with this before!
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American Goulash
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 large onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3 cups water
- 1 tablespoon beef base or bouillon
- 2 (15 ounce cans) tomato sauce
- 2 (15 ounce cans) ddiced tomatoes (one petite diced)
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Seasoned salt
- 2 tablespoons Italian Seasoning
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups elbow macaroni noodles uncooked
- 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded
- Fresh Italian parsley chopped
Instructions
- Return ground beef to pot along with the water, beef base, cans of tomatoes and sauce, soy sauce, bay leaves, seasoned salt, Italian seasoning, paprika, and black pepper. Stir together, bring to a boil, cover, reduce to low, and let simmer for 20 minutes.
- Stir in the noodles, cover, and simmer 15-20 minutes or until al dente. Stir occasionally to prevent noodles from sticking to the bottom.
- Just before serving, stir in the cheese. Serve garnished with fresh parsley.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made it with ground turkey, extra garlic, pepper, and used “better than bullion” instead of just water. Made the entire dish in my Insta-Crock. Very easy and tasted great!
This has been an old favorite of mine growing up. Although I never had the actual recipe and I add black olives just because. Thanks for posting this recipe and I’ll look for more.
Yum! Olives are a great idea!
This is delicious. It’s just after the first night the juice disappears and not sure ehow to make it good the second day without loosing the flavor.
Recipe was good but the annoyance of ad’s covering and interrupting the process and having to try to remove them to refind the recipe. Bout time to go to the Betsy Cookbooks.
Hi! I’m so sorry about that. At the top of every page there is a button that says “jump to recipe”. If you click on that, it will take you all the way to the bottom of the page where the recipe card and instructions are. 🙂
Jim,do you work for free?Ads help pay so you can get all these great recipes from this site.
I used two cans of diced tomatoes w/basil, garlic and oregano cause that’s what I had on hand. I decreased the Italian seasoning to one tsp because of that. I didn’t have tomato sauce so I used a 29 oz can of tomato puree and I used 3 cups of beef broth instead of water w/bouillon. I didn’t have soy sauce so I used coconut aminos instead. I never use onion, I used 1 Tbls onion powder in place of that and I doubled the amount of macaroni. It was DELICIOUS!! Everyone went back for seconds!! I just had some for lunch today and it was even better. This is a keeper recipe in my house now!
YUM!!
Way too much Italian seasoning – in fact think it was a misprint – I think 1 tsp would be better. But I made it as written and now can’t eat it because of the strong Italian seasoning. Anyone have suggestions on how to cut the strong Italian seasoning taste?
Did anyone else use 2 tbsp of Italian seasoning??? I’m making this now
I love this dish very much! I make it all the time! Reminds me of my childhood! Makes me miss my grandma! Every dish I’ve made of yours has been great! I love the chicken parmigiana a lot too!
Thank you so much! Hearing things like this make me so happy!
Not enough pasta/too much liquid, too much ground beef. It needs 3-4 cups of pasta, and only 1 lb of ground beef.
Excellent! Will definitely put this recipe in regular rotation. Few alterations: omitted the soy sauce, added mushrooms and used 4 cups of cavatappi instead of elbow macaroni. Didn’t see any reason to remove the browned ground beef to saute the onions and deglaze pan. Can’t imagine including the soy. Too much sodium otherwise.
This dish is so delicious. I added 3 cups of pasta. I have these macaroni elbows that are larger than the usual ones and they worked perfectly. What I love is the one pot meal! I was concerned that this dish would be very salty with the seasoning salt and soy but it wasn’t. Seasoning was perfect. Thanks for sharing this recipe. Will make this one of my regular dishes.
Delicious. I ran out of seasonings…so added a packet of McCormack..Sloppy Joe seasoning as I had it on hand still wonderful and easy to make..
Absolutely delicious!! Not only do the boyfriend and I enjoy it, it is one of my coworkers favorite meals but his wife refuses to make it for him so I always put some aside for him and he’s thrilled!!
That’s why it’s called AMERICAN goulash. Doesn’t have anything to do with Hungarian or Italian.
Double the pasta!!! 4 Cups Not 2!!!
I agree 2cups is not enough.
I use stewed tomatoes instead of regular canned tomatoes and it comes out so tasty!!
Definitely American goulash. I plan to make this but using Impossible burger.. I rarely eat meat anymore..
I grew up in Chicago and I am of Eastern European heritage. Goulyas is chunks of beef and or pork, onion, in a lighter tomato sauce with lots of garlic, paprika, salt and pepper and about a tablespoon of caraway seed cooked until dissolved. Served over a bed of thick noodles, dab of sour cream optional.
Unfortunately I tend to refer to this American version posted as Hamburger Helper.