American Goulash Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 large onion, diced (~1.5 cups)
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 quart beef broth
• 28 oz can whole tomatoes (crushed by hand) or diced tomatoes
• 6 oz can tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 cups elbow macaroni
• Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Brown the Beef and Onion

Heat a large pot or dutch oven over high heat. Add the canola oil – it should move freely around the pan after ~30 seconds.

Add the ground beef and cook for ~5 minutes, breaking it into small pieces. You want crispy brown edges, not gray steamed meat.

Add the diced onion and keep cooking for ~5-7 minutes until the onion goes translucent and all the moisture cooks off. The bottom of the pot should look pretty dry.

Stir in the garlic powder, paprika, and Italian seasoning. Cook for ~1 minute until it smells amazing.

Build the Sauce

Pour in the beef broth and bring to a gentle boil. Use your spoon to scrape up all those brown bits on the bottom – that’s pure flavor.

Add the tomato paste and stir until it dissolves completely. No lumps.

Add the tomatoes (if using whole, crush them with your hands as you add them), bay leaves, and soy sauce. The soy sauce adds depth without making it taste Asian.

Once it’s boiling, cover and drop the heat to low. Simmer for ~20-30 minutes to let everything meld together.

Add the Macaroni

Take off the lid and give it a stir. The sauce should have thickened up nicely.

Pour in the dry macaroni right into the pot. Stir so all the pasta gets coated with sauce.

Cover again and simmer for ~15-20 minutes until the pasta is tender. Stir once halfway through – sometimes the top layer stays crunchy if you don’t.

Season and Serve

Fish out the bay leaves and toss them.

Taste and season with salt and pepper – I usually need about 1/2 teaspoon of each but start small and work up.

The pasta soaks up the sauce as it sits, so if it looks too soupy at first, give it 5 minutes.

Ladle into bowls and eat while it’s hot. This reheats great the next day – just add a splash of water or broth to loosen it up.

American Goulash

This is the goulash I grew up eating – nothing like the Hungarian version but who cares when it tastes this good. Ground beef, macaroni, and tomatoes all cooked together in one pot. It's what my mom made when she needed to feed us something cheap and filling that we'd actually eat.

Pin Recipe Print Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 50 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr

Ingredients

• ▢ 2 tablespoons canola oil
• ▢ 2 pounds ground beef
• ▢ 1 large onion diced (~1.5 cups)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• ▢ 1 tablespoon paprika
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• ▢ 2 bay leaves
• ▢ 1 quart beef broth
• ▢ 28 oz can whole tomatoes crushed by hand or diced tomatoes
• ▢ 6 oz can tomato paste
• ▢ 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• ▢ 2 cups elbow macaroni
• ▢ Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

• Heat large pot with oil over high heat until shimmering.
• Brown ground beef 5 minutes until crispy, breaking into small pieces.
• Add onion, cook 5-7 minutes until translucent and moisture evaporates.
• Stir in garlic powder, paprika, Italian seasoning, cook 1 minute.
• Add beef broth, bring to boil, scraping bottom.
• Stir in tomato paste until dissolved.
• Add crushed tomatoes, bay leaves, soy sauce. Bring to boil.
• Cover, reduce heat, simmer 20-30 minutes.
• Add macaroni, stir to coat.
• Cover and simmer 15-20 minutes until pasta is tender, stirring once.
• Remove bay leaves.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Let rest 5 minutes before serving.