This website may contain affiliate links and advertising so that we can provide recipes to you. Read my disclosure policy.
American Goulash is my kind of comfort food! It’s rich, savory, and full of that cozy, tomato-y goodness. It’s hearty, easy to make, and one bite will have you hooked just like my family is!
A Reader’s Review
Perfect. Followed the recipe! Tasted better than my Mom’s! Thank you for sharing.
How This Goulash Stole My Heart (and Fork)
- One-pot: Everything cooks together in a single pot, which means less cleanup and more flavor as the pasta soaks up the rich, seasoned sauce.
- Family-friendly: Kids love it, but it’s also packed with hearty, comforting flavor that adults can feel good about!
- Freezer-friendly: Perfect for meal prep! Make a batch, freeze it, and enjoy the same rich flavor and texture!
How To Make American Goulash
Making this classic American goulash recipe couldn’t be easier. Cook the beef and onion, and then throw everything together and let it simmer. You’ll have time to make my 1-hour rolls and green goddess salad to have on the side.
- Brown the Meat: Add 2 pounds of ground beef to a large stockpot over medium high heat. Cook and brown the beef for 7-8 minutes. Remove the meat from the pot and drain, leaving about 1-2 tablespoons of grease in the pot.
- Cook the Onion: Add diced onion and cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat until tender. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Make Soup Base: Return the cooked beef to the pot. Add water, beef base, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, soy sauce, Italian seasoning, seasoned salt, paprika, black pepper, and bay leaves. Stir to combine, then bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add Noodles & Simmer: Stir in uncooked noodles. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until al dente. Stir occasionally to prevent the noodles from sticking to the bottom. Just before serving, stir in cheese. Garnish your goulash with fresh chopped Italian parsley on top before serving!
What’s the Difference Between Hungarian and American Goulash?
Hungarian goulash is a hearty stew loaded with meat, vegetables, and plenty of paprika. Hungarian sometimes uses dumplings or potatoes instead of pasta. American goulash skips the extra veggies (aside from the tomato based sauce) and goes all-in with macaroni noodles and cheese. You might also hear it called “American chop suey.”
Pin this now to find it later
Pin It
Classic American Goulash
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 large diced onion
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- 3 cups water
- 1 tablespoon beef base or bouillon
- 2 (15-ounce) cans tomato sauce
- 2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomatoes (one petite diced)
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon seasoned salt
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 cups elbow macaroni noodles uncooked
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- fresh chopped Italian parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Add 1 large diced onion and cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat until tender. Add 4 cloves minced garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Return the cooked beef to the pot. Add 3 cups water, 1 tablespoon beef base, 2 (15-ounce) cans tomato sauce, 2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon seasoned salt, 2 teaspoons paprika, ½ teaspoon black pepper, and 3 bay leaves. Stir to combine, then bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Stir in 2 cups elbow macaroni noodles. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until al dente. Stir occasionally to prevent the noodles from sticking to the bottom.
- Just before serving, stir in 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Garnish with fresh chopped Italian parsley on top before serving!
Video
Notes
- Fridge: Store cooled goulash in an airtight container for 3–4 days.
- Freezer: Freeze in a labeled, airtight container or bag for up to 3 months.
- Reheat: From fridge—warm on stove or microwave in 1–2 min intervals. From freezer—thaw overnight, then reheat on stove.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
More Hearty Soups to Try
When it gets cold outside, I love making a big pot of soup! It warms my soul as well as my heart! Here are some of my favorites!
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.