The Best Homemade Goulash - Wyse Guide (2024)

This homemade goulash, which can easily be argued as one of the best, is an easy-to-make weeknight meal that comes together in under an hour. And much of the time is spent waiting for the sauce to cook. Everything is made in one skillet with rich, almost caramel-like tomato flavors. It’s super yummy and perfect for cozy nights!

Ready for the best-ever homemade goulash recipe?

Goulash is a traditional Hungarian stew. The dish has been taken from my Midwestern home cooks over the years, and each recipe can be different. In school, we would have goulash, a type of tomato sauce mixed with macaroni without much flavor. I was never impressed.

This recipe is what I wish I could have eaten when I was younger. The important part is adding rich tomato flavor with just a bit of herb. Four types of tomato are used, paste, juice, sauce, and diced. Each gives a distinct flavor and texture that make this the best goulash.

Everything you’ll need to make this recipe.

• Beef is the traditional meat when preparing goulash. I use 92% lean ground beef. For a vegetarian version, leave the meat and beef stock out.
• Tomato paste is added and cooked. During cooking, it is caramelized and darkens for a deeper and richer flavor.
• Paprika is a traditional spice added for flavor and color. The recipe uses sweet paprika if you want more heat use hot paprika.
• Dried oregano and dried basil are not traditional. They offset the strong tomato flavors with a bright herb note.
• Tomato sauce, tomato juice, and diced tomatoes are used to add flavor, but also each help give the correct amount of liquid for the macaroni to cook and be a correct texture once finished.
• Macaroni is the noodle that is often used when making a goulash recipe. Elbow macaroni traps sauce into the noodle and holds onto the flavor.

Here’s how to make this recipe.

1. Brown the ground beef. To an oven-safe 12-inch skillet over medium heat, add 1 tbsp of neutral oil. Then add in the diced onion, garlic, and ground beef. Let this mixture cook, breaking up the ground beef into small pieces until the ground beef has browned.

2. Add the tomato paste. To the browned ground beef, add the tomato paste. Stir the paste into the meat mixture and allow it to caramelize for about 6 to 8 minutes.

3. Add the spices, liquid, and pasta. Once the tomato paste has caramelized with ground beef, add in the salt, paprika, dried basil, dried oregano, and black pepper. Work the spices into the meat mixture, ensuring everything is well incorporated before moving on. Then add in the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, beef stock, and tomato juice. Stir everything together and add in the macaroni. Stir the noodles into the liquid to ensure everything is evenly distributed, then cover it and let the mixture simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

4. Add cheese and bake. Once the macaroni has absorbed some of the liquid, the mixture is almost done cooking. Sprinkle shredded cheese over the entire top of the meat and pasta mixture and place the skillet into the oven and bake at 375°F for 10 to 12 minutes. Once baked, serve immediately.

These pro tips will make this recipe a success.

• In most cases, when building flavor, you want to allow the onion to cook for a time by itself. Then, towards the end of the cooking time, add in the garlic, so it does not burn. In this recipe, the onion, garlic, and ground beef are all added simultaneously at the beginning of the cooking to minimize the overall time.
• If your ground beef has a higher fat content, some liquid may be left in the pan after it cooks with the onion in garlic. If so, drain off the excess liquid, so it does not affect the rest of the recipe.
• When the ground beef and tomato paste are caramelized, the mixture will look somewhat dry, and the meat will tend to want to stick to the bottom of the skillet. At that point, you know that it’s time to move on and add in the remaining spices and tomato liquids.
• Once the macaroni has cooked with the meat and tomato mixture, the dish is ready to eat. Rather than add the cheese on top and place it in the oven, the mixture could be eaten. But adding the cheese on top and a bit of baking time makes for a slightly more elevated meal.

Frequently asked questions about this recipe.

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• Sausage and butternut squash pasta

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