This goulash is a hearty beef stew prepared in the Hungarian tradition that tastes fantastic over buttered noodles and topped with sour cream.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 ½ pounds boneless beef chuck roast, cut into 2-inch cubes
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons Hungarian paprika
- 2 teaspoons caraway seeds, crushed
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- ½ teaspoon ground thyme
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 4 cups chicken broth, divided
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon white sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
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- Season beef with salt and black pepper.
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- Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over high heat; cook and stir beef in hot oil in batches until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes per batch.
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- Transfer to a large stockpot and reserve drippings in the skillet.
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- Return skillet to medium heat; stir onions into the reserved drippings, drizzle olive oil over onions, season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until onion has softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to the stockpot with beef.
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- Combine paprika, caraway seeds, black pepper, marjoram, thyme, and cayenne pepper in the skillet and toast over medium heat until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
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- Add 1 cup chicken broth and stir; transfer to the beef and onion mixture.
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- Stir 3 cups chicken broth into beef mixture. Add tomato paste, garlic, vinegar, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and bay leaf; place stockpot over high heat and bring to a boil.
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- Reduce heat to low and simmer until a fork inserts easily into the meat, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
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- Real goulash is more like a soup, so if you want yours thinner, just add 2 or 3 extra cups of broth.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 573 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 13 g |
| Cholesterol | 134 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 36 g |
| Saturated Fat | 14 g |
| Sodium | 1757 mg |
| Sugars | 8 g |
| Fat | 41 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Made as written. Meat was tender, sauce was silky, flavor was awesome. The cayenne does add some heat. So, either eliminate or cut in half depending on your family’s tastes. My family loved this recipe. Thanks Chef John.
I used beef broth instead of chicken broth.
This was fantastic! Yes, it is on the spicy side but I will make this again and again. As per the usual, well done Chef John!
Love your videos! This recipe is pretty close to the one I’ve ended up with after several years of experimentation. I usually start with 3 or 4 pounds of chuck, equal amount by weight of onions. I add sautéed mushrooms and 2 diced raw carrots before putting everything together to simmer. I use much more sweet paprika–1/2 cup, more garlic also. And I have found that it takes more like 3.5 hours for the beef to get to that fall-apart stage I love so much. So good to see that my tinkering with this has ended up so close to yours!
The cayenne pepper ruins this otherwise really good recipe. If you make the recipe without the pepper, I’d give it 4 stars.
This goulash was brilliant. Cooked in slow cooker for 8 hours. The house smelt delightful. Husband and Son raves about it
Very good dish but very hot due to the cayenne pepper. Cut the cayenne pepper down to one quarter tsp and make sure you have sour cream as a side
What a nice surprise. (Picky husband loved it. I didn’t use the word “goulash” until he confirmed that he loved it.) I followed the directions aside from using a pork shoulder (It’s what I had in the freezer.) To compensate, I did use beef broth rather than chicken broth. Be patient and let this cook for many hours uncovered. I let it cook for 3-4 hours and the meat was so very, very tender. You can’t go wrong letting it gently simmer for hours, the meat will only get more tender. In the final half hour, I added some rough-chopped mushroom and 1/4c of sweet red wine. Again, simmer UNcovered since you want the vast majority of the liquid to boil off. The consistency should be similar to a ragu. I plated this by ladling the sauce over spaetzle, then I put a big blob (1-2T) of sour cream on top to swirl into the sauce. I used half the suggested amount of cayenne as hubs doesn’t care for much heat.
What a top notch recipe! Our only changes were to use 1.25 pounds of stew meat and added vegetables during the last 30 minutes as we are trying to eat less meat as we get older, increase fiber with vegetables, reduce expenses and reduce costs as well. The spices gave us a slight burning taste afterwards but I added a spoon of unflavored greek yogurt on top of mine. We couldn’t crush the caraway seeds but I will find a way to next time to get the full flavor. Definitely, a recipe that I want to make again and for company as well. Looking forward to leftovers now.
I love this recipe so much, it’s so hearty and has a unique flavor. It is definitely spicy which I love! For the hungarian paprika I use one tbs sweet paprika, 1 tbs hot.
so very good will serve it for company, no changes made
Great recipe! A house favourite now. I added more garlic (4 cloves) because we like it. Also, it seems to work to put carrot in it if you want to add a little sweetness without putting sugar in it. We didn’t have balsamic vinegar, but apple cider vinegar seemed to work out fine for us.
This stew looks absolutely scrumptious once it is all put together. I have authentic Hungarian paprika I bought at a small market and the stew looks red and absolutely divine. My father was Hungarian and this stew was made sometimes, always my father’s favorite, but all the kids loved it too. It was so good it never lasted more than one night even though a big batch was made. My mother made the actual dumplings to pour this over but the broad noodles will do in a pinch. The caraway is an absolute game changer with this stew, and the bay leaf flavours it subtly with its taste. I love this stew!
We are from Germany and we love this recipe. Very authentic Hungarian goulash, especially when you get Hungarian paprika.
We love this recipe! May this years ago and forgot about it. That I just rediscovered it have made it 5 or 6 more times in the last 3 months. I omit the Cayenne pepper cause I do not like my mouth on fire. I do however add some vegetables like carrots and celery and we serve it over buttered egg noodles and garnish With sour cream and any fresh Herb I have laying around. A must try.
Really good, will definitely make again!
This was soooo delicious! And easy to follow! We loved it
Followed the recipe and it turned out great. Didn’t know my wife loved this while growing up. Will make again.
Not for us. While we all had a nice time coming together and making this, it wasn’t a nice time eating it. There were many flavors that were new to us, and it just didn’t work out flavor wise. We usually cook the meat much longer in a slow cooker, and this could be a part of it. Too different for us.
This was wonderful!! My hubby, who is super particular, loved it. I always love Chef John’s recipes and go to them first. Sometimes they’re a little more complicated but they always come out fabulous. This one will definitely go into the regular rotation. The only thing I changed was leaving out the cayenne, for that picky husband I mentioned. Plenty flavorful without that bit of kick.
Freaking tasty!