Hungarian Beef Goulash

Late last year my aunt Margie went to Hungary and brought me back a gift bag that included Hungarian sweet paprika. I swooned! Then I spent ages combing through my Pinterest boards to decide how I was going to use that lovely paprika. This is not a decision to be made lightly, and I debated it for a while. In the end, I decided to start with a classic goulash. So let’s finally open that paprika and find out what it’s like to make this Hungarian Beef Goulash recipe with authentic Hungarian paprika.

Hungarian beef goulash is a spicy beef stew with onions and plenty of paprika. Here’s an easy recipe for this classic dish where everything cooks in a single pot.

Recipe Author: Julia at Savory Tooth
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The Ingredients

I was a little surprised at how short the list of ingredients for this recipe was. I’m not sure why since I’ve never made goulash before, but I assumed there would be tons of ingredients and I would need to do lots of prep work. Not so!

In fact, I had most everything on hand, and I only had to shop for the fresh ingredients and the vegetable broth. All were easy to find, and the beef was about $20 for 3.2 pounds. A little pricey at first glance, but then again it was a lot of meat.

I did my usual of buying a whole chuck roast and cutting it into smaller pieces. That way I get the cut of meat I want and the pieces are the size I want. It’s worth that little bit of extra effort.

Hungarian Beef Goulash Ingredients
Beef stew meat, tomato paste, vegetable broth, onion, garlic, olive oil, cayenne pepper, salt, and sweet paprika

The Process

The instructions for this beef goulash recipe were short and easy to follow, and it was ready in the amount of time specified. Here is how my time was spent:

  • 11 minutes to prep
  • 2 hours 13 minutes to cook
  • 2 hours 24 minutes total

The only time I was unsure about the instructions was at step 3 when it said to brown the beef in the pot with the onions and garlic. I used a 5-quart pot, but it was very crowded (there were a lot of onions), and the beef really didn’t brown well. Fortunately, not getting a nice sear on the beef chunks didn’t seem to affect it, and it still cooked up to be tender and juicy.

Beef chunks coated in a mixture of paprika and cayenne pepper
Beef chunks coated in a mixture of paprika and cayenne pepper

So how was it?

Clear & Accurate Directions
Accurate Time(s)
Appearance
Taste
Sweet Hungarian paprika paired with cayenne pepper gave this beef goulash so much flavor! Simmering for hours produced tender, juicy chunks of meat with an unbelievably good sauce. It was made to be poured over egg noodles! There aren’t a lot of ingredients in this recipe, but good quality meat and fresh paprika are key to making it amazing. Paprika goes bad fast, so be sure to buy a fresh bottle if you don’t have any on hand. Oh, and go with sweet paprika so it tempers the heat from the cayenne pepper.
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The Hungry Pinnerhttps://www.hungrypinner.com
I'm Candice, and I'm The Hungry Pinner. I created this blog to share my love for cooking and my experiences with the MANY recipes I've found on Pinterest over the years. Join me as I blog my way through those recipes to find out if they are worth trying yourself.

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Sweet Hungarian paprika paired with cayenne pepper gave this beef goulash so much flavor! Simmering for hours produced tender, juicy chunks of meat with an unbelievably good sauce. It was made to be poured over egg noodles! There aren’t a lot of ingredients in this recipe, but good quality meat and fresh paprika are key to making it amazing. Paprika goes bad fast, so be sure to buy a fresh bottle if you don’t have any on hand. Oh, and go with sweet paprika so it tempers the heat from the cayenne pepper. Hungarian Beef Goulash