Home


Submit Recipes

Hungarian Beef Goulash

Categories: BeefWorld Cuisine (European: Hungary)
Contributed by: Jacqueline&David (Jacqueline)~~Adapted from recipe in 'The Joy Of Cooking' cookbook.

This is so delicious! It seems like something kids would probably like as well.  I found the recipe in the Joy of Cooking cookbook and stick to the recipe pretty much. In America, some people say 'goulash' when they mean macaroni noodles with hamburger and a little red sauce to hold it together. That isn't Hungarian goulash. This goulash is very saucy, red from the V-8 juice and paprika, and has nice bite-sized pieces of stew beef/chuck. I recommend using chuck steak and cutting it into bite-sized pieces rather than buying precut 'stew beef meat'. Both are fine, but the chuck is more tender than some of the cuts they put in the precut packs. Trim fat off the chuck. By the way, you dice the green pepper fine enough that after the 1 1/2 hrs cooking, you can no longer see green pepper in it any longer. It's just incorporated into the sauce.

Good served over egg noodles. Also good over spaetzle (those yummy little German egg-flour dumplings the size of large peas.) Yet spaetzle is so good on its own that the flavor gets overwhelmed by the flavor of this sauce. We prefer the egg noodles for this reson. (Plus it's so easy to boil egg noodles!) If you want the Spaeztle recipe, look under the Pasta/Noodles category.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2-2 1/2 lbs chuck steak (or stew meat) cut in bite-sized pieces
  • 1 green pepper, chopped somewhat finely
  • 2 TBLS butter *and* 2 TBLS oil (such as canola oil)
  • 1 1/2 cups onion, chopped (about 1 large)
  • 1 cup (plus) V-8 juice
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 2 (maybe a little more) TBLS flour

DIRECTIONS

1. Brown meat in butter/oil. Do not drain.
2. Add onion and saute until limp. Then add 1 cup V-8 juice, green pepper, salt and paprika.
3. cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking, particularly toward end time.
4. After the 1 1/2 hrs are up, whisk flour and a little extra V-8 juice together to make a slurry. Pour into the pot and stir well. Heat at least 5 more minutes to cook the flour. You may need to play with the amount of flour, more or less (perhaps more?) depending on how thick you want your sauce. Try the 2 TBLS first. That may even be thicker than you want.
5. Serve over noodles or spaetzle.