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A quick and easy meal for busy weeknights, Crockpot Express American Goulash is sure to become a family favorite!
Authentic Hungarian Goulash (also spelled Gulyas) has very little in common with American Goulash. We had a sweet little Hungarian lady in our church years ago, and she would make Goulash for potlucks. It had rich flavors and a deep red color. She even made fresh pasta dough to add to the soup before serving.
This Crockpot Express American Goulash is not anywhere on the level of it’s overseas cousin, but it is delicious, kid-friendly and quick.
I’m was happy to share this delicious recipe on Pressure Cooking Today, a fantastic resource for Crockpot Express users and other pressure cookers alike! Now I’m updating this post to add the recipe here on my own site. This CPE Goulash has been popular in the Crockpot Express Community on Facebook as well!
Oops! Did you forget to pull the ground beef out of the freezer to defrost first? No worries! Read how to cook ground beef (from frozen) in the Crockpot Express here. Then come back to finish your tasty dinner. 🙂
Crockpot Express American Goulash
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
- 3 cloves garlic diced
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 1 can (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
- 2 cans (14.5 oz) cans tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp basil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups large elbow macaroni dry
- 2 cups water
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
- Press Brown/Saute (then start) and add the ground beef, pepper, garlic and onion. Cook on high until the meat is browned and crumbled. Press Start/Stop. Drain excess fat. Return meat mixture to the pot.
- Add the rest of the ingredients in the order listed. Do not stir.
- Close the lid, set the steam release valve to closed. Press Steam (high pressure) and adjust time to 4 minutes.
- When cooking cycle is done, do a quick pressure release. Open the lid and stir. Remove the bay leaves. Sauce will thicken as it cools.
- Garnish with parsley and serve with crusty bread!
Nutrition
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David Hopkins says
Sweet, delicious, cheap and super easy to make!
Nicole Burkholder says
Glad you liked it! Thanks for the rating 🙂
David Hopkins says
When you say cans of “TOMATO SAUCE”, do you mean Tomato Soup?
Nicole Burkholder says
Nope- tomato sauce. It comes in cans of various sizes. You’ll find it on the canned vegetables aisle in the grocery store. (Don’t get tomato PASTE, you need tomato SAUCE.) 🙂
Patricia Casserly says
Would I adjust time if I use a bag of frozen onions and peppers?
Nicole Burkholder says
The peppers and onion are cooked on Saute with the meat (before you add the rest of the ingredients and start pressure cooking.) So no, there’s no need to adjust anything. You may end up with slightly more watery meat/veggie mixture at the beginning since frozen veggies tend to lose a lot of moisture when cooking. But overall it really shouldn’t make a big difference either way.
Bianca says
It says 2 cans of tomato sauce. Does that mean 2 14.5 oz cans?
Nicole Burkholder says
Yes, it’s (2) 14.5 oz each cans of sauce
Theresa says
If i m doubling the recipe do i need to cook for 4 min still or dou le the time also
Nicole Burkholder says
No need to increase the cook time, but be careful with doubling the recipe- be sure there’s plenty of room in the pot so you don’t go past the max fill line.
Arropuchero says
Hello! Can it be frozen with macaroni? Or is it better to froze it without macaroni and add it before eating? Thank you 🙂
Nicole Burkholder says
You can freeze pasta, but the smaller it is, the less likely it is to stand up well to being frozen and then reheated. If it were me, I’d freeze the rest, then when I reheated it, add the pasta at the end 🙂
Arropuchero says
Thank you!!
Karen Freiert says
If you were not adding the macaroni, would you still add the water?
Nicole Burkholder says
Yes, but not as much. You need the water to thin out the sauce a bit and make it more “soup” like, but you don’t need as much if there’s no pasta, that’s for sure.
Erica says
Delicious!
Nicole Burkholder says
Thank you!