Easy Instant Pot goulash recipe! This easy American goulash recipe turns pasta, ground beef, and tomatoes into a delicious electric pressure cooker meal in less than 30 minutes total.
Goulash goes by many names – goulash, American goulash, slumgullion, and American chop suey. No matter what you call it, this is just good old-fashioned comfort food.
American goulash is different than Hungarian goulash. This recipe is made with cooked macaroni, ground beef, tomatoes, and seasoning.
The Instant Pot makes goulash even easier because this quick and easy, one-pot dinner recipe can be made in less than 30 minutes. It’s also made with pantry staple ingredients, and it’s a great recipe to have when you need a fast weeknight dinner.
How to make Instant Pot goulash
Step 1: Brown the ground beef. Drain the fat and return to the inner pot.
Step 2: Stir in the onion and let it cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and stir in.
Step 3: Add the water, and scrape up all of the browned bits from the bottom of the pot as possible. This will help to prevent a burn error message.
Step 4: Add the noodles.
Step 5: Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, seasoning, tomato paste, and soy sauce. Do not stir.
Step 6: Cook and then do a quick pressure release as soon as the goulash has finished cooking.
Tips
- Ground Beef: I make this recipe with 85% lean ground beef. If you use beef with higher fat content, you will need to drain the grease. Ground turkey also works well in this recipe.
- Soy Sauce: I prefer to use lite soy sauce so that I can better control the salt level.
- Salt: I like to wait until the dish is finished to season with salt and pepper because foods cooked in the pressure cooker often need additional seasoning after cooking.
- Toppings: You can serve the goulash as-is or top with a little parsley or even with a bit of shredded cheese.
- Burn: It’s important to try to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the inner pot. This will help to avoid any burn error messages and help to keep the pasta from sticking to the bottom of the inner pot.
Storage
Store any leftover goulash in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It should keep for up to 4 days when properly stored in the fridge.
Instant Pot Goulash
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 cup diced white or yellow onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2-15 ounce cans diced tomatoes
- 15 ounces tomato sauce
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
- 3 cups elbow noodles
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Press sauté on the Instant Pot.
- When hot, add ground beef.
- Cook, stirring regularly, until meat has browned. Carefully drain fat and return meat to pot.
- Stir in onion and cook, stirring regularly, until onion has softened, about 2 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring the entire time.
- Press cancel.
- Stir in the water, scraping up all of the browned bits from the bottom of the inner pot.
- Add the noodles.
- Add the diced tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and Italian seasoning. Do not stir.
- Place bay leaf on top.
- Close and lock the lid. Turn the pressure release valve to sealing.
- Press manual high pressure and adjust the time to 4 minutes. It should take about 10 minutes for the Instant Pot to come to pressure.
- When cooking is finished, quickly release the pressure by carefully turning the pressure release valve to venting.
- Take out bay leaf.
- Stir the goulash and serve.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
- Salt: I like to wait until the dish is finished to season with salt and pepper because foods cooked in the pressure cooker often need additional seasoning after cooking.
- Burn: It’s important to try to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the inner pot. This will help to avoid any burn error messages and help to keep the pasta from sticking to the bottom of the inner pot.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
Nutrition
Disclaimer: Nutritional values were calculated using a third-party tool and are provided as an estimation only.
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Did You Make This?
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The noodles didn’t cook all the way through. They were still hard once finished. Perhaps more liquid is needed. Otherwise, it was pretty good.
Hi! Factors like Instant Pot model and altitude can affect the cooking time. You may find that you need to slightly adjust the cooking time for your situation. However, if you ever run into a situation where the noodles don’t completely cook, all you need to do is to set the lid back on the pot (no need to completely seal it), and let the pasta sit for about 5 minutes. I hope that helps!