by Holly
Ok, if there is one thing you need to know about me, it’s that I could literally eat macaroni and cheese 3 times/day… 7 days a week. Oh, every single day.. forever.
And.. I LOVE the boxed kind and I love Hamburger Helper. All the macaroni, homemade, baked, boiled, slow cooked, boxed, frozen.. every single one of them I love.
Well, this is in my top two. Yes, I just said that! It’s in my TOP 2 (along with my Ultra Creamy Slow Cooker Mac & Cheese)!! That means wow, it’s super awesome! To me, it’s a super close match to the boxed Hamburger Helper but you know each and every ingredient in this recipe!
The best part, it’s 20 minutes start to finish!
Click print here ↓
CHEESEBURGER MACARONI (STOVE TOP). YOU’LL NEVER BUY THE BOXED KIND AGAIN!
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 onion diced
- 1 cup chicken broth or water
- 2 cups milk
- 1 1/2 cups uncooked macaroni noodles
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon each garlic powder, sugar and paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese
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Instructions
- In a small bowl combine cornstarch, garlic powder, sugar, pepper and paprika. Set aside.
- Brown ground beef & onion in a pan until no pink remains. Drain any fat.
- Add milk, broth and macaroni to beef. Stir in cornstarch and spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 9-12 minutes or until noodles are cooked.
- Remove from heat and stir in cheese until melted. Serve hot.
(Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.)
Tried this tonight and it was delicious! Definitely going to make it again! Thanks so much for sharing!
You’re welcome, so glad you love it Becka!
This is awesome! I had a hankering for some kind of homemade cheeseburger macaroni tonight and didn’t know whether that was a thing. I was going to make it up with a cheese sauce from a roux, but that would have been weird and higher in calories. The way you did it with milk and chicken broth/water is ingenious! And true to the box recipe. Brilliant!
I love the comments about adding Dijon or broccoli. Both changes sound yummy. I made it as written. It’s perfect for me as written. I can’t respect people that make a recipe and call it bland. If you don’t know how to cook, that’s on you! A recipe is a guide. If you think your finished dish is bland, add more of the spices in the recipe. The fact that no one called out that theirs was runny, their noodles were over/undercooked, or anything else proves that this is a well written recipe. And in fact, I made the spices as indicated in the recipe, and they were perfect. If any of your complainers have ever tried writing a recipe, it is super difficult to do and sometimes requires making the dish multiple times to get everything in the recipe accurate, and Holly, you did an awesome job of both inventing this dish, and correctly documenting the process. I need to dive into my dinner now. Thank you!!!!!
I’m so glad you love the cheeseburger macaroni! Enjoy your dinner!
Hi, Holly, I did enjoy it, and bought more hamburger, cheese and noodles to make it again. Thanks again!
I only had mild cheddar instead of sharp cheddar and I read that some people thought it was bland even WITH the sharp cheddar, so I added some burger seasonings to the raw meat first and it turned out great!
1 tsp onion salt (because I also didn’t have any fresh onion)
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 T Worcestershire sauce (or 1 T of soy sauce might also work here)
Thank you for sharing Erin. So glad you loved it!
This was really bland. I added Season All, which helped, but my son took one taste and spit it out. Not good at all. I’m going to try the Velveeta version next time.
I’m sorry to hear that your family didn’t love this macaroni as much as mine does. Maybe you’d prefer to try the Cheesy Taco Skillet or Cheesy Fiesta Skillet, both made with Velveeta.
Hi!!! Just thought you should know that I enjoyed this recipe. I did follow the direction but, I taste test my food and I thought it needed salt so I added a 1/2 teaspoon to it. I also, added broccoli to it to give it some veggies and color. My son who has Autism actually ate it! Like Holy Tomatoes! To get him to eat anything is a struggle but, he actually liked it. Will use this again and I may try red bell pepper with it instead of broccoli. <3
LOL! So glad your son loved this recipe… I love the addition of broccoli, thank you for sharing!
I’m not finding the measurements for the sugar, peprika, and garlic powder in the recipe. Can you let me know ?
Thanks
1 teaspoon each garlic powder sugar and paprika. Hope that helps!
Unfortunately, I found this bland. I used sharp cheddar and chicken broth. Added extra garlic powder and paprika at the end to try to perk it up and then seasoned salt, but it was just blah. I thought it didn’t look all that appetizing in the pan either. I didn’t sprinkle parsley because of potential child revolt at the discovery of green things. I really wanted an easy hamburger pasta recipe that didn’t have ketchup or tomato sauce but this wasn’t it.
Sorry you didn’t enjoy it, we LOVE this easy recipe!
Definitely add Dijon mustard, soo delicious!
This was super easy & so good!! Bonus that I already had all the ingredients at home.
So glad you loved it!!
Thank you. I cannot say thanks enough. I have an almost 10mo baby boy (my 3rd and final child some 18 years after the last!) who is now eating dinners with us. I’ve been struggling to find easy and quick meals that are not processed and also not just plain meat and vegetables. My older kids and husband all love hamburger helper but I just can’t cook that stuff (containing unknown ingredients and sodium galore!) anymore now that the baby is eating with us. Anyway, I used mini shells for ease of gum mashing for baby and it turned out perfect! Everyone LIVED it. Sorry to rant on and on. I don’t usually leave reviews or comments and just keep to myself but I just HAD to personally thank you.
Thank you for letting me know how much your family enjoyed the Cheeseburger Macaroni Deborah! An easy dish for a busy mom, with hungry kiddos!
I wanted to love this but it was just ok… I’m happy that it was quick and easy and I appreciate that the recipe didn’t have a million ingredients but I’m also a little annoyed that I used expensive organic meat and cheese and the dish isn’t anything special flavor-wise. Maybe I should’ve paid more attention to the reviews stating that. :( I don’t think my toddler will be impressed, either…
This is definitely one of my favorites, I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it!! Did you use the seasonings included in the recipe (garlic powder etc)? Was your cheddar a sharp cheese?
Did you make this with chicken broth or water? The broth adds a lot of great flavor too.
I used to make this all of the time, but also added a can of stewed tomatoes! So good.
Yum!
I have pretty much the same recipe. Never have made it but mine never calls for any cheese weird because it is CHEESEBURGER skillet macaroni. Right? Now in the directions it says stir in cream cheese and cheddar cheese until melted and creamy sauce has formed. Not sure how much to use of each?
I made this tonight with Beef Broth and Rice milk. I added mushrooms when cooking the meat and 1/5 packet of beef onion soup mix. Came out kinda like a stroganoff.
Made this tonight and made it pretty much as written! I used ground chicken ( kids do not like ground beef) and noticed people were commenting it needed salt so I added 1/2 tsp seasoning salt. I also used half cheddar cheese , half Valveeta and because I am strange and need veggies in everything I added a whole head of broccoli :) kids asked for thirds! Even my extra picky two year old licked the bowl!!
Haha, great to hear! :D Thank you!
Don’t have anything to compare it to but It was good. It was not enough to feed 2 adults and 2 teenagers so double it if you have a family of 4 or serve it with a side.
Great recipe! One of my husband’s favorites!
Mine too Meredith!! It’s so good!!
Can I freeze this?
I haven’t tried freezing this recipe.
What did you garnish it with?
A little sprinkle of parsley.
I’ve made this recipe twice in the last week the first time with chicken broth and today with water. Wayyyyy better with chicken broth. Both times it was delicious and the left overs are even better!
Great suggestion, Sarah! Thanks for sharing.
Omg, I pinned this recipe a while ago & finally made it tonight – one word, AMAZING!!!!!! So easy & perfect for the fam (just needed a touch of salt at the end). Thank you so much, will be looking for more of your recipes to make in the future :)
– Heather
ps – I love wine & cheese too!
So glad you and your fam loved it!! :) And cheers.. wine & cheese is the best!
This is excellent!! Thank you!! :-D
Sooo much tastier than the box mix . . .
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! :)
Thank you Holly for all the nice recipes. Have a fun weekend.
You too Liz! Thank you for stopping by!
Delicious! 12 minutes was too long to cook. All the liquid evaporated, but it was still full of flavor and the cheese melted and blended well! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the feedback Holly! If could be that your stove was warmer than mine. I’m glad you enjoyed this!
Would this recipe work if I used left over shredded chicken?
I have only tried it as written so I can’t say for sure. I think it would work but it would definitely change the flavor.
I don’t have cornstarch…..could I use flour instead?
I haven’t tried it but I’m sure it would work. You will need about 3T of flour to replace 1T of cornstarch.
I did it with the flour and 3tbl was perfect! This tasted great. I also added 1 tbl of onion powder and used garlic pepper instead of regular pepper….holy crow. Super good and easy to make! Thanks for the recipe!
That’s perfect, thank you for sharing Jenn!!
Hi Holly,
I’m sure this recipe is much better than the boxed stuff and I’m going to try it.
I love that the macaroni cooks right in with the other ingredients for a quick and easy one pot meal. I can see myself making this often :)
Thank you Forrest! This is one of my favorites!
I added a drained can of rotel and extra cheese it turned out great !
What a yummy addition! Thank you for sharing!
I made this tonight, and it turned out great! I grew up eating the box kind, but when I started cooking I became grossed out by processed and fake foods. Until recently, I used the Annie’s box mix because it was free of artificial ingredients, but they stopped making it! I am so happy to have a go to recipe that I can make from scratch!
Just made this – I added extra macaroni because this dish is feeding my family. That made it sticky (yum) and thick. I added a little more warmed milk to help the cheese melt. I used 1 cup Velveeta and 1 cup sharp cheddar. I season my food in layers, onions get s&p, ground beef gets s&p. I agree with another comment about using chili powder instead of paprika. Overall, great, quick meal – it did need some salt. Thank you for this recipe, my family is inhaling it!
Kinda of bland. Any ideas to make it more flavorful?
What type of cheese did you use? You could maybe use a sharper cheddar or add in another type of cheese, extra onion or garlic powder or other seasonings that you enjoy. If you used low-sodium chicken broth you might like to try regular.
I added taco seasoning to make it taco flavor …kids loved it!
Great idea, that would be delicious! I’m glad your family loved it!
That’s an awesome suggestion, Suzanne! Thank you :)
We thought it was a little bland also, so the second time I made it, I added a couple of swirls of mustard and ketchup to the finished dish and I happened to have some crumbled bacon which I added. It turned out really much more flavorful than the first time I made it and we liked it!
I used ground turkey because it’s what I had out at the time. I also used a can of Rotel tomatoes and green chiles. The ground turkey made it bland, unfortunately, but kids and hubby were still greatly enthused by it. When I plan ahead for this recipe next time, I will use ground beef. And extra cheese!
If you add the Rotel Tomatoes with green chiles is that substituted for the liquid?
What should the finished consistency be? I made this tonight for dinner and it came out soupy. It still was super yummy and loved by the fam. Just curious how it comes out normally.
Mine is always about the same consistency of the boxed mix.
Whenever you add cornstarch to a liquid, make sure you bring it to a full boil afterwards. Otherwise, it will not thicken.
I used chili powder instead of paprika to give it a little kick.
Four thumbs up! Two from me and two from hubby! Made this tonight and was so happy at the final result.Very easy to follow directions and well written recipe. Will definitely make this again!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Great recipe. It was Most Viewed on last week’s Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop and will be featured this week! Yipee!
Pinning it :)
Thank you for the feature Sinea! :)
Oooh, I like this! This will save me from having to buy the package in the store. I swear people in my City give you dirty looks for buying boxed foods. Haha.
Love it. I usually make my own cheeseburger Macaroni but I always make a cheese sauce separate and add to mixture once every thing is done. Your way is so much easier I can not wait to try.
Has anyone tried beef broth instead of chicken?
How many servings does this make?
This makes 4 servings.
why wouldn’t you use beef broth instead of chicken broth, since the meat in the recipe is beef?
I am going to try that next time!
All I had was chicken broth and my bf loved it he usually hates ground beef and he went back for seconds :) so beef broth or chicken broth this recipe is bomb
So glad you enjoyed it Jess! Thank you for the tip about the chicken broth!