Easy Crockpot Goulash is the perfect make ahead meal for busy families! It is hearty, delicious and the perfect comfort food served alongside Easy Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits!
American Goulash (not to be confused with Hungarian Goulash) is made with ground beef, onions, mushrooms and pasta smothered in a tomato based broth. This easy Crockpot Goulash is easy to make ahead of time and everyone absolutely loves it!
Easy Crockpot Goulash
Old fashioned goulash is a complete meal in one bowl that will keep your family satisfied and their bellies happy. Serve it with fresh rolls and a side salad if you like. Your family will absolutely love the taste and you will love the simplicity!
What is Goulash?
While Hungarian Goulash is a paprika seasoned meat stew/soup, an American Goulash is a completely different dish.
A beef goulash recipe in North America is more commonly a tomato based ground beef and macaroni dish. Other vegetables are added such as onion and green peppers for flavor. This dish goes by many other names as well (like American Chop Suey) but our family has always just called it beef goulash!
Can you make Goulash in a Crockpot?
While most Goulash recipes are made on the stovetop, allowing this dish to simmer in the slow cooker is a perfect make ahead meal. Not only can it be made ahead of time, the flavors are so much better when it cooks in the slow cooker all day long! The perfect dish to come home to.
- Convenient: Just put the ingredients in and let the slow cooker do all of the work.
- Flavorful: As the meat sauce cooks all day for this goulash recipe, it has tons of flavor.
- Make Ahead: This can be made ahead of time meaning you come home to a meal ready to enjoy.
How to Make Old Fashioned Goulash in the Crockpot
Making Crockpot Goulash is super simple!
- Brown ground beef, onions and garlic.
- Add all the ingredients (except noodles), stir, cover and cook on high for 2 hours or on low for 4-5 hours.
- Prepare your noodles (this also can be done ahead of time and placed in a refrigerator), then add to the slow cooker for about 5-10 minutes to heat through.
While you can add raw noodles to the crockpot for the last 30-40 minutes, for the best results, I highly recommend cooking the noodles on the side and stirring them in for serving. I have found that, depending on the brand, adding raw noodles can become gummy in texture. The best and most consistent results were achieved by cooking the pasta separately.
As the temperature drops, stews, chilis and soups are a welcome change from summer barbecued dishes. Crockpot Goulash is the perfect comfort food meal that will warm you to your core this fall. So simple to make and equally as delicious, you just have to give it a try!
More Crockpot Recipes You’ll Love!
-
- Crockpot Chicken and Rice – Perfect weeknight meal!
- Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie Soup
- Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup
- CrockPot Lasagna Soup – Will warm you up this fall!
- Easy Crock Pot Chili Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 ½ medium yellow onions diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- ½ cup water
- 24 ounces pasta sauce jarred or canned
- 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes with juices, 1 can
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 8 ounces canned mushrooms with juices, 1 can
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon seasoned salt or to taste
- 3 cups medium shells uncooked
Instructions
- Brown ground beef, onions and garlic until no pink remains. Drain any fat.
- Add ground beef mixture to CrockPot. Add all remaining ingredients except the uncooked shells.
- Cook on High for 2 hours or low for 4-5 hours.
- Prepare shells al dente according to package directions. Drain well and stir into meat sauce. Cover and cook an additional 10 minutes to heat through.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Main Course, Pasta
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Can you substitute potato chunks instead of pasta?
Thanks,
Laurie
I have only tried this recipe as written, but if you make the change let me know how it turns out!
Do you leave the garlic cloves whole? Or chop them up?
They are minced.
Getting ready to make this right now and I had the exact same question – it might be a good idea to update the recipe to specify that for anyone else who takes recipes as gospel (at least the first time through). I imagine cooking this with whole garlic cloves would lead to an entirely different experience.
Thank you for the feedback Matt, I’ve updated the recipe. Enjoy!!
if my crockpot is 4 quart, should i half the recipe or 3/4 it? Don’t want it to overflow
This recipe should work in a 4 quart Crock Pot.
Je l’aie fait aujourd’hui c’est très bon je vous le conseil
Je suis heureuse de l’entendre!
I made this one night when we were looking for something a little different for dinner and I had most of the ingredients in the recipe on hand. It was a winner and we will be making this again. This next time, I am going to try using ground turkey instead of beef.
So glad you loved it!
I’m sorry if this is posted somewhere. How many people does this feed?
No problem! You can see the number of servings right above the name on the recipe card :). This makes 8 servings. Enjoy Lauren!
So, has anyone tried (or can you) make this by putting everything in the crock-pot un-cooked, and just slow cooking it all day?? I mean, i don’t understand pre-cooking the meat & shells then crocking only for two hours …. could be more of a “set it and forget it” in the morning dish?
The beef is cooked so you can drain grease from it and as for the shells, there are some notes in the recipe. You can add them raw but I have found that some brands become gummy in texture so cooking them separately (even the day before and keeping them in the fridge) and adding at the end produces the best results.
Ah ok gotcha– depending on the % of lean/fat in the burger, i don’t mind a bit of fat , especially if i can emulsify for some texture — see what you mean on the possible gummy shells …. well i think i will give this a go starting uncooked, maybe 8hrs slow! Thanks!
Enjoy and please let us know how it works out for you! :)
I forgot to rate it 5 stars in my previous post!
Thank you so much for coming back to leave a rating!
I made this yesterday for my parents, 2 sisters and my husband and me since I knew I had a busy day. Everyone loved it especially my 89 year old dad who is quite picky!
I’m so glad your family loved it Lori!
I found this to be a little to acid so I added a little sugar.
I did too .To much tomatoe flavor. And kinda bland. Needs something havent figured out what
When you say three cups of pasta do you mean 24 oz of pasta or do you mean 3 cups measured out once it’s cooked?? Maybe a silly question but I just don’t want to overdo it and put too much pasta or too little.
Good question. 3 cups dry in a measuring cup. This does not convert to ounces as it is a dry measure. 1 cup of dry shells weighs about 2.8oz on my kitchen scale.
This was fantastic…the only change I made was to leave out the green pepper ,I don’t like them. Will make this again for sure..
Happy to hear you enjoyed the Goulash Joan!
I’d like to make a couple substitutions for weight Watchers like ground turkey snd cabbage. I see it says eight servings. How many cups is that per serving! Like 1 1/3? Thanks
If you’re adding cabbage as well (or even in place of noodles) this may change the volume. As written it’s approximately 1½ cups.
What size crock pot is that? Brand too if you can say.
It’s a 6½ quart slow cooker, but for this recipe, any size bigger than 5 quarts should work!
This recipe looks delicious! Any suggestions to make this in the Instant Pot?
I haven’t tried this in the instant pot but if you were to follow the directions of a meaty pasta sauce it should work just fine. I’d suggest cooking the pasta separately.
My mom just used tomato juice for the liquid and no other tomato products. I sweat my onion in butter then add the mushrooms, Juice, browned hamburger and cooked pasta. Yummy!
That sounds amazing Sheila!
I do exactly the same using V-8 juice. Try adding cabbage as well. Wonderful taste
Looks delicious! . Can’t wait to try these!
Thank you Linda!! Enjoy!
Looking forward to trying your recipes
Thank you Jean!
Have you ever used beef broth instead of water?
You can certainly use broth in place of water.
Oh my God, what an appetizing photo! And what a simple recipe! I will definitely cook this delicacy for my family at the weekend! Thank you for your site and your work! Your site is inspired by culinary masterpieces!
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it!