Hungary · Main · Easy
Hungarian Goulash
Rome's most famous pasta. Silky egg and Pecorino sauce clinging to every strand, studded with crisp guanciale. No cream, ever.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Hungarian Goulash, in 5 ideas
- Use real Hungarian paprika. Sweet, not smoked, not hot. Spanish smoked paprika makes a different dish entirely.
- Brown in batches. Crowded beef steams gray. The deep brown crust is where half the flavor lives.
- Low and slow, never a boil. A hard boil tightens the meat fibers and makes them tough. Barely bubbling is perfect.
- It thickens as it sits. Goulash is better on day two. The starches settle and the flavors deepen overnight.
- Egg noodles are the classic partner. Wide buttered noodles catch the gravy. Crusty bread works too.
What you need
Ingredients
- 3 lbs beef chuck, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- 3 tbsp lard or vegetable oil
- 3 large onions, chopped
- 3 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
- 1 tsp caraway seeds
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 4 cups beef stock
- 3 potatoes, cut into chunks
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 1 bay leaf
How to make it
Directions
- Season the beef cubes with salt and pepper. Brown them in the lard in batches over medium high heat, about 8 minutes per batch. Do not crowd. Set aside.
- In the same pot, cook the onions over medium heat 10 minutes until soft and golden, scraping up the browned bits.
- Take the pot OFF the heat. Stir in the paprika and caraway and cook 30 seconds in the residual heat. Paprika burns in seconds over direct flame and turns bitter.
- Return to medium heat. Add the garlic and tomato paste, cook 1 minute.
- Pour in the stock, add the bay leaf, and return the beef with its juices. Bring to a bare simmer, cover, and cook 1 hour 15 minutes.
- Add the potatoes and carrots. Cover and simmer 30 to 40 minutes more until the beef is fork tender and the vegetables are soft.
- Fish out the bay leaf. Taste and adjust salt. The stew should be thick enough to coat a spoon. Serve in deep bowls with crusty bread.
Paprika goes in off the heat. This is the single most important step. Scorched paprika ruins the whole pot with bitterness.