- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 2h 10 min
- Serving: 4 - 6 servings
I have a bit of an obsession with Hungarian paprika. I have a friend from Budapest and every time she goes home to visit she always brings me back bags of it. I try to find as many recipes as I can to use it in. It’s so perfectly spiced, the flavor is so smooth and the color is so vibrant—I love cooking with it. If you can get your hands on some authentic Hungarian paprika, I really recommend it.
My mom has been making this dish for years. It’s so comforting and flavorful, I absolutely love it. It’s really easy to make—the ingredients are pretty standard and the prep time is minimal. The beef gets so tender as it slow cooks, and the flavors have time to blend together perfectly. It’s a dinner the whole family will love. It’s best served over long egg noodles, but you can serve it over rice or with potatoes if you'd like.
(This recipe was originally published here on 12/19/2013)
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Ingredients
- butter - 4 tbsp
- stew meat - 2 pounds, cubed
- onion - 1 large, diced
- garlic - 3 cloves, minced
- ketchup - 1/2 cup
- worcestershire sauce - 2 tbsp
- brown sugar - 1 tbsp
- salt - 2 tsp
- hungarian paprika - 3 tsp
- dry mustard - 1 tsp
- cayenne pepper - a dash
- water - 1 1/2 cups
- corn starch - 2 tbsp
- cold water - 1/4 cup
how to
- Melt the butter over medium heat in a dutch oven.
- Add the meat, onion, and garlic, and cook and stir until the meat is brown and the onion is tender.
- Stir in the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, salt, paprika, mustard, cayenne, and 1½ cups water.
- Cover and simmer for 2 to 2½ hours.
- Blend cornstarch and ¼ cup water and stir gradually into meat mixture and heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute.
- Serve over noodles.
What type of noodles are these?. Thank you!
I used pappardelle – but any long, flat noodle will work. 🙂 I want all that surface area to get as much sauce as possible.
Awesome thank you!! It looks so good!
O.k. So as a true Hungarian by birth, this is not a traditional Hungarian version of this dish. #1. To get the true flavour of Paprika it should be incorporated in and broken down in the hot fat., carefully so as not to burn the paprika. #2, no ketchup or brown sugar ,yuck. Not needed” use a tomato and some green pepper instead. . Also we do not normaly brown the meat first. #3. No worchester sauce is needed and in many cases no extra water needed as the beef should release enough moisture. We would use a pinch of hot hungarian paprika instead of cayane pepper or mustard. Salt and pepper would be the only other seasonings. And no cornstarch, if you must thicken this dish use flour and water mix, or sour cream and flour misture. Then this dish would be beef paprikas.
I agree. Nothing about this recipe is traditional Hungarian Paprika. It’s my mom’s recipe and not anything like Beef Paprikas. 🙂
How would this be in a crock pot?
Probably really easy and just as delicious!
This was a fabulous recipe. Everyone enjoyed it. The only thing I did differently was to add more chili pepper flakes ….. we love hot foods. Tina
Haha. Nice. I always put about 3 times more than are in the ingredients. I like it hot too. 🙂
If I use regular paprika will it taste the same? Can’t seem to find Hungarian paprika here.
Sure. It just might be a bit more smokey in flavor.
could this be made in an Instapot, or regular pressure cooker?
I have no experience with either – perhaps someone else might give you some ideas?
Is there a way to just print the recipe without all the ads? It would be nice to print a recipe card instead of a sales catalogue.
Hi, yes I can imagine how annoying that would be. When you click the ‘print’ button, you have the option to delete everything you don’t want to print. There should be a box around each section with an ‘x’. Also, if you use Safari – you can just select ‘reader view’ then print from there. Hope that’s helpful!
Omg my whole family loved it. It was absolutely delicious. The sauce. Wow
Great! Thanks for commenting – I LOVE this dish. My mom made it my whole life growing up. 🙂
Pork is less expensive, so I cut up a small pork roast and use that in place of the beef-still good! Thanks