Guess what time it is! Comfort-food-o’clock. And there’s no better comfort food than a rich creamy pasta dish, like this One Pot Beef Stroganoff. It cooks in just one pot, just like hamburger helper stroganoff, but it’s homemade and I promise it’s still super easy. You’re going to want to tuck this beef stroganoff recipe into your back pocket for those nights when you’re super tired and need an extra comforting meal. :)
What is Beef Stroganoff?
Beef stroganoff is a Russian dish that features pieces of sautéed beef in a rich and creamy sauce, often served over pasta. For this budget version of beef stroganoff, we’ve replaced the chunks of beef with budget-friendly ground beef, added mushrooms to stretch it a little further, and cooked everything in one pot for a quick and easy meal. It’s not a traditional beef stroganoff for sure, but it definitely is delicious!
Ingredients for One Pot Beef Stroganoff
Here’s what you’ll need to make this deliciously creamy One Pot Beef Stroganoff:
- Garlic: Garlic adds a nice deep flavor to the creamy sauce.
- Butter: We sauté the garlic in butter for extra flavor and richness.
- Ground Beef: Instead of using chunks of beef stew meat, we used ground beef for a more budget-friendly alternative.
- Mushrooms: We used a combination of mushrooms and beef to bulk up this one pot pasta while keeping the price low.
- Beef Broth: We cook the pasta one-pot style in the broth with all of the other ingredients so everything has maximum flavor. I suggest using a very flavorful broth or else your stroganoff will end up being bland. We use Better Than Bouillon to make our beef broth.
- Worcestershire Sauce & Dijon Mustard: Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard are added to the broth to add more dimension to the flavor.
- Egg Noodles: Wide egg noodles have the perfect light texture for this creamy sauce to keep the entire dish balanced.
- Sour Cream: Sour cream is stirred into the sauce to give it the classic creamy and tangy flavor of a stroganoff. If you’re looking for an alternative to sour cream, you can use Greek yogurt or heavy cream, which will be less tangy.
Beef Alternatives
I used half ground beef and half mushrooms to stretch my pennies a bit further, but you could do all mushrooms or all beef if you prefer. If you’re doing a vegetarian version with all mushrooms, use mushroom or vegetable broth to replace the beef broth.
Tips for Making One Pot Pasta
Every piece of cookware and every range top is different, so one pot recipes are a bit like riding a bike. You have to feel it out and find the sweet spot for the equipment you’re using. Here are some tips for making your one pot pasta a success:
- Use heavy, thick cookware to help the ingredients heat evenly.
- The broth does not need to fully cover the noodles for them to cook, so resist the urge to add extra water or broth.
- Make sure the liquid is simmering the whole time the pasta is cooking. If the heat is too low, the pasta will just get gummy.
- Stir the pot occasionally to prevent sticking, but not too often or your risk breaking down the pasta.
- Use your judgment. If your pasta looks close to being cooked through, but there is too much liquid left in the skillet, let it finish simmering with the lid off. If the liquid is gone but your pasta is still not tender, add a splash more water or broth and continue to simmer.
Use Good Broth
The broth brings a lot of flavor to this beef and mushroom stroganoff, so make sure you’re using a nice and flavorful broth that has adequate salt. I like to use Better than Bouillon to make broth for recipes because it’s super flavorful, I can mix up any amount I need, and the jar stays good in the refrigerator for months, so there are no leftovers to go to waste. If you still find your stroganoff to be on the bland side in the end, an extra pinch of salt can really help the flavors pop.
Want more One Pot Recipes? Check out our One Pot Recipe Archives!
One Pot Beef Stroganoff
Servings 4 about 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 2 Tbsp butter ($0.22)
- 1/2 lb. ground beef ($2.50)
- 8 oz. mushrooms ($1.49)
- 1/8 tsp Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.01)
- 2 cups beef broth ($0.26)
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce ($0.03)
- 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard ($0.02)
- 8 oz. wide egg noodles ($0.60)
- 1/3 cup sour cream ($0.15)
- 1 Tbsp chopped parsley (optional) ($0.10)
Instructions
- Mince the garlic. Add the garlic and butter to a large pot or skillet and sauté over medium heat for about one minute, or until the garlic is soft and fragrant.
- Add the ground beef and continue to sauté until it is fully browned.
- While the beef is browning, slice the mushrooms. Add the sliced mushrooms and some freshly cracked pepper to the pot with the beef. Continue to sauté until the mushrooms are soft (about five minutes).
- Add the uncooked egg noodles to the pot along with the beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, and Dijon mustard. Stir to combine. The liquid will not fully cover the noodles, but that's okay.
- Place a lid on the pot and allow the liquid to come up to a boil over medium-high heat. As soon as it reaches a boil, give the pot a stir, replace the lid, and reduce the heat to low. Allow the pot to simmer on low heat for about 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally and replacing the lid every couple of minutes. After 7-10 minutes the pasta should be tender and most of the liquid absorbed.
- Once the noodles are tender, add the sour cream and fold it into the noodles until everything is rich and creamy. Give the noodles a taste and add extra salt or pepper, if needed. Roughly chop a handful of parsley leaves and sprinkle over top. Serve hot.
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Nutrition
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How to Make One Pot Beef Stroganoff – Step by Step Photos
Begin by sautéing 2 cloves of minced garlic in 2 Tbsp of butter until soft (1-2 minutes). You can use a large pot or large skillet, as long as it is big enough to hold all of the pasta AND has a lid (the lid will be used later).
Next, add 1/2 lb. ground beef and continue to sauté until it is fully browned.
While the beef is browning, slice 8oz. mushrooms. White button mushrooms are fine, but if you can get these baby bella mushrooms they are even more awesome (shout out to ALDI for carrying these at an affordable price).
Once the beef is browned, add the mushrooms and some freshly cracked pepper. Continue to sauté until they are soft (about five minutes).
Add ½ lb. wide egg noodles to the skillet along with 2 cups beef broth, 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce, and ½ tsp Dijon mustard. Stir to combine. The broth will not fully cover the noodles, but that’s okay. The steam in the skillet will help cook them and they’ll be stirred to make sure even cooking.
Place a lid on the skillet and bring the broth up to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, give it a quick stir to loosen the noodles from the bottom, return the lid quickly, and turn the heat down to low. Let the skillet simmer, stirring occasionally and always replacing the lid, for 7-10 minutes or until the noodles are tender and there is only a small amount of thick sauce left in the skillet.
Finally, add ⅓ cup sour cream and fold it into the noodles until everything is creamy and delicious!
Top off the beef stroganoff with a little chopped parsley for color (because stroganoff is kind of boring to look at) and it’s time to dive into that skillet full of creamy goodness! You might want to give it a taste at this point to see if you want a little extra salt or pepper (again, depending on the salt content of your broth), but other than that it’s time to eat! And only one dish to clean. :)
Just made this and realized I was out of black pepper – so I substituted for Szechuan peppercorns. AMAZING! The numbing quality of the peppercorns really balanced out the creamy sauce
I added some fresh baby spinach at the end and it was delicious! Definitely will make this again.
This sounds delicious and so easy for a work/school night! Going on next week’s meal plan right now!
I recently switched over to Better than Bouillon as well, I felt like buying boxes/cans of broth was such a waste as it was always getting thrown away. Better then Bouillon really does taste better too! Thanks for the great recipe!
This was SO good. Easy to make and delicious, following exactly what the recipe said. YUM. I may double the recipe next time because it was so tasty I want more leftover (plus I wasn’t sure what to do with the other half pound of beef).
great recipe! i used gia russo egg noodles and cooked them for 6 minutes and had no trouble with mushiness! added a little paprika and a dozen shakes of onion powder and it’s a hit! also couldn’t find button mushrooms, so i used baby bellas.
I am so happy I found your site!!! After a very long break from cooking, I’m back at it. I was looking for a chili recipe for Super Bowl and yours sounded the best, so I kept exploring and am so excited to try everything!!! I made this last night and can’t get enough of it!!! SO YUMMY and EASY!!! I had it for breakfast lol! Thank you so much!!! Going to try the Lemon Blueberry Cream Cheese Galette this afternoon.
Did not like this recipe. Â Plain, not saucy enough. Â
Big BudgetBytes fan here–I’ve probably used a recipe from this site at least once or twice a week for the past two years.
At the risk of getting chewed out by this aggressive Jaime commenter, I also had issues with this recipe turning out a gooey mass. I’ve tried it twice now, with the same results both times: the noodles gummy, and somewhat fused with the mushroom/beef mixture into a glue-like state. The flavor is great, and I think my second batch was a bit better than my first, but I’m just wondering if there’s a trick to getting properly cooked noodles? I stirred roughly every 2 minutes while the noodles were cooking. I did double the recipe, so maybe that has something to do with it? Any advice appreciated.
After making a lot more one-pot pasta recipes, I think another issue might be how hard the liquid is simmering. If it’s too low of a simmer the noodles just kind of get soft, so perhaps try for a more robust simmer? I’ll test this one again and adjust the instructions if that seems to be a fix.
We have made this recipe several times with amazing success, it was delish! Â Then we bought NoYolks noodles as they were on sale. Â Made it exactly the same as before but it turned out mushy. Â Think it was the No Yolk noodles.
I add a few shakes of worcestershire to the beef mixture – makes the beef beefier tasting mmmm
For those who like mushroom flavor, but not the mushrooms: just use a few whole mushrooms while cooking and then discard before serving.
Made the vegetarian (all mushroom) version of this for dinner this eve!! Yummmmm!Â
Do you drain the hamburger before adding the mushrooms, or no?
If you’re using a higher fat content beef (more than 10% fat), you can drain the fat off. For leaner ground beef there probably won’t be anything leftover to drain off.
Has anyone made this without the mushrooms? I like the flavor of the mushrooms okay, but no one in my house actually eats mushrooms.
She mentions in the beginning that you can use a pound of beef instead of 1/2 beef, 1/2 mushrooms. That’s how I do it.
I just made this dish and it’s amazing! I used garlic powder (2 tbs), half a sweet onion, GF rice flour, and about 8 oz of gluten free fuselli pasta (made with rice flour). Everything else I kept the same. It turned out amazing. So creamy and comforting! I’ll be sure to make this again as it was really easy and fast.
I made this tonight and it was great! I used to make this years ago but it ended up on the back burner (no pun), so when I ran across this recipe I knew I had to make it again, and it was great!