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. :)
I love your page, and most of what I make, comes from your blog. This was delicious, and I managed to make it gluten free. I reduced the broth to 1.5 cups and left everything else the same. Played with cooking time, and noodles and sauce came out perfect. I just used GF penne.
Do you you 2 cups of Better than Bouillon as your beef broth? Or do we mix some in as well into our beef broth.
Better than Bouillon is a really thick concentrated paste, not a broth. It must be diluted with water to make broth. Following the directions on the jar, just combine 1 tsp BTB with 1 cup water to make one cup broth. :)
This was very good and very easy. The only change I made was to add a splash of white wine after the mushrooms softened. I will definately make this again.
Made this tonight with better than bouillon beefless broth and some impossible burgers I got on sale and it was delicious! And this was just so easy as well. I had to add a little more.brorh to mine but no complaints. My boyfriend gobbled this up.
Hi Beth, I want to make this recipe but have been wondering about Better than Boulillon. Its now becoming more available in my grocery stores.. Do you find it has a high salt content? I usually use Campbells Low Sodium Beef Broth (not no salt) but as you pointed out I have to date the leftover broth and make sure I use it up before 14 days.
Which doesnt always happen!
Having great success with your recipes and tips.
The regular BTB does have a fairly high sodium, but they also make low sodium versions. If they don’t have it at your store you can always check to see if you can order it online. A lot of larger grocery chains offer online shopping with shipping these days, and if you stock up on canned goods or shelf-stable ingredients while you’re at it, you can probably get free shipping.
Is this recipe one that could be frozen? I would like to know it holds up.
I haven’t tried this one, but in general, sour cream and sour cream based sauces do not freeze well. :(
I just made this tonight with ground bison because I was out of ground beef. It was fantastic! Thanks so much for your great recipes, Beth.
Yummy
This says it makes 4 servings, but my boyfriend and I polished off the entire pot for dinner! I was hoping for leftovers for lunch, but no 😂 I made this exactly as written; I only added a couple pinches of salt while the mushrooms cooked. Super delicious and comforting–this will be a regular on our dinner menu from now on :)
Very delicious I was wondering if adding maybe cayenne or a certain different spice would add that kick
Any suggestions how to make this gluten free> Subbing rice for noodles or no noodles at all? if I did that, how much beef stock would I need?
That would require some fairly major changes so I hesitate to offer a suggestion without testing it, but if I were to test it with rice I’d use use the amount of broth that I’d normally use for water when cooking rice.
Hi, I’m celiac and I managed to make this meal gluten free and it was great!
The closest substitute for egg noodles are to use gluten free fettuccine noodles (I used Barilla brand)
Also, Worcestershire sauce has wheat in it too. The best substitute (if you can’t find GF Worcestershire sauce) is to use a GF soya sauce. Which is what I did.
Besides those changes, I followed the recipe and it was delicious and flavourful!
I haven’t been able to eat Hamburger Helper Stroganoff for years! It was such a treat :)
I hope you have similar results :)
Awesome!! Thank you for sharing your GF subs. I know that is going to help other people. :)
I’m trying to add more greens to our meals and wonder if adding a cup of chopped super greens would mix well.
You could definitely stir in some greens, but whether or not it goes well is probably just a matter of personal preference.
Hi! Love this one! If we don’t have sour cream, can cream cheese be substituted?
You could probably do that, although you might need a little extra broth to make the cream cheese saucy in texture. And, of course, it will taste different. :)
This is a staple in our household. However, it seems like you’ve changed the recipe a lot. The original (ingredients of the original can be found here https://www.mastercook.com/app/recipe/WebRecipeDetails?recipeId=2479128) used to call for flour, which would help thicken the sauce, and didn’t have mustard nor worcestershire sauce. Could you explain the reasoning behind these changes? Thanks!
Sure, I found the sauce to be thick and rich enough just from the thick sour cream added at the end, so I eliminated the flour step. I thought the sauce in the old version was a little too bland, so I spruced it up with a little Worcestershire and Dijon. We also keep pdf versions of all recipes that are removed or changed, so anyone can email us at any time and we’ll send the old version.
I made this exactly according to the recipe; just had to thaw our frozen ground beef in the microwave. Still, it was very quick prep, tasted delicious, and clean up was quick too. A super tasty choice for when you’re short on time, need something satisfying, and maybe forgot to take ingredients out of the freezer.