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.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Video
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. :)
Made this for dinner tonight and it was yummy. I used ground turkey instead of ground beef. It’s a keeper :) Thank you. I also bought the Better Than Bouillon stuff today since the store had $1.00 off coupon. Will go back and get more while that deal is on. Real handy to have. Thank you Budget Bytes :)
I made this tonight and overall it was good…I didn’t use ground beef, I used the stir fry beef strips and just cut them up into bite-sized pieces. I used a cheap brand of beef broth (more water than beef flavor) so the flavor was a bit lacking–had add salt and pepper to the pot. Also, I used fat free sour cream, and compared to other stroganoffs I have had, there isn’t a huge difference, I just had to use more than what your recipe said. Pretty solid recipe–thanks for sharing. :) Tomorrow I am making the Italian Wonderpot–cannot WAIT!!
I made this a few days ago and it was delicious. I used no-fat sour cream, baby bella mushrooms and whole wheat bowtie pasta. I added another cup of beef brother (BtB!) because the noodles absorbed a lot more of the moisture, and I had to cook it for 8 minutes more than the recipe called for, because of the noodles I used. It was a long 8 minutes of anticipation. My husband told me twice while eating it that I need to make it again.
I didn’t think it would ever be possible for one of your recipes to top your teriyaki meatballs as my favorite, but, wow, has this done so! I haven’t had beef stroganoff since I had it out of a box as a kid, but omg this is pretty much just as easy and is 5000000% better (exact number)!
Made it twice in one week, ate it all in one sitting with the bf… probably will be making it every week for the rest of my life. Don’t know what exactly makes it so amazing, but something sure does!!
Hahahah “exact number” :)
This was a hit for my partner and the kids!!!!! A
Made this dish and it turned delicious. But I live in Singapore and the cost of mushrooms and beef made this cost over 10 USD for the whole dish.
Oh, I also added Italian seasoning(thyme, oregano, rosemary, basil, sage) to the ground beef. This recipe is great with a few tweaks. I used chicken broth because that’s all I had on hand. Truly good food.
Thanks for the inspiration, Beth.
Made this and used plain Cabot yogurt instead of sour cream. I added onions to the garlic and butter. Added a 1/2 cup of frozen peas to the sauteed beef. I used whole wheat elbow macaroni instead of egg noddles. Added parmesan and asiago cheese at the end. Turned out so good, make you wanna smack your mama! Simply Scrumptious
Made this for my family last night. Added an onion and some extra spices (paprika, thyme, marjoram and sage) and threw some broccoli in to steam with the noodles. Easy, tasty and fairly healthy one-pot (skillet) meal.
This recipe is amazing, so simple and tasted amazing, my 2 yrs old loved it. This is the second recpie I try from your site this week, and now my whole family are looking forword to dinner time.
I’ve made this recipe this week and I’m mouthwatering right now just by thinking about it. Pasta is my favourite food and this is already in my top 10 ways to cook it. Top 5 too. Even if ground beef is much more expensive in Spain, it makes it up for mushrooms being super inexpensive so it fits in my budget. Thanks for this awesome recipe Beth!!
My whole family loved it! My only change was buying pre-sliced mushrooms ;) I’m lazy like that and they were the same weight/cost as the whole ones. This has definitely moved from my “Dinner (TRY)” board to my “Dinner (SUCCESS)” board on Pinterest. I have to say I love Budget Bytes…it makes my meal planning on Sunday morning so easy!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was super yummy! I have never been able to find a beef stroganoff recipe that was both good and easy. This one is perfect!
Just tried this and I made the sausage kale skillet yesterday. I loved them both. Your recipes are awesome. I’m living in a temporary apartment right now, so your one pot dishes are a lifesaver. I can still feed everyone budget friendly and healthy dinners even without all my usual kitchen tools. Please post more!
I was enthusiastic about trying this recipe, but it came out bland and greasy, and the minced garlic had waaaay overcooked by the time the noodles were done. I ended up spiking it with Worcestershire and anchovy paste in an attempt to amp up the umami and de-bland it, but was only partially successful.
I made a few substitutions that I thought were minor: Greek yogurt for sour cream, Swanson beef broth for “Better Than Bouillon”, 2x beef instead of half mushrooms. Perhaps it works out better if you stick to the recipe completely faithfully, but my experience was not good.