Old-fashioned Instant Pot goulash is a classic family dish that comes together easily in your pressure cooker. Whether you call it goulash, Johnny Marzetti, or American chop suey, you have to agree that this recipe is simply THE BEST!
Pressure Cooker Goulash Recipe
Readers have been begging me to create an Instant Pot version of my popular Old-Fashioned Goulash recipe.
Therefore, I’m SO happy to be sharing this incredible Instant Pot goulash recipe with you today!
This is the most popular recipe on my blog, and thousands of Pinterest users have tried and loved this easy family recipe!
Our Instant Pot goulash recipe is SPECIAL and UNIQUE! In other words, It’s not just pasta, meat, and a jar of sauce.
It’s loaded with quality, real ingredients that come together to make a flavorful family meal.
PRO Instant Pot Tip: How To Fix The C6L Error On Your Instant Pot
How to Make Instant Pot Goulash
Note, this is American goulash. Sometimes it’s also called American chop suey or for Ohioans like me, Johnny Marzetti.
Are you looking for Hungarian-style goulash recipe? Then check out this one.
Certainly, I love easy recipes. I’m not above using a jar of pasta sauce!
However, you just can’t beat the depth of flavor achieved when using my special combination of delicious ingredients.
If you’re saying to yourself, enough talk already, just SHOW ME THE RECIPE, then just scroll down toward the bottom of the page to get our complete Instant Pot goulash recipe! :)
Cook the ground beef
Firstly, set the Instant Pot to sauté. When hot, add the olive oil, onion, and garlic; sauté for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the ground beef. Break up the meat with a wooden spoon and brown until no pink remains. Spoon off any excess liquid.
Add the additional ingredients
Secondly, add the one cup of beef broth and stir to deglaze. Add the 2 cups of water, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, and the remaining seasonings. Stir well. Stir in the elbow macaroni.
Cook on high pressure
Finally, put on the lid, set to sealing, and set to high pressure for 1 minute, with a quick release. After that, when all the pressure is released carefully remove lid and stir. Make sure to turn off the keep warm function to prevent the pasta from overcooking. Serve your Instant Pot goulash IMMEDIATELY for best results! Top with shredded cheese, optional, but honestly… who wouldn’t? :)
Tips for Making Instant Pot Old-Fashioned Goulash
I make this goulash recipe in my 6-quart Instant Pot. You will need to use a 6-quart or larger pot to accommodate this recipe. I’ve been thinking about getting an 8-quart pot, myself. Do you have one? Do you love it?
In addition, be sure sure to break up your ground beef well during the sautéing phase.
Important note about cooking time. While it may seem like 1 minute at high pressure is not enough time, trust me, it is. Keep in mind that the pasta will be starting to cook while the pot comes up to pressure.
I find that the 1 minute with a QUICK RELEASE produces a JUST al-dente pasta that will hold up on day two and three. If you want your pasta to be even closer to true al-dente, you could cook for 0 minutes at high pressure with a quick release.
Moreover, if find the pasta is still too tough for your liking, it’s a very simple fix. Put the lid back on and let it sit for a minute or two. You can make your pasta softer, but you don’t want to go too far and have mushy pasta hence the 1 minute cook time!
Finely grate your own cheese (like in my picture) for the most luscious results. You can use the bagged stuff too, of course! :)
I am SUCH an IP-recipe junkie. In fact, I just tried Jessica’s Instant Pot Baked Ziti, and y’all, it’s SO GOOD!
More Delicious Recipes
Did you make this recipe? It really is the BEST! If you loved it and want to really help this site, consider leaving a rating, comment, and pinning this recipe to your favorite Pinterest boards. Your support helps us so much! :)
- Classic Old-Fashioned Goulash (stovetop version)
- Instant Pot Loaded Potato Soup
- Instant Pot Spaghetti
- Instant Pot Pot Roast
- Instant Pot Beef Stew (really good!)
- Stuffed Cabbage Casserole
- Chicken Cobbler
Instant Pot Goulash
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 2 large yellow onions chopped
- 4 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 cup beef broth
- 2 cups of water
- 2 15-ounce cans tomato sauce
- 2 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper
- 2 cups elbow macaroni uncooked
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Set the Instant Pot to sauté. When hot, add the olive oil, onion, and garlic; sauté for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the ground beef. Break up the meat with a wooden spoon and brown until no pink remains. Spoon off any excess liquid.
- Add the one cup of beef broth and stir to deglaze. Add the 2 cups of water, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, and the remaining seasonings. Stir well. Stir in the elbow macaroni.
- Put on the lid, set to sealing position, and set to high pressure for 1 minute, with a quick release. After all the pressure is released carefully remove lid and stir. Make sure to turn off the keep warm function to prevent the pasta from overcooking. Top with shredded cheese, optional.
Notes
- Remove the inner pot after cooking is complete to allow for faster cooling.
- Serve IMMEDIATELY for best results!
Save This Recipe?
Enter your email and we’ll send it straight to you + get all our latest recipes.
Nutrition
Did you make this?
I would love to hear from you! Make sure to leave your review below and follow on Pinterest for more!
I made this tonight and it was delicious! It was a complete hit at my house. I did add some things to mine. I added a small bag of frozen peppers and onions, 2 pounds of hamburger meat, 1 pound of ground sweet Italian sausage, also after adding the tomatoes and sauce, I added a 1/4 container of cream cheese, and 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream. Instead of water I used all beef broth. I also used cavatappi pasta. It was super tasty. Thanks for the recipe.
Confused. Looks great and am trying it. But it says cook time 25 minutes but then the instructions say one minute. Hope the 25 is right.
Oh no! The 25 minutes is TOTAL cook time. Follow the times in each step. The one minute is what you set your Insta pot timer to it will be cooking until it gets to the pressure required and then the one minute timer will start.
Is it 25 minutes because it takes that long to get pressure up to start on the one minute cook time?
It’s 25 minutes because that’s how long it takes in total (to sauté, build pressure, cook, etc.)
I was out of fresh onions but I had some frozen Mirepoix mix (chopped onions, celery and green peppers) and used that instead. Tasted great!
We usually add corn in our so I put in two cups of frozen corn. It came out pretty soupy. Could I omit two cups of water if I add the corn in the future or just at half cup or one cup of water? Also used fire roasted tomatoes and chili ready tomatoes since we had that in hand and it was delish!
I made this and left out the cheese but it was superb in every way. Easy to make and even easier to eat LOL. Simply perfect. You can make it and eat portions all week if it’s only two of you at home!
made tonight and it came out great. Started with frozen beef, so defrosted in the instapot first (look on pinterest for how to do this too) Took it out, emptied the pot and then proceeded with the recipe. fast and delicious
Really delicious. Halved the recipe but I think I forgot to do half the water. Still came out delicious. Wondering if splitting the diced tomatoes with some Rotel would make this even better and also half the onion (or a smaller onion).
I don’t have an insta pot. Do I follow the recipe as written for cooking on stove top? For instance do I use the amount of water and broth as listed?
Thanks
Am wondering same thing. “Winging it” for now. Am sure it will be delicious!
I do not have elbow noodles on hand. Could No Yolk Extra Broad noodles be used? If so, would the cooking time be the same or altered? Thank you! I look forward to trying this recipe.
That’s what I used and they were marvelous! Egg noodles. Good luck!
Has anyone tried this with 1 lb ground beef and 1 lb Italian sausage??? Not wanting to change recipe just wanted to use what we have on hand.
I’m sure you can do it. I would definitely use lean meat or drain it so you don’t have the fat from the sausage in there