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!
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Hi! I’m a cooking newbie and just realized I could be measuring my pasta wrong… do you measure out two cups? Or do you dump in a whole 16 ounce box of pasta since 2 cups equals 16 ounces… am I on the wrong track here? Thanks!
How large is a serving??? Didn’t see that noted. 10 sounds like a lot.
I made this last night and it was a hit! There were three of us so needless to say there were A LOT of leftovers. How would I go about freezing this? I didn’t know if I should put it in individual baggies or one big one?
Hi there,
I know you posted this a while ago but we put ours in food saver bags and vacuum seal them in the portions that we plan on using. We have a sous vide and cook them that way still in the sealed bag. But you could do the same in a low rolling boil on the stove!
One of my besties is vegetarian. I sub veggie crumbles for the meat, veggie broth etc, add some corn, and roasted peppers. She absolutely loves it, and so do our meat-eater friends. A quick, easy, inexpensive way to feed my loved ones.
I’ve never made goulash before, but my husband asked for it for dinner yesterday. Glad I found this recipe! I didn’t think I’d like it, but It was really good! The only change I made was to 1/2 the recipe since there’s only two of us.
I’m confused. High pressure for just one minute??
This was an amazing recipe! My family loved it and there was plenty for leftovers which we all gobbled up! We served with small potatoes and cheese. Thanks for the great recipe!
Could you tell me if you used 1 tbsp of ground Oregon or did you use 1 tbsp of the dried leaves? I don’t want to mess this up.
I wasn’t sure what i was going to have for dinner last night. I came across your recipe and thought, “I think I have all these ingredients”. Sure enough, I did, yay! Nice to know that I can make this again in a pinch because ingredients are easy to keep on hand. I followed instructions as written (except I used chicken broth, because that’s the carton that was already open in the fridge and didn’t want to open another carton 😋) This was so good! Why do y’all want to half the recipe?? Leftovers are wonderful. So economical. It’s lunch the next day, or the next month it you freeze it. **I did remove liner from pot after browning meat to drain off grease. I poured hot grease into an old plastic lunchmeat container that I put a few ice cubes in to keep hot grease from melting plastic. (this plastic is not recyclable in my town) I store this container in freezer and keep adding to it until it is full, then I toss in trash.
Thank you dear crissy! I plan to try out more of your recipes.
Love the fact that you love Jesus! Me too!!
It’s just my son and I and he will not eat anything with tomatoes… I’d be eating this all year by myself… that’s why some of us cut the recipe in 1/2😊
Just made it and followed the directions this time lol. came out looking exactly like the photo. I halved it for my pot is a 3 qt
This is Amazing! I made it with gluten free (Banza elbow) noodles. Rice noodles would probably go to mush. The chick pea noodles were perfect. Great flavor. So good!!!