Beef Goulash Recipe

Name: Beef Goulash Recipe Top 3*** | Thomas Sixt Foodblog
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 120 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: onion 500 g; Beef vawn 500 g; Sunflower oil 10-20 ml; tomato paste 1 tsp; Sweet paprika 2 tbsp; Beef broth 250 ml; Garlic clove 1 Stück; Caraway 1 tsp; marjoram 1 tbsp; Lemon zest some; Salt; Pepper; Allspice 2 Pinches

To the recipe Video Cook Talk

Author:
Thomas Sixt is a chef, food photographer, cookbook author and blogger.
Here he shares recipes, answers cooking questions and helps with cooking.

I cooked my first beef goulash recipe together with my grandmother, she was an excellent cook.

I can still remember the great taste today. You remember the strong and sweet paprika-roasted flavours for a lifetime.

Many summers later, I was able to look into the cooking pots of chefs in Vienna, Salzburg and Munich and gather all the good tips for this article.

This article answers the most important questions about the classic braised dish.

The video shows you how to prepare it step by step. In addition, learn about the regional differences in preparation and decide on your personal favourite variant.

I wish you much joy and good success!

Table of Contents

1. Recipe Beef Goulash
2. Calories and Nutritional Values
3. Shopping List for Beef Goulash
4. Two Goulash Preparation Methods You Must Know
5. Beef Goulash Cooking Secrets at a Glance
6. What Side Dishes Go Well With Beef Goulash?
7. More Cooking Tips

1. Recipe Beef Goulash

Now it’s up to you.

With the following instructions you can bring the popular braised dish to the table like a chef!

Beef goulash

Cooked, photographed and written down by chef Thomas Sixt.

Servings 2

Calories 1027

Preparation Time 30 Min.

Cook Time 90 Min.

Total Time 120 Min.

Simple top guide to prepare beef goulash in variants.

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Ingredients

500	g	onion
500	g	Beef vawn
10-20	ml	Sunflower oil
1	tsp	tomato paste
2	tbsp	Sweet paprika
250	ml	Beef broth (I use a strong beef stock)
1	Stück	Garlic clove
1	tsp	Caraway
1	tbsp	marjoram
some		Lemon zest
		Salt
		Pepper
2	Pinches	Allspice

Instruction

Preparation step 1

Beef goulash Cut meat and prepare it for the goulash — Cut beef for beef goulash. Large cubes of 3 cm are ideal.

Meat cutting

Cut the meat into about 40-50 g cubes.

Preparation step 2

Cut onions for beef goulash. — Then cut the onions into cubes.

Cutting onions

Peel and finely dice the onion.

Preparation step 3

Fry the goulash meat and onion cubes and add tomato paste. — Sweat the onion cubes in a little oil for 10-12 minutes until light brown.

Prepare

You can now EITHER brown the meat first and remove it, then sauté the onions until light brown and add the meat again (German preparation method)

OR s

auté the onions until light brown first, add the meat and sauté lightly (Viennese preparation method).

Then add the tomato paste.

Preparation step 4

Roast

Roast the meat and onions with the tomato paste from a reddish colour to reddish brown.

While doing so, scrape off the roasting substances from the bottom of the pot with the roasting spatula.

Preparation step 5

Season

Add the paprika powder either shortly before deglazing with stock (beef stock) or afterwards.

The background:

Paprika must not be allowed to roast, as this spice quickly becomes bitter.

Stew the meat in the juice for about 1 hour over a gentle heat with a lid.

Preparation step 6

Serve

Add the finely chopped garlic, caraway seeds, marjoram and lemon zest and continue to simmer with the lid on.

The meat should be tender towards the end of the cooking time.

Season with salt, pepper and a little allspice before serving.

Thicken to your taste with finely grated raw potato or with a little cornflour mixed with cold water and serve with garnish.

Video

2. Calories and Nutritional Values

3. Shopping List for Beef Goulash

My recommendation:

Buy good organic meat from the butcher.

The other ingredients are also available in the supermarket.

Your list of ingredients:

500g beef sausage
500g onions
fresh garlic (you only need one clove)
1 piece of lemon
beef stock
tomato paste
sunflower oil
sweet paprika
Caraway seeds
Marjoram
Allspice
Pepper and salt (you have some at home, don’t you?)

Choose the right goulash meat:

The best goulash meat comes from the front or rear shank of beef.

These cuts have a strong flavour, are juicy, cook as soft as butter (even the tendons) and do not fall apart fibrously.

The meat from the neck of beef, on the other hand, is leaner, cooks fibrous for it and is therefore not ideally suited.

Noble goulash is cut from the shoulder or even the fillet, there are countless variations, which I would like to briefly outline below.

The best goulash meat is from the beef calf!
Alfons Schuhbeck, chef at the Kurhausstüberl in Waging am See,
*Michelin, 19 points Gault et Millau
1993

Rinderhesse with bone — Cattle calf on the bone, the meat is particularly suitable for braising and is called Wadschunken in Austria.

4. Two Goulash Preparation Methods You Must Know

For the classic braised dish, there are technically these two variants:

4.1 Wiener Saftgulasch – do not Brown the Meat

Here you start with the onions. This is the classic Viennese way of preparing juice goulash.

Fry the onion cubes (same amount as meat) with a little oil until light brown.
Add the diced meat – 3 cm cubes are ideal.
Sauté the meat in the pot with the onions for 5 minutes.
Now add the tomato paste and continue to fry briefly.
The colour of the tomato paste changes from red to light brown reddish.
Now sprinkle with sweet paprika. Do not roast the paprika, as it will become bitter!
Quickly deglaze with stock.

4.2 German Goulash – Brown the Meat

Here you start with the meat, which is browned first in a pot.

Fry the meat cubes, ideally 3 cm cube size, in a little oil over a high heat and then remove from the pot’.
Add the onion cubes to the pot and fry them with a little oil in the drippings until light brown.
Now return the meat cubes to the pot with the onions.
Add the tomato paste and fry briefly.
The colour of the tomato paste changes from red to light brown reddish.
Now sprinkle with sweet paprika. Do not roast the paprika, as it will become bitter!
Quickly deglaze with stock.

5. Beef Goulash Cooking Secrets at a Glance

There are many tips on braising, the most important of which I have summarised here…

In general, you can also add the paprika after deglazing, the effect is the same.
After or during a cooking time of 60-90 minutes, season with salt, pepper, marjoram, grated untreated lemon zest, chopped caraway seeds and finely chopped garlic cloves.
The sauce is bound by the large quantity of onions. Finely diced onions bind the sauce better than onion strips.
If the binding seems too thin, you can add a finely grated potato.

The classic dish finds its flavourful perfection through fine seasoning with freshly ground allspice.

Lemon zest — Add marjoram to the lemon zest to create the typical flavour.

6. What Side Dishes Go Well With Beef Goulash?

Regionally we find different side dishes, what tastes good is allowed!

Boiled potatoes:
These are usually classic parsley potatoes, tossed in butter and seasoned with salt, pepper, finely chopped parsley and nutmeg. In exceptional cases, there is mashed potato with the goulash.

Noodles:
Toss freshly cooked al dente noodles (wide ribbon noodles) in foamed butter, serve with freshly chopped parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg.

Spaetzle:
A popular side dish, especially in Bavaria and Swabia. Make the spaetzle yourself or use bought spaetzle. After cooking, toss the spaetzle or knöpfle in brown butter and serve with finely chopped parsley, salt, pepper and nutmeg.