Goulash Hungarian Style | The Most Important Technique For Best Flavor

• Cover the bottom of your sauce pan with oil and bring it up to a fairly high heat; the beef cubes should sizzle when dropped into the pan


• Cook only one layer of meat cubes at a time. Overcrowding the pan will cause a temperature drop; the meat will draw too much water and not brown properly anymore.


• Resist the temptation to move the meat cubes around. Let them develop a deep-brown crust before turning them over. The initial water release needs to boil off before the browning can begin. Be patient!


• Look at the following pictures and notice how I cooked off a little bit of water first. Then I emptied the golden-brown cubes into a bowl to free up the pot for the second batch

When we are done with browning the meat, we add more flavor builders to the pan, together with a bit more cooking oil: tomato paste, minced garlic, chopped onion and bell peppers. Stir and cook for a few minutes until the sugars in the tomato paste begin to caramelize...then add the meat with the drained juices in the bowl.







Now, with the pan full of golden-brown goodness, it's time to deglaze the fond and release all the flavor bits from the bottom into our sauce liquid. We may first pour a cup or two of red wine into the pot, and later increase the sauce volume with beef stock. Or, we omit the wine and create our sauce with beef stock alone.

Bring the liquid to a simmer and scrape the bottom gently with a spoon. As you can see in the pictures, there's also a bit of fond up the sides of the pan. Make sure you get every bit of fond from the bottom, corners, and the sides. (This makes the dish washing a lot easier, too!)

Whether you make a more liquid goulash soup or a thicker stew---the meat should now simmer under cover until it is very tender. Depending on the volume, this process will take anywhere from 45 - 90 minutes. During the last 15 minutes or so, you may add cubed carrots and potatoes for a more substantial meal. I like to thicken my goulash in the end, by adding some roux to the liquid and bringing it back to a brief boil. A nutty flour/butter roux adds extra richness to the dish.

A goulash soup is the mother of all comfort dishes on a cold day. I eat it with a Bavarian pretzel or some crusty artisan focaccia. And butter!

A goulash stew may be served with pasta, spaetzle, potatoes, or dumplings. Guten Appetit!