This American Chop Suey is my take on a family classic. We always called it goulash. Whatever you call it your family will call it delicious.
This is my version of a family classic. We always called it goulash, but it's also known as American Chop Suey, or Hamburger Casserole. Whatever you call it your family and friends will call it delicious.
This post has been sponsored by G.E. Appliances. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thanks to all the companies, and readers, who help support Cravings of a Lunatic.
Growing up we ate a lot of ground beef in our house. My mom liked using it because we all liked it. My dad liked using it because it was relatively inexpensive for a family of 6. We liked it because it meant we weren't forced to eat liver that night.
With 4 very active kids, who came home super hungry after a long day of causing trouble, my mom knew making a meal stretch as far as possible was going to be important. More often than not we showed up with friends, begging her to let them eat dinner at our house.
My mom was always cool about our friends having dinner with us. My dad was not quite as open to it when we were young. He liked the dinner table to be relatively quiet. He knew if our friends were with us any chance of quiet was impossible.
We ate at 4:30 every single day. Without exception. No excuses. You had to be at the table at that time. Us kids always thought it was way too early. Most of our friends ate way later than us. You know when you're a kid how much that matters.
Every meal was spent with us kids trying to inhale our food as quickly as we could so we could head back outside with our friends to play. That was always so much easier to do with a meal we all loved. So my mom made sure she made stuff we loved.
Our friends would be waiting on our porch when we were done. They all knew how strict my dad was. We had to wait 30 minutes after eating to go outside to play. I still think back on that and laugh. I think dad confused the play outside rule with the swimming rule.
As we grew up our friends started to eat over more and more often. My mom loved having our friends around. It made her feel connected to us kids. And our friends loved my mom. All my friends called her Mom Too. She loved it and ate up the attention.
Sadly my mom passed away when I was just 15. It was heartbreaking for all of us. My mom was everyone's best friend. Everyone loved her, most of all us kids. She was the heart of our family. She remains that for me, she always will.
When she first passed away our household got very quiet for a long time. None of us knew how to cook, how to clean or how to have fun like she did. We certainly didn't know how to make guests feel welcome and happy.
Time passed and the house started to not be as quiet. A friend of my brother's moved in with us, and he was a happy go lucky sort of guy. He helped lighten up the dinner table considerably. We laughed every day when he was with us.
More time marched on and my other brother's friend moved in with us. He lived with us for years, and became like a brother to me. I still call him my brother from another mother. He was with us through a lot.
As more time passed my cousin moved in with us for awhile. He was a riot, and having him in the house was always fun. No dinner was complete unless someone had milk come out of their nose. We laughed that hard.
I think my dad realized that all those people who needed his help were helping us. I still look back on it and think it was my mom sending us the right people at the right time to teach us how to laugh and have fun again.
One thing that remained consistent through all those years was our love of a good, easy hamburger dish my mom called goulash. Sometimes she used pasta, sometimes she made a version with potatoes. No matter the version ground beef was the star!
My own life marched on over the years and I continued some of my mom's traditions when raising my own kids. We always had my kids' friends over for dinner.
We also ate a lot of ground beef. It's economical, versatile and you can do anything with it.
When I think back over the years of learning to cook and spending so much time standing over the various stoves I've used it occurs to me that my love of G.E. Appliances dates back to my childhood. All  my memories involve their products.
Growing up my dad always said buy the best you can afford. When I bought my parents' house in 2007 after my dad passed away the first thing we did was listen to my dad. We went out and bought all brand new G.E. Appliances.
I bought a dual fuel range, a french door refrigerator, a microwave and my first dishwasher. I remember my dad buying my mom her first one. So I felt so nostalgic picking up a new version of her old one.
It's amazing to me how so many of my memories of my childhood and my kids' childhoods are centered around my favourite appliance company. When you love a company you stay loyal to them. I love the quality, and reliability of them.
And let's just be honest here, if you're going to spend as much time in your kitchen as IÂ do you want, you want your appliances to not only be highly functional but you also want them to be gorgeous. My appliances are beyond gorgeous. 8 years later I'm still so happy I chose them.
They're never clean though. When your whipping up goulash, a.k.a. hamburger casserole, a.k.a. American Chop Suey it's hard not to make a mess. And I wouldn't want it any other way. With great messes come great memories.
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American Chop Suey aka American Goulash
Ingredients
- 24 oz macaroni noodles
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large sweet onion, diced
- 2 shallots, diced
- 1 lb ground beef
- 56 oz (2 x 28 oz) cans of san marzano tomatoes
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ tsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp sweet basil
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
- ½ cup reserved pasta water
- 1 lb mozzarella cheese, cut into large chunks or rounds
- Parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Fill a stock pot with water. Place on stove. Bring to a boil. Add salt to the water. You will be using this to boil the noodles but don't do that till your sauce is simmering.
- In the meantime place a large dutch oven on the stove top. Add oil, onions and shallots to the dutch oven, turn on medium heat, cook until onions start to soften.
- Add ground beef to the dutch oven and cook until it's browned and juices run clear.
- Pour both cans of tomatoes into a blender and give it a whir until it's smooth. Transfer that to the dutch oven. Add the Worcestershire sauce. Stir.
- Add spices to the dutch oven and bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.
- At this time you want to add your macaroni noodles to the pot with water. Cook until al dente, about 1 minute less than the package tells you to cook them.
- Please do not rinse your noodles, reserve ½ cup of the pasta water, set that aside for when you need it. You can now drain your noodles, but do not rinse them.
- Add the cooked macaroni noodles, pasta water and parmesan cheese to the dutch oven. Mix really well.
- Now you can cook the casserole in your dutch oven in the oven, but I transfer mine to two casserole dishes. Spread out with a spoon.
- Press about ½ the mozzarella cheese into the casserole so it sinks in a bit. Then top with the other half.
- Pop your casserole in the preheated 375 degree F oven, cook for about 20 to 25 minutes, depending on how you like your cheese. We like ours when it is golden brown.
- Remove from oven and eat right away.
- Serve with a big old casserole loving smile!
Video
Notes
Post was originally shared on April 26, 2015. Last updated on August 6, 2018 to include video.
Toodles and smoochies! xx
Jay Sokoloff
Great recipe. What really knocked me for a loop was the awesome Canadiens Jersey. Did you grow up near Montreal?
Kim Beaulieu
Thanks Jay. I'm in Ontario but both of my folks grew up in Quebec. That's my uncle wearing it. My folks were huge hockey fans. Never missed a game.
Anne-Marie @ This Mama Cooks! On a Diet
Such a wonderful post with such terrific memories of your mom and dinner time traditions of your family. I love the pictures, too. I can't believe that you ate so early as we ate dinner so late, mostly because my dad was always coming home from the office at 7 pm. Funny how things revolve around what your dad does as much as your mom!
Kim Beaulieu
Thanks Anne-Marie. It's so funny as now I eat really late with my own hooligans. Mine will likely grow up & want to eat early. The circle of life, always spinning.
Florian @ContentednessCooking
This looks fantastic and the pictures are beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Kim Beaulieu
Thanks so much Florian.
pam (Sidewalk Shoes)
I loved this post, especially the photos!
Kim Beaulieu
Thanks so much Pam.
Paula - bell'alimento
I haven't had goulash in forever. My Dad used to make it for us when we were littles : ) xo
Kim Beaulieu
Awe, that's so awesome. It's one of those universal recipes everyone has a memory of.
Liz
Nice recipe. Thanks Kim.
Kim Beaulieu
Thanks Liz. xx
Carnende
Wow you wrote so beautiful about your childhood and I cried all the way until I riched the recipe. Great recipe and is very similar to one my mom made, we called It different but it doesn't matter, for us Gulash was really something different . ( research Hungarian Gulash )
I'm gonna make this recipe for my kids tomorrow , thanks for sharing!
Brittany
Love this! It's definitely going on my meal plan for next month. Are you able to recall where you go the baking dish (turquoise one)? It's lovely!
Kim Beaulieu
Hope you love it Brittany. I actually got the dish from Target. All the Targets in Canada closed up so I got an oval one and a rectangular one super cheap.
Brian Jones
I love how recipe names get appropriated in different places around the world, I am from the UK and goulash was a fairly hearty stew and now I live in Hungary the home of the goulash and I see it as something very different... And now I have another imagining of the concept and it looks amazing and will definitely be cooking it.
The one thing that seems to be a common theme with the re-thinking of a goulash is that it is always wholesome and hearty food for a big family, which makes me smile, so many versions but one idea, food to warm and to share 🙂
Ed M
Looks yummy and I can't wait to make it. Loved the story about your family.
You might want to check the typo in Instruction #12. I'm pretty sure you don't mean a 75 degree oven, but 375 from #1.
Kim Beaulieu
Thanks so much. My three button is broken, as well as 4 others, so I have to copy & paste them all like crazy. I must have missed that one. Thanks a million & three for the heads up. I'll fix it now. I can't wait to get a new computer. Hopefully next week. I've been working on a broken one for about 6 months. SO frustrating when you work online for a living. Thank goodness for people like you. I appreciate it so much.
Cindy
Does this freeze well? Maybe freeze before adding the Motzerella?
Kim Beaulieu
Hi Cindy. It freezes beautifully. I actually freeze mine with the cheese on it. I freeze lasagna too. Mozzarella freezes great. Hope you love it.
Joanie
I loved reading your story and looking at the photos. Memories are treasures, aren't they?. I had a friend whose dad made her wait 30 minutes after eating too! The rest of us would laugh. I'm intrigued by the potato version as my hubby dislikes pasta and loves potatoes. Did you just substitute them for the pasta or, did you use both?
Thanks for a great recipe! Bless you.
Kim Beaulieu
Thanks Joanie. I love sharing stories about my folks. I miss them every day. I just use potato in the other version. I'm making it in September for the blog. It's just too hot here right now to turn on the oven. Mine is usually off from May to September. But I want to share it on the blog as soon as it cools down a bit.
I'm not a huge fan of potatoes in pasta dishes so I have multiple versions of this. I have no idea why but I grew up thinking "meat & potatoes" or "pasta". I was always surprised when I visited friends who parents combined them. Funny how what you get used to shapes your taste preferences.
That 30 minute thing still makes me laugh. It was so silly. I honestly think my dad confused it with the swimming rule. Or he just liked to torture us a little bit. lol
Amy
I could relate to this post between the wallpaper in those family photos, the dinnertime "hurry up and eat so we can go out and play," mindset and the recipe itself! I'm sure you miss your mom terribly but this was a great way to honor her.
Kim Beaulieu
Thanks Amy. I really do miss her. Losing her so early was heartbreaking. She was just the coolest lady. SO much fun and always had us in stitches. She is greatly missed.
Carolyn N
Great recipe. Love the rich flavor. Grew up on goulash in Western NY.
Kim Beaulieu
Thanks so much, Carolyn. Glad you liked it.
sp
l loved reading your family story; recipe sounds great!
Kim Beaulieu
Thank you so much.
Janet
Looks good! Wondered if I could use crushed tomatoes instead of the san marzano? Then I probably wouldn't have to use the blender for them? Thank you! Also, do you buy the block of parmesan & grate it by hand, or do you use the dried Parmesan (Kraft) in the green canister?
Kim Beaulieu
Hi Janet. You can absolutely use crushed tomatoes in this. I used fresh parmesan for this particular recipe but I've made it plenty of times with Kraft parmesan. For a recipe like this it's totally okay to use the kind in a jar. Hope you love it!
Debbie
I made this last night and the family went nuts for it. I've tried other versions but this one has so much flavor and wasn't runny like some other recipes. I never thought to add pasta water so thanks for the tip.
Kim Beaulieu
Thanks for trying it. Glad I could help. I swear a little pasta water can work miracles.