This Homemade Hamburger Helper Recipe is a quick and easy one pan meal you can make in just 10 minutes!! Families and picky eaters love it! Serve as-is or with a salad or a vegetable! Our family loves it with broccoli!
I found that nothing helps more in the kitchen than quick easy meals like this one pan Homemade Hamburger Helper. It’s easy to make and easy to clean up. Everyone will love to eat this dish on busy weeknights and they won’t even realize you’ve made it because it saves you time. ;-)
Keep the ingredients for this simple and quick meal on hand for those nights when you don’t have time to make anything the slightest bit complicated.
You’ll find this easy family dinner recipe and a bunch of other super easy weeknight meal recipes in our Dining On A Dime Cookbooks!
The Best Homemade Hamburger Helper Recipe
The store-bought box mix for this kind of meal doesn’t actually save you any money. Make your own DIY Hamburger Helper at home and save time and money. This easy recipe is the best homemade hamburger helper recipe ever.
One of the things I love about this recipe is that it pulls together ingredients I pretty much always have in my pantry or freezer. It’s so quick and easy and the kids absolutely adore it, so I’m always tempted to make it if I’ve had a rough day — And they always thank me for it!
How to Make Homemade Hamburger Helper
Making this homemade hamburger helper recipe is a breeze. First, you brown the ground beef and drain the fat. Then you add all of the remaining ingredients and simmer it on your stovetop until the pasta is cooked through and the sauce is your desired thickness. It’s that simple!
Ingredients for the DIY Hamburger Helper
- Ground Beef. I use 70/30 ground beef (Yes, 70/30 IS the most cost effective ground beef) and then drain it really well.
- Water
- Elbow Macaroni Noodles. Uncooked regular pasta. You can cook other shapes of pasta and it will work fine, so use what you have on hand!
- Onion Powder.
- Garlic Powder. If you don’t have garlic powder, substitute with jarred minced garlic.
- Chili Powder.
- Tomato Paste.
- Beef Bouillion Cubes. I keep these and the chicken version on hand to add a deeper flavor to a variety of different dishes.
- Salt and Pepper. To taste. The bouillion also has salt content so taste test.
- Grated Cheese. Optional.
- Parsley. Optional for garnish.
More Homemade Hamburger Helper Ideas
Need to mix things up? Try each of these different variations! Making the dish a little different each week will keep your family from dinner-time rebellion while helping keep your evenings stress-free.
- Instead of chili powder, use taco seasoning and serve with a dollop of sour cream. If you also use a different kind of pasta, this is a quick and easy change that makes it seem like a completely different meal.
- Use leftover rotisserie chicken and chicken bouillon. Everything else stays the same.
- Add a little heavy cream at the end.
- Try bow tie pasta, shells, or rotini.
- Add drained, canned black beans to make the recipe go further and up the protein content.
- If you don’t have bouillion cubes on hand, use broth instead of water. Mix in a tablespoon or so of cornstarch into the water before adding it to the skillet.
Tips for the Best Homemade Hamburger Helper Possible
- Don’t overcook the pasta. If you have trouble with the pasta getting too mushy, try adding a little less water to the recipe.
- Purchase your ground beef in larger quantities. Cook and drain the ground beef. Freeze it in freezer bags in the amounts you need for your favorite recipes. I like to make the bags flat as they freeze so that they are easy to stack. If you want precise quantities, use a kitchen scale. To make thawing the ground beef easier, you can run under warm water for 30 seconds and it will release from the baggie. Then throw it in the skillet with everything else.
- If you are using pre-cooked frozen meat for the homemade hamburger helper recipe, you can literally throw all of these ingredients in your Instant Pot, set it for ten minutes on high pressure, and go read a book.
Other Fast Easy Meal Ideas to make with Hamburger
Hamburger Casserole Recipes For Quick And Easy Meals!
10 Crockpot Recipes Under $5 – Easy Meals Your Family Will Love!
This recipe is from Volume 1 of our Cookbook, where it is called Hamburger Casserole.
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One Pan Homemade Hamburger Helper Recipe
Ingredients
1/2 lb. ground beef
4 cups water
1 cup regular elbow macaroni, uncooked
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 cup tomato paste
2 beef bouillon cubes
salt and pepper (to taste)
cheese, grated (optional)
parsley (optional)
Instructions
- Brown ground beef in a skillet.
- Drain off the fat, and add the remaining ingredients to the skillet.
- Stir to combine.
- Bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, for about 15 minutes or until it reaches desired thickness.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Garnish with cheese and parsley, if desired.
Very good. I made it tonight and the family liked it. It is easy to make.
Quick and Easy Family Recipes
I haven’t had Hamburger Helper in a very long time, but this tastes just like I remember it tasting. This is an excellent low cost family meal, and it will definitely be added into our dinner rotation.
Simple, quick, and tasty! Great for busy weeknights. I have made it several times as is but this time I didn’t have enough tomato paste. I subbed with 1/2 cup chili sauce and 1 tbsp tomato paste. Added some green peas. It was delicious.
This has become my go-to quick dinner recipe. I’ve made it as is or replaced the hamburger with ground chicken, kidney beans or cottage cheese (added at the end). All were delicious. Thanks!
This recipe is great. Back in the day we just called this Chili Mac
I’m going to start cooking the hamburger and putting it baggies like Tawra does and freezing them. I think it’s a great idea and would make meal prep so much faster.
Love that woman Tawra🌻
I have precooked hamburger so I will be making the Hamburger Helper meal tonight. I was really interested in the dehydrated potatoes but because I am trying to downsize I gave up my Dehydrator last year. It wasn*t being used.
How many does the recipe serve?
Depending on how big of eaters you have but about 3-4
This recipe is very good and a great base to be able to adapt it. I did add Worcestershire sauce while browning the ground beef because I do love the flavor. This recipe is so easy to prepare on busy nights or even when you don’t feel like cooking. Thumbs up from my family for this recipe!!
Thank you Jo Anne for letting us know. This is usually a big hit with kids and husbands alike.
This is a nice and easy type of dinner to make. A variation that I’ve used for years is to use mild Pace Picante sauce in place of the onion/garlic/chili powder and tomato paste (you could also use any salsa you like).
Use enough bouillon (or beef) broth (to the cooked ground beef) to get the noodles cooked first. Then add maybe a cup of the picante or salsa to taste.
We like this with about 4 oz Velveeta cheese melted in it. Add to taste.
I was gonna make baby meatloafs but, decided to make this instead. Just like JoAnne I added just a little splash of Worcestershire. EXCELLENT! :)