homemade hamburger helper;

Sometimes you just want a warm, cozy classic, like homemade hamburger helper. And these days, with grocery prices on the rise, it’s nice to stretch ground beef into a full, hearty one-pan meal. In case you live under a rock or across a sea, hamburger helper is a one-pan meal. Basically, noodles and seasoning are sold in a box, and all you need to add is a pound of ground beef and some liquid, and voila, a meal for five.

If you wanna buy the boxed mix, all the power to ya! But I generally find that it’s pretty easy to whip up in my own kitchen, since most of the ingredients are staples for me.

Homemade hamburger helper is built on the flavors of a hamburger (shocker). So we start by browning the ground beef. I like to use 85-90% beef, but 80 will do as well. I’ll just blot up more of the grease that cooks off with 80%. I just use a paper towel and push the beef to one side and tilt the pan slightly, then dab at the collected grease. Do be careful not to burn your fingers and make sure to keep anything flammable away from your stovetop burner.

I leave a hint of pink in my browned meat (think “medium” cook) since it’ll get plenty of cooking time when we cook the pasta in the same pan. This keeps the beef from getting tough.

Secret to success

I obviously brown my meat, but I don’t cook it all the way through. I move on to the next step when there are still a few hints of pink around the pan. Maybe a “medium” kind of vibe, though, of course, your ground beef is crumbled and not in hamburger patty form. Since we’re going to cook the pasta in the same pan, it’ll get plenty of cooking time. I find that helps keep the meat from getting tough.

Then, the critical ingredient in my mind—pickle juice. Use your favorite pickles. Heck, I’ve even used the brine from capers when I didn’t have pickles open. For extra veggies, you can even finely dice up some pickles and toss them in at the end.

For extra veggies, dice up some pickles to toss in, or serve with a pickle on the side.

secret to success

Then comes the flavor. Your classic condiments, ketchup and mustard, and the good stuff—onion and garlic powder. Honestly, homemade hamburger helper is a measure with your heart kind of recipe. Obviously, I’ve provided measurements, but to be honest, I usually just eyeball it. So what, it’s a little extra garlicky? Yumm. You can always adjust and add more ketchup or mustard right at the end if you find your ratios off. (Though I mostly don’t notice).

I do measure the water/broth, at least ballpark, because it makes me not worry as much about checking on the noodles. Of course, if you add too little, just add some more liquid and keep it simmering away! Again, at this point, everything’s cooked. So you can taste test the pasta for preferred al dente levels.

This recipe is a kind of “measure with your heart” recipe and hard to mess up. Check the pasta for preferred al dente levels and adjust liquid + cooking time if necessary.

secret to success

When everything is done and perfect, you gotta add the cheese! So I guess “homemade hamburger helper” should really be “homemade cheeseburger helper”. Excuuuuse me. But cheese (or chocolate) belongs on everything. Again, you can measure with your heart and add more or less cheese. It always takes a little more shredded cheese than I expect, but again, I’m a cheesy person. In both a literal and figurative sense.

secrets to success;

Want all the best tips and tricks to make this recipe a success? Check out the blog post above to find out more!

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