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This easy homemade Hamburger Helper recipe has ground beef, macaroni, and a flavorful cheesy cheddar sauce! It’s total comfort food that’s inexpensive and ready in about 30 minutes.
Try my Simple Ground Beef Casserole or One Pot Cheesy Beef and Shells next.
Why you’ll love it
When I was little, my mom made everything from scratch. I do fondly remember a few boxed meals from visiting friends’ houses in the ’90s, though. One was Hamburger Helper, and that brings up all the nostalgia. Naturally, I had to recreate an even better Hamburger Helper from scratch! I like mine because you have total control over the seasonings and know exactly what goes into it.
This ground beef recipe is super simple to make with affordable pantry ingredients, doesn’t take much longer than the packaged kind, and it’s cooked all in one pot for fewer dishes. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with eating packaged foods every now and then, but a LOT of people crave homemade Hamburger Helper, so I am here to bring you the best version.
What you’ll need
- Ground beef – I like to use extra lean ground beef, at least 90%
- Onion – our kitchen prefers Vidalia (sweet) onions
- Tomato paste – it’s an easy, economical way to get concentrated tomato flavor
- Garlic powder and chili powder – our simple seasoning blend to infuse savory flavor, and they’re ingredients I always keep in my pantry
- Elbow macaroni – the classic pasta shape for this
- Beef broth – for a deeper, richer flavor to the sauce
- Sharp cheddar cheese – my version of Hamburger Helper has no milk to make it that much easier, and the cheddar makes the dish creamy enough all on its own!
Pro tip
One pot recipes can vary depending on your particular stove and ingredients, so if you seem to be running out of liquid with a lot of time still left, feel free to add in a bit more. Try 1/2 cup at a time.
How to make Hamburger Helper
This is an overview with step-by-step photos. Full ingredients & instructions are in the recipe card below.
Start by browning the beef and onion in a large pot and draining any excess fat, then stir in the tomato paste, garlic powder, and chili powder. Add in the beef broth, and bring the mixture to a boil. Once it’s boiling, stir in the uncooked macaroni.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is tender and most of the liquid is soaked up. Grate the cheddar while it’s simmering away. Stir in the cheese, and season to taste with salt & pepper.
Tools for this recipe
Check out Natasha’s favorite kitchen essentials, gadgets, and cookware!
- Always grate your cheese own for best taste and texture. I use this cheese grater.
- I like this Dutch oven for my one pot meals.
- These are the angled measuring cups I use.
Substitutions and variations
- Feel free to tweak seasonings to your tastes. You can always increase the chili powder, add some hot sauce or crushed red pepper flakes, more garlic, and so on to make it perfect for your taste buds!
- Some readers like to sneak in a bit of spinach. Just add it in near the end of the cooking time until it wilts. Finely chopped bell peppers would work great as well.
- If you want to jazz it up, change up the cheese variety. Monterey Jack, smoked cheddar, etc. make some fun variations.
- You can use ground turkey or ground chicken instead if that’s more your thing.
- If you want to use another pasta shape (e.g. shells), you may need to adjust liquid measurements and/or cooking time (this has only been tested with macaroni).
What to serve with Hamburger Helper
- It’s definitely a meal in and of itself, but it would go great with a salad on the side. Try one with my Simple Homemade Ranch Dressing or Copycat Olive Garden Salad Dressing.
- Making Extra Cheesy Garlic Bread at home is another fantastic pairing everyone will devour.
- Want to serve it with some veggies? These Easy Roasted Green Beans are a cinch to make and caramelized to perfection.
Leftovers and storage
- Leftovers of this Hamburger Helper will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days in an airtight container, but keep in mind that the pasta will continue to absorb the broth over time. It’ll still be tasty, though.
- Reheat in a small saucepan over a low heat for best results, giving it the occasional stir, and warm it through. Add in a splash of beef broth to thin it if desired.
- I don’t recommend freezing leftovers. Cooked pasta doesn’t have the same texture once thawed.
More family friendly recipes
Let me know if you give this cheesy Hamburger Helper recipe a go! Questions? Made it? As always, I love it when you leave me comments.
Homemade Hamburger Helper Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound extra lean ground beef
- 1/2 medium onion chopped
- 2 heaping tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 3 cups beef broth
- 1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
- 2 cups freshly grated cheddar cheese
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add the beef and onions to a soup pot. Cook over medium-high heat until the beef has browned (about 7-10 minutes), breaking the meat up with your spoon as you go along. If there's a lot of excess fat, spoon most of it out.
- Stir in the tomato paste, garlic powder, and chili powder.
- Add in the beef broth and increase the heat to high. Once it starts boiling, add in the macaroni.
- Reduce the heat so it's not furiously boiling (a rapid simmer is good). I ended up cooking mine over medium heat. Let it cook uncovered until the pasta is tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed (about 13-15 minutes). I stir it every couple of minutes.
- While it's cooking, grate the cheese (this saves prep time at the start of the recipe).
- Take the pot off the heat and stir in the cheese. Season with salt & pepper as needed. I let it sit for a couple minutes prior to serving (soaks up the sauce and flavors more), but you can serve it right away.
Notes
- Serves 4-6 depending on the portion size.
- As with any one pot meal, ingredients and stoves vary. If you’re running out of liquid (like it’s in danger of sticking and burning) when you still have a while to go before the pasta is done, feel free to add in more liquid, 1/2 cup at a time.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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This recipe was originally published on January 17, 2020. It’s been updated with new photos and better instructions but is the same great recipe!
I made this for the first time today and it was delicious. Great recipe!
Wonderful! 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
Made a vegan version with beyond ground, veggie broth and vegan cheese. It was delicious. Kid approved, husband approved. No leftovers. Thank you!
That’s great! 😀
I made this dish for my daughter who is a very picky eater. She asked for it again twice! It was delicious and simple. Thank you!
That’s great to hear! So happy she likes it.
Hi I made this recipe two weeks ago and loved it! I want to make it again tonight but I don’t have tomato paste!:/ Do you think I can make this without the tomato paste?
Thank you!!!!
Hi! Hmmm… do you have a small can of tomato sauce maybe? I don’t think it would be bad or anything without it, but the tomatoes do add some flavor.
Family looked it, kid went back for seconds. I added a little dill
Great!!
Just made this tonight following the recipe right on. All kids and teens loved it, and I looked it much more than I expected! I grew up during the hey day of hamburger helper and it was never a key dish in our house. This recipe is great. Served with steamed broccoli on the side for some green.
That’s awesome!! 🙂
This was delicious, made it last night and my husband told me that, as a kid, hamburger helper was one of his all-time favorite things! Learned something new 🙂 I used fusilli pasta because that’s what I had. Because it is a larger pasta, I used four cups of broth. I also bumped up the amount of tomato paste, chili powder and garlic powder and I seasoned the beef and onions with salt and pepper as they were cooking. We have a ridiculous amount of cheese in our house so I added in comte cheese, since it melts well, and topped it with some parmesan in addition to the cheddar. To add in something green, I added broccoli to the broth and pasta with about 4-5 minutes of cooking time left. It got just soft enough. I would absolutely make this again. It was wonderful comfort food to take the edge off of election night.
I’m so happy that it’s a hit in your home and that it brought back good memories for your hubby! 🙂 Thanks for the tips w. the fusilli!
I made this last night and it turned out really disappointing. Too watery but worse the amount of cheese was waaaay to much and clumped in their bowls and the pan. 😐
Family liked flavor (bc I added more spices than your recipient required) but hated the cheese.
Hmmm that’s not good. I’m sorry to hear that! This recipe has tons of good reviews, so I am perplexed what went wrong for you.
Cheese clumped up becuz your main dish was too hot.
Super simple, quick, definitely use fresh grated cheese. Only had to add salt and pepper.
So glad you liked it!!
This is great the kids will love this but we have a large family we would need a lb of pasta 🤣 how would you make with a lb.
thank you!
Hi Terri! I honestly can’t say without testing because the liquid quantities really matter. I would start by doubling the recipe and then you could tweak from there.
I think as for 1lb of pasta you would need about 20 cups of beef broth lol as for the rest I would just consider doing 4-5 times the regular amount (: and it should work out about the same, I didn’t follow the recipe perfectly we love extra onions and seasoning but it turned out really good! Definitely something I’d make again. And didn’t run into the cheese clumping problem either (: