Beefy noodles has become kind of a staple in my house. It is stick-to-your-ribs, guaranteed that my kids will eat, FAST, easy cooking. Nothing fancy here. I sometimes refer to it as my home-made Hamburger Helper, only with ingredients that I can pronounce. It takes about 30 minutes from start to finish, including popping a vegetable in the microwave or oven.

Start out by putting a large pot of water on to boil. Then cut up ½ an onion and saute it over medium heat with about 2 TBSP of oil or butter in the pan. Cook until the onions start to soften, but not brown.

Next add about a pound of ground beef to the pan. Season it with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and seasoned salt.

When the beef is fully cooked, tilt the pan up and let the grease run to one side of the pan. For this size batch, there was just enough to make a decent roux to thicken the sauce. If you want to reduce the fat content of this dish, feel free to drain the fat and use a cold water/flour thickener at the end.

Add enough flour to the fat to make a thick roux.

Cook that for a few minutes, stirring frequently, then mix it together with the beef and add 3 TBSP of cooking sherry. Then quickly start adding cups of the hot water from your boiling pot of noodles. I added about 4 cups. Just add water, stirring frequently, until you get the thickness you like.

Now taste this. Add some beef bouillon. (I prefer the Better Than Bouillon brand, but have recently used some other brand successfully. I would not recommend using the little cubes or granules. I don’t know if they would dissolve properly.) Depending on the kind you use, you’ll need about 2 tsp or so.

If you opted to thicken with a water/flour thickener, thicken after the beef base is fully combined and incorporated.

Mix your noodles in with your sauce, throw in and mix up with a dollop of sour cream and you are done! We prefer egg noodles for this dish, but any kind of noodles would work. We’ve used macaroni many times. Serve this with your favorite vegetable and dinner is done.