Homemade Hamburger Helper or Cheesy Hamburger Pasta Skillet is a hearty, satisfying 25-minute meal made with wholesome ingredients you’ll love! Don’t you love a one pot meal?!
Originally published October 2016; updated October 2018
Comfort food is often defined by childhood favorite recipes. Hamburger Helper was a staple in our house. It really was the birth of the one pot meal in my opinion and appealed to something relatable to all: it is easy to prepare.
What if I shared you could make homemade hamburger helper? Just as easy, with wholesome ingredients, rave reviews from your diners? It can be made with gluten-free or regular pasta and is ready in 30 minutes.
Sold!
What is Homemade Hamburger Helper?
For those who may have not experienced hamburger helper, it’s a combination of ground beef and other ingredients to create a filling one skillet meal.
Today’s recipe was a favorite of mine: cheesy hamburger pasta skillet! Irresistible comfort food flavors all combined for a fast, fabulous dinner idea!
What Ingredients are in Homemade Hamburger Helper?
This recipe includes lean ground beef, onions, garlic, sweet paprika with elbow pasta (gluten-free pasta or regular pasta) all in a creamy homemade tomato cheese sauce.
What I love is that same easy, convenience of the original pre-packaged dish is found in this homemade hamburger helper IN 30 minutes!
Make it Gluten-Free!
Just use your favorite gluten-free elbow pasta (I’m partial to Tinkyada loving it’s end texture; I use it in all my mac and cheese recipes)!
How to Make Homemade Hamburger Helper
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.
- Add the onion and garlic and sauté until the onion is starting to become transluscent (3-4 minutes)
- Add the ground beef and cook until no pink remains. Break up into small pieces while cooking. Drain any excess fat.
- Sprinkle spices over the meat.
- Add the chicken broth, milk, tomato sauce and pasta to the skillet.
- Bring the homemade hamburger helper to a boil then simmer with a lid on for 15 minutes (or until pasta is tender and almost done); stirring periodically to prevent sticking.
- Stir in the cheese and allow to sit for 5 minutes for the sauce to thicken.
So easy, right?!
Homemade Hamburger Helper is a simple, homey dish of ground meat, onions, spices and real cheesy cheese. It’s a fast meal and one that is filling!
Looking for MORE Easy Dinner Recipes? Check out our Easy Dinner Recipes collection!
If you’ve tried this Homemade Hamburger Helper recipe please RATE THE RECIPE below!
Please SUBSCRIBE and FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK , TWITTER , INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more delicious food, travel and what I’m up to!
Cheesy Hamburger and Pasta Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 pound Lean Ground Beef
- ½ medium Yellow Onion , peeled and chopped
- 2 medium Garlic Cloves , peeled and chopped
- 2 teaspoons Sweet Paprika
- 2 teaspoons Cornstarch
- .5 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- A grind of fresh Black Pepper
- 1 cup Low Sodium Chicken Broth
- 2 cups Milk
- 1 15-ounce can Tomato Sauce
- 2 cups Elbow Pasta (I used gluten-free Brown Rice Tinkyada pasta; see note for gluten options)
- 2 cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese , shredded
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet (with lid) over medium-high heat. When the oil is shimmering on the surface add the onion and garlic; sauté until the onion begins to become translucent (3-4 minutes).
- Add the ground beef and cook until no pink color remains; break up into small pieces as it cooks. Drain and excess fat.
- Sprinkle the spices over the meat and add the chicken broth, milk, tomato sauce and pasta. Bring to a boil, stirring to combine. Once at a boil, lower heat to medium-low (simmering) and cover with the lid. Allow to cook 15 minutes, (stirring periodically to prevent sticking) or until the pasta is tender and almost done.
- Stir in the cheese, and allow to sit for 5 minutes for the sauce to thicken before serving.
Stacie @ Divine Lifestyle says
Om nom nom nom. Yep. That about covers it. I absolutely cannot wait to make this. My family is going to devour it.
Jocelyn Cañasa Brown says
Wow. That looks so amazing. I am definitely going to be trying this recipe. I love this kind of meal.
Melisasource says
That looks delicious! I love these crossover recipes if you will, recipes that incorporate multiple dishes into one. Gonna try this for sure!
Chavonne H says
This recipe looks incredibly delicious! My family loves anything cheesy. I like the mix of chicken broth, tomato sauce and milk. Great combination of flavors.
Pam Wattenbarger says
My daughter would love this. With celiac, what she really misses is junk food and childhood foods that they don’t make good gluten free versions of. This would be so nostalgic!
Brandy says
That looks so delicious! I know that this would be something my family would devour. I’ll have to make it this weekend.
Marcie W. says
I can not tell you how much I appreciate this recipe. We cook from scratch in our house, but I often miss those classic boxed meals I grew up enjoying.
Lisa Joy Thompson says
My son is going to be soooooo excited! He can’t have gluten and his dream is to eat hamburger helper! He would flip out if I told him I could make homemade gluten-free hamburer helper!
Chrystal | Nevermore Lane says
I love recipes that are a better version of boxed meals. I am a huge fan of cheesy hamburger. YUM!
Susan says
I think I had Hamburger Helper once as an older adult, and wasn’t impressed. However, I’m always looking for simple one pot meals, especially for those times when my kitchen is mostly an electric skillet, so I’m saving the recipe. I’m also operating on the assumption that you’ve done what’s necessary to give this good flavor.
Dawn McAlexander says
Hamburger Helper is pretty much a staple around our house. With our busy schedules, cooking from scratch is tough. I admire your ability to whip up these recipes for us.
Theresa says
My mom was big on Hamburger Helper too and I remember making it years after I moved out of her house thinking it was so good back then. Nope. Ickiest stuff I ever had. We try to avoid processed foods as much as possible now and this sounds like a really great alternative to that nasty boxed junk they try to pass off as food.
Janell Poulette says
This looks amazing, my family loves anything with cheese! It definitely looks easy and I will make making it this weekend!
Lisa says
My husband is allergic to MSG and Hamburger Helper, which did not have MSG in it years ago, now does. His heart was completely broken as he loved this for a quick dinner in a pinch. I cannot wait to make this for him. He is going to flip. Thank you for this recipe!
Annemarie LeBlanc says
Looks so yummy! I love one pot meals like these. So yummy and saves me a lot of time preparing and cooking. I’m going to include this in our meal plan this week.
Kita Bryant says
This looks much tastier than the boxed stuff! Looks so delicious!
Jeanine says
This looks so delicious. Much better than the store bought packages. I would love and feel proud to serve this to my family!
aziel morte says
Absolutely looks amazing! I should try these on our lunch. Glad you share this recipe
Kiwi says
Looks like a real easy dish! Great for when you want to feed many!
Ourfamilyworld says
Wow, that looks delicious! Can’t wait to cook it and serve to the whole family!
Amanda Love says
I am loving my iron skillet and I’m always looking forward to learning recipes that I can use it in! I’m sure my sons would love for me to cook this for them. It looks so good and filling!
Kelly Hutchinson says
This is one of my daughter’s favorite meals. Your recipe looks much tastier than the one I use!
Brianne says
I can so see my family loving this recipe! Definitely adding this to my recipe box!
Karlaroundtheworld | Karla says
If getting into a gluten-free world gets me this, I’m sold. I’ve always been keen when it comes to finding more variations of cheeseburgers, in any form. This is just my type of slice!
Sheila F says
This is exactly what I was looking for. What are you estimating as a serving size?
Toni Dash says
Sheila, I have a sheepish confession. I usually measure out a recipe in cups to record a specific volume of a serving before letting my taste testers loose on it. In the case of this recipe I’ve never been fast enough to do that before I turn around and it’s getting spooned out onto a plate; seriously! I estimate 6 ample servings per recipe; 6-8 for lighter appetites. Does that help? Maybe I need to go rent a hotel room with a kitchen to make it and measure it in peace.
Melissa Sperka says
This will be a welcome sight on our dinner table!
Aysegul says
It looks so easy and delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Susanna says
This dish looks so yummy! I’m always looking for meals by boys will eat, and obviously it’s nice to try new dishes every now and then. I may try it with gluten-free pasta. I’ve found gluten-free pasta works much better with my digestive system.
Joanne says
So much better than the boxed stuff. So comforting too!
Liz says
This was SO much better than a box mix! Quick, easy and wonderful!
Lynn says
Over over 900 mg of sodium is overload for one meal. Anyone with a family history of heart disease or being sodium sensitive, that would be too much. Ant suggestions on cutting the sodium by at least half? Thanks.
Toni Dash says
Thank you Lynn for flagging this. The nutrtion information for the recipe is automatically pulled from an API (a resource storing active nutritional information for 1000s of products and ingredients). I looked at it and re-entered the three ingredients I would see to be sources of the sodium; the broth, kosher salt and tomato sauce. You’ll note the calculation is less now (sometimes the auto calculation can misinterpret a given ingredient type) however still is higher than my personal math which (depending on the brands of broth or tomato sauce) would be more like 318mg per serving and even less if selecting a low or no salt version of tomato sauce. Because it’s based on a generic calculation versus a particular brand that could account for the difference in the nutritional content vs mine. You raise a great point and actually another reason making packaged foods from scratch is beneficial. Thanks again for your time and thoughts.
Melissa Chapman says
I love a one skillet meal like this and I think kids will love this It is great that it can be gluten free and just as good.
Stacie says
Woo hoo! That looks so good. I make Hamburger Helper all the time, and I love the idea of making a homemade version. It HAS to be so much better than the box.
Mitch Chaitin says
I will have to try this. My boys do like Hamburger Helper, I make it once a week, and usually ad my own cooked pasta to extend it. Your way is certainly much healthier, and that is important!
Liz Mays says
This should be quick and easy and my family does tend to like hamburger helper meals. The flavors in this must be even better.
Ashley @ Wishes & Dishes says
I love skillet meals like this!
Patty says
This sounds so yummy! I will give this a try for dinner this week!
xo
Patty
Patty says
This sounds so yummy! I will give this one a try for dinner this week!
xo
Patty
Janis @MommyBlogExpert says
This looks like such a kid-friendly school night meal. Not only will they love it, but Mom will be happy too because it’s easy to make and healthy too.
robin rue says
Mmm! I love easy skillet meals like this. I can’t wait to make this for my family!
Amanda says
This looks so tasty and amazing!!
Dee says
This looks like a great dish my family will love! Gotta try this
Jeni Hawkins says
OMG I love Hamburger Helper – but THIS looks absolutely amazing and so much more fresh! I’m totally making this for dinner!
Jennifer Farley says
Mmm! I grew up eating hamburger helper so this is such a nostalgic dinner!
Kathy says
This looks amazing. I love hamburger helper. I have always wanted to try a homemade recipe too. Can’t wait to give this a try.
Brianne Manz says
Oh wow this brings back such memories. I love your homemade cheesy hamburger pasta recipe and will be trying it for our family very soon.
Rachel says
I have made this before. I am a huge fan. It tastes better and goes farther than normal hamber helper.
Catalina says
I can’t say no to this creamy and cheesy pasta! This is a dish that my entire family will love!
Stephanie Pass says
This looks like a meal my family would devour. I love making one skillet meals that I can get done pretty quickly for a weeknight meal. Yum!
jennifer says
This meal looks so perfect for my family! Everyone here loves the cheesy hamburger skillet meal and yours looks like the one I’m making tonight for dinner. Thanks for the recipe
Jersey Girl Cooks says
Cheesy and delcious! I never ate Hamburger Helper as a kid but I love that this is an easy delcious meal!
Kristine Nicole Alessandra says
Wow, this is such a winner dish for my whole family, it looks really delicious and looks so easy to make.
Keikilani says
This is a total comfort food recipe! I am saving this for a cozy winter night dinner.
Jeanine says
My kids are BIG fans of hamburger helper but i am not fond of dinners from a box so this is PERFECT! It looks and sounds just delicious!
Amy says
This looks like a perfect weeknight meal! I absolutely have to try it this week!
Mahy Elamin says
A simple and easy list of ingredients is what I love. Yes, this is the perfect recipe for me. I’m sure this is very tasty. I definitely want to try it. Thank you!
Allyson Zea says
My kids would totally love this! I love how easy it is
Kiwi says
I used to make Hamburger Helper a lot in college. I know this is good for families to cut time with dinner making.
Melanie Bauer says
Looks amazing! I love easy recipes like this, all those flavors together must make this irresistible, so delish!