The Best Sweet and Sour Hamburger Sauce You Will Ever Have

Growing up we always had this rule that on your birthday you got to request your favorite meal for dinner. Mine was always Sweet and Sour Hamburger Sauce. To this day it is still one of my favorite dishes. I'm a pretty picky fussy particular eater so if I like it, it's probably pretty darn delicious! I thought today I'd share the recipe with you so it can be your favorite too! Unless you're vegetarian; then you won't like it. It sorta has meat in it. But anyways, one of the reasons I love this recipe so much is it tastes a little different every time. You can mix it up pretty easy. Like if you don't have garlic you can use garlic salt. Don't have celery or like celery? Leave it out or add celery salt. Want to add zucchini? Throw it in.

But here's typically what I put into it...

[caption id="attachment_373" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="So I never usually write instructions on my recipe cards. Jon asked if I could for when he cooks and that's all I wrote! I'm getting much better at writing them out now!"][/caption]

 

These are all the ingredients except the hamburger, pasta, and water.

It's a pretty easy and simple recipe to make! Start by dicing the onion and celery(if you choose to add celery). If you are putting real garlic in, mince it now. In a large skillet brown the hamburger on medium heat in a little olive oil and cook with the veggies you just cut.

When the hamburger is all cooked throw in the 1 1/4 cup ketchup and 1/4 cup vinegar.  (If you are using garlic salt or celery salt add it now).  Also sprinkle salt and pepper in it.

 

Stir it all in

Next add a 1/4 cup of brown sugar and mix it into the sauce.

I never usually measure my mustard, I usually just squeeze it in. But today I used 2 tablespoons and it was a bit too much. So perhaps try 1 tablespoon. But do as much as you like!

Add 2 tablespoons of Worchestershire sauce.

And 1 cup of water. It will look super scary and watery at this point but don't panic. Just stir it all in.

 

Once it's all stirred in turn the heat down to low and let it simmer like that until it thickens. Make sure you stir it occasionally. Should take about 45 minutes or so to thicken. But if you're like us and you can hardly wait till the pasta's cooked to eat, that's fine too.

While you wait for the sauce to thicken boil water in a pot and cook your pasta.

Don't forget to stir your sauce every now and then. And make sure to taste test it! If it needs something more then make sure to add it. It might need some more ketchup or brown sugar or vinegar. Make it to your taste!

When your sauce is as thick as you like it or your pastas cooked. Scoop it over it and enjoy!

This sauce would also be really good as sloppy joes. We are going to try that one of these days. In that case when making the sauce I'll just add less water to it so it thickens more!

So there ya have it! One of my favorite recipes! It's really easy to make and so good! Let me know if you try it! Do you have a favorite recipe I need to try??