Homemade potato and cheese pierogi
Soft sour cream dough wrapped around cheesy mashed potato, boiled and then fried in butter with sweet golden onions.
- 120 min total
- 75 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $1.71 a serving
- 740 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup sour cream, divided
- 6 tbsp butter, divided, 2 tbsp softened
- 1 russet potato, large
- 2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
- ¾ cup shredded cheddar
- 2 tbsp chives, chopped (optional)
From your pantry
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- 2½ tsp salt, divided
- ⅓ cup water
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 740 calories, 18 g protein, 82 g carbs and 38 g fat, and costs about $1.71 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No sour cream? Plain Greek yogurt works.
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No russet potatoes? Yukon Gold potatoes work.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No shredded cheddar? Cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese or Monterey Jack cheese works.
- No chives? Green onions work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Mix the flour and 1 teaspoon salt in a bowl.
Dolly’s tip: If it sticks to your hands, dust with a little flour. If it cracks, wet your hands and keep kneading.Add the egg, ½ cup sour cream, 2 tablespoons butter and the water.
Softened. For vegetables it means cooked until they bend and lose their crunch; for butter, left out until it dents easily. Soft onions taste sweet, and soft butter mixes in smoothly.
How you’ll know: Onions squash easily against the pan with your spoon, and butter dents under a finger without looking greasy.
Stir, then knead on the counter until smooth and soft, about 5 minutes.
Cover the dough with the upside-down bowl and let it 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the potato, cut it into 1-inch chunks and in salted water until very soft, about 15 minutes.
Rest. Resting means letting cooked meat sit for a few minutes before you cut it. It keeps cooking gently, and more of the juice stays in the meat instead of running onto the board.
How you’ll know: Loosely covered with foil, it stays hot, and very little juice runs out when you slice it.
Peel. Peeling means removing the skin with a vegetable peeler or a small knife. It takes off tough or bitter skins, though potato and carrot skins are fine to leave on unless the recipe insists.
How you’ll know: The color underneath is even all over, with no patches of skin left behind.
Boil. Boiling means heating a liquid until big bubbles rise and break all over the surface. It’s the fastest way to cook pasta, potatoes and eggs, because it’s as hot as water gets.
How you’ll know: Bubbles are breaking across the whole surface, not just at the edges, and steam is rising.
High heatTimer: 30 min
While the potatoes , 2 tablespoons butter in a large over medium heat.
Boil. Boiling means heating a liquid until big bubbles rise and break all over the surface. It’s the fastest way to cook pasta, potatoes and eggs, because it’s as hot as water gets.
How you’ll know: Bubbles are breaking across the whole surface, not just at the edges, and steam is rising.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium heat
Cook the onions, stirring now and then, until deep and soft, 15 to 20 minutes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heatTimer: 17 min
Set aside.
the potatoes and mash them with the cheddar, a third of the onions, the pepper and ½ teaspoon salt until smooth. Let the filling cool for 10 minutes.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Timer: 10 min
Roll half the dough on a floured counter as thin as you can, about ⅛ inch, with a rolling pin or a wine bottle.
Cut out circles with a 3-inch glass, re-rolling the scraps once.
Repeat with the rest, for about 36 in all.
Put about 2 teaspoons of filling in the middle of each circle, fold it in half and the edges firmly shut.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
Dolly’s tip: Dab the edge with a wet finger if it won’t stick. Any gap will burst open in the water.Bring a large pot of salted water .
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Cook the pierogi in batches of 10 until they float, then 1 minute more, about 4 minutes in all.
High heatTimer: 4 min
Food safety: For the safest eggs, cook until the whites are fully set and the yolks begin to thicken. Dishes made with eggs are done at 160°F.
Lift them out with a slotted spoon.
the last 2 tablespoons butter in the over medium heat. Fry the pierogi until , 2 to 3 minutes per side, adding the rest of the onions for the last minute.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Dolly’s tip: To freeze, lay uncooked pierogi on a floured tray until hard, then bag them. Boil from frozen for 6 minutes.Serve with the rest of the sour cream and chives on top.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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