These homemade polish pierogi are filled with a delicious mixture of mashed potatoes, cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon! They’re easy to make, incredibly filling and irresistable when topped with caramelized onions!
We recently shared our favorite autumn-inspired ricotta and pumpkin pierogi and today we’re here with a warm and filling winter version: cheddar potato pierogi topped with caramelized onions. Making pierogi from scratch is definitely easier than you might think and the delicious little pockets of cheesy potatoes are so worth the effort!
easy pierogi dough + delicious potato cheddar filling
The pierogi dough comes together quite easily and is made with just four ingredients: flour, salt, hot water and melted butter. My one tip is to make sure to knead the dough really well until it’s smooth. About five to 10 minutes generally does the trick for me. Then you’ll just want to leave it to rest for 30 minutes. This will make the dough more pliable, which in turn makes rolling it out much easier!
The filling is also quite easy to whip up with the main ingredient being mashed potatoes. You can either make your mashed potatoes from scratch (as is written in the recipe) or even repurpose any leftovers you might have on hand. If using your own mashed potatoes, you can skip adding the milk and butter and just mix in the cheddar cheese, garlic powder and crumbled bacon.
assembly and cooking
Cutting out and forming the pierogi is the one part of this recipe that can be a bit time consuming. I recommend rolling out half of the dough at a time so that it’s easier to work with. You’ll want to roll out the dough to about ⅛ inch (3 mm) thickness and then use a cookie cutter or glass to cut out rounds. Plop about two or three tablespoons of filling onto the center of each pierogi round and then fold and pinch to seal. You can use a fork to crimp the edges if you’d like or, if you want to get really creative, you can try one of these fun little dough presses that makes nice patterns!
If you use a 3 inch (8 cm) round, this recipe will make about 40 pierogi. That’s a bit too much for us to eat in one sitting so we like to cook some right away and save the rest for later. To freeze the pierogi, place them on a baking sheet in a single layer, pop them in the freezer until frozen, then remove to an airtight container for storage. The cooking instructions are the same for fresh and frozen pierogi. Just bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add the pierogi and cook until they float. Then, if you’d like, you can also pan fry the pierogi in a bit of butter or oil. While it’s really tasty, we’re generally so hungry from making the pierogi that we find ourselves skipping this step more often than not.
top everything with caramelized onions!
There are so many ways to serve pierogi, but our favorite toppings for these cheddar potato pierogi are caramelized onions, sour cream and a sprinkling of chopped green onions.
While making caramelized onions does add a bit more time to this recipe, I definitely think the added flavor boost is worth it. One great thing about caramelized onions is that they can easily be made ahead of time and stored for up to five days in the refrigerator. That being said, I always make the caramelized onions when I’m preparing the pierogi filling, as I like to cook the onions in the fat rendered from the bacon. But if you’d rather, a few tablespoons of butter would work just as well. Whatever you decide, you’re going to want to add these sweet and savory onions to everything!
If you love these pierogi, make sure to check out some of our other favorite dumplings from around the world!
- beef khinkali | georgian dumplings
- pelmeni | russian meat dumplings
- pork and kimchi mandu | korean dumplings
- ricotta and pumpkin pierogi + brown butter sage sauce
Cheddar Potato Pierogi
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 40 pierogi
- Prep Time: 50 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Polish
Ingredients
Pierogi Dough
- 2 ¾ cups (340 grams) all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup (240 ml) hot water
- 2 tablespoons (30 grams) unsalted butter, melted
Cheddar Potato Filling
- 2 large (750 grams) russet potatoes
- 2 tablespoons (30 grams) unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1.5 cups (150 grams) cheddar cheese, shredded
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 slices bacon
Caramelized Onions
- 3 yellow onions
- 3 tablespoons (40 grams) unsalted butter (optional)
- kosher salt to taste
Instructions
Pierogi Dough and Assembly
- Combine the flour and salt.
- Add in the hot water and melted butter. Knead for about five minutes.
- Place the dough in a bowl, cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
- Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the dough to ⅛ inch (3 mm) thickness. Cut out 3 inch (8 cm) circles and spoon several tablespoons of filling into the center of each pierogi. Fold the pierogi in half and pinch to seal.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the pierogi and cook until they float.
Cheddar Potato Filling
- Cook the bacon until crispy and set aside.
- Peel and cube the potatoes. Cook in salted boiling water until fork tender (approximately 20 minutes).
- Drain the potatoes and add the butter, milk, shredded cheddar, garlic powder and salt. Mash together with a potato masher or fork.
- Crumble in the bacon and mix well.
Caramelized Onions
- Cut each onion in half and thinly slice.
- Add the onions to the skillet with the fat rendered by the bacon. Alternatively, you can use a new pan and melt three tablespoons of butter.
- Sprinkle a bit of salt over the onions and cook for 5-7 minutes over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent. Reduce heat to medium low and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the onions are brown (30-40 minutes).
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