Homemade Pierogi are stuffed with a flavorful potato and cheese mixture, boiled, and fried up in melted butter for a delicious, indulgent, total comfort food dinner.
Pierogies are a classic Polish comfort food dish. In this recipe I’ve taken all of the elements of a classic pierogi and simplified them for the average home cook. While this dish takes time to make, it is overall fairly simple. A quick homemade dough requires some rolling out which is where most of your time will be spent, but it’s fairly simple and a good item to make with children, or as a family. Many hands make light work.
Pierogi can be filled with various fillings, but tradition is a potato and cheese curd mixture. In this recipe we use mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese. Feel free to experiment and use your favorite cheese. Leftover mashed potatoes work really well in this recipe, but you can always make them from scratch specifically for filling. Most grocery stores carry frozen or refrigerated mashed potatoes or you can buy them at the deli counter if you are short on time.
What is good to eat with pierogies?
A simple, traditional topping is simple sour cream and maybe some chopped chives. You can also serve pierogies up topped with caramelized onions, paprika, fried sage, or Polish sausage.
What kind of sauce goes on pierogies?
For classic potato filled pierogi, a simple sauce of melted or browned butter is the sauce of choice. If you choose other filling options in your pierogi, like spinach, a light garlic yogurt sauce pairs well.
What do you serve with pierogies?
Roasted vegetables are always a great option to serve with pierogies. You could try some roasted broccoli or serve them up with some roasted simple honey roasted brussel sprouts. You also can’t go wrong with some simple green beans.
Can I freeze these?
Yes! You can freeze these pierogies after they have been assembled. And boil them from frozen when you are ready to eat. To freeze, simply place your pierogies in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Make sure they aren’t touching so that they don’t stick together. Once frozen, remove from the freezer and transfer to a resealable plastic bag for long term storage.
PRO TIP: The key to homemade pierogi is to be sure to seal it shut so that none of the stuffing comes out during cooking. Don’t let any of the filling get in between the dough edges or you won’t be able to get a good seal. Pinch the dough shut with your fingers and then press with the tongs of a fork to further seal and give a decorative edge.
Watch the video below where I walk you through every step of this recipe. Sometimes it helps to have a visual and I’ve got you covered, including how to roll, stuff, and seal your pierogi. You can find my full collection of video recipes on YouTube.
We always had cucumber with sour cream and dill as a side with pierogis.
I grew up with Pierogies!! My great grandmother, my grandmother, and my dad never used sour cream in the dough. Never used cheddar, it was yellow american. It’s easier to roll larger portions of dough and then cut into squares. We would make 150 to 200 at a time, and if you didn’t help, you didn’t eat!!!
Need to try and make these from scratch. Usually I cook my pierogies with kielbasa and purple cabbage and plenty of garlic!
They are really good with sauerkraut in them!!
My mom use to make these all the tim I loved them making some tonight adding bacon and cream cheese in the filling
I grew up in the Cleveland area and we always bought our pierogies from the local Ukranian churches. The women from the church would sit and make them by habd every week- they were so good and the variety was great. My very favorite was the prune and the cheese. Does anyone have a recipe for the filling? Im in AZ now and Mrs. Ts perogies just dont cut it! ?
I went to a Catholic Ukranian Elementary School in Perth Amboy, NJ. The Moms made and served them every Weds. Such find memories!
Several years ago, my husband and I made a TON of several different kinds of piarogi’s for m father in law. We made mashed ootatos with cheese, mashed potatoes with onions. Cabbage and onions, onions and mushrooms. It took us a couple of days to complete all of the goodies. I ha never had any of them. So it was a great Christmas for us all. Dad taught me how to cook them and we a thoroughly wonderful meal!
My mum was Ukrainian and she made hers with mince meat ( I’m in Australia ) . I think Americans call it ground beef. Fry off some onions, add meat, add salt , pepper, chicken stock powder and some soy sauce and brown. Cool and use as filling. Once boiled fry up some onions, and add the pirogi to the same pan so they have a nice crust . Serve with a LITTLE SOY. I make mine with potato and ricotta cheese or saurkraut with potato or mushrooms.
I AM POLISH, I MAKE MASHED POTATOES AND PIMENTO CHEESE FOR MY HUSBAND AND MY FAVORITE IS SAURKRAUT WITH DICED MUSHROOMS. MY DAUGHTER AND I TOP OURS WITH SOUR CREAM AND MY HUSBAND AND SONS USE SUGAR.. MY MOTHER USED TO USE FARMERS CHEESE (NOT MY FAVORITE AT ALL) I WILL EAT THE ONES WITH PIMENTO CHEESE, GOOD FLAVOR. I MAKE SEVERAL BATCHES FOR CHRISTMAS.
Roll all the dough out at once, like for making cookies; then cut with a round 3″ cutter, then remove the excess dough (instead of pinching and then rolling). Then use a very small ice cream type scoop to measure out the cold mashed potatoes, place a scoop onto each dough round. Fill and pinch as directed. You’ll be done in half the time.
Katya, a big thank you for suggesting rolling out the dough and than cutting rounds out. I worked with half of the dough at one time and used a 3 3/4” round cutter than used a small spring loaded ice cream scooper to scoop the mashed potatoes! Absolutely brilliant and so fast! I am making these a bit later so I just put them on a large parchment lined cookie sheet and stuck them in the freezer until later! Happy Easter!