The Best Bierocks Ever

Best Bierock Ever Recipe

If you grew up in Kansas or one of our neighboring states you are most likely familiar with Bierocks or otherwise known as Runzas in our northern neighboring state of Nebraska. They are one of my favorites. I’m a big fan of cabbage. You can always find them at our County Fairs here in the sunflower state. Growing up they were always on the school cafeteria menu. Heck, even our High School Juniors usually have them for sale for a prom fund raiser every year in our small town. They are said to have been brought over by German Russian Mennonite immigrants. The wives would create these delicious stuffed rolls and deliver them to their men who were working the crops.

I recently shared the above picture on Facebook and was surprised on how regional of a dish this seems to be. Many people were asking for the recipe so here is my best shot. I usually just create as I go. Over the years of making them I have tinkered with the recipe. I used to add mustard to the mix but have removed that over time. This version has become the family favorite.

Ingredients

For Filling:

  • 3 lb. ground beef
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 3 small garlic cloves, finely minced
  • 3 tbsp. butter, cut up
  • ½ cup water
  • 2 tsp. Beef Bone concentrate (image below).
  • 2 tsp. Chicken Bone concentrate (image below).
  • 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tsp. White vinegar
  • 1+ tsp. black pepper (to taste)
  • 1 + tsp. regular table salt (to taste)
  • ½ tsp of Morton’s seasoning blend (image below).
  • ½ + tsp. Garlic powder (to taste)
  • 1  head cabbage chopped
  • 1 tsp. brown sugar
  • 2 ½ cups (a couple Tblsp. per roll) of shredded mozzarella or cheese blend of your choice, optional.
  • *One 3 lb. bag of 36 Rhodes Frozen Dinner Rolls (2 rolls will make one Bierock). You can also use the Texas rolls which are larger and you’ll only need to use one per bierock. Or if all you have is a loaf of their frozen bread dough that will work too cutting each loaf into 8 slices.
  • 1 stick butter, melted

Instructions

*The night before, place frozen rolls in sprayed glass pans and wrap each tightly with plastic wrap that is also sprayed. Place into fridge to thaw overnight. 

When you are ready to start cooking your filling pull the rolls out of the fridge so they can finish doubling in size while you start cooking your filling.  Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large frying pan, brown ground beef and onion until done, breaking up into small pieces. Drain any excess grease if necessary. Place ground beef back into your skillet and add garlic, and sauté 1 minute longer. 

Add butter, water, both bone broths, worcestershire, vinegar, black pepper, salt, garlic powder and Morton’s blend. Add shredded cabbage stirring well to mix. Cook over medium-low heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until cabbage is very tender. Should take 15 – 20 minutes. During the last 5 minutes, add brown sugar stirring well and remove from heat.  You can make this ahead of time and hold for 1 – 2 days.

Spray 2 baking sheets with non-stick spray.

Grab two rolls and keep the rest wrapped so they don’t dry out.  Combining two rolls pressing out the dough kind of like making a pizza into a 5-6 inch round circles or rectangles or whatever shape you are capable of pulling off. Spreading them on a dry counter can help with this. Oil or flour will make it impossible so keep your counter clean. Try to make edges thinner so you don’t end up with a big clump of bread in the center once they are baked. 

Place about 2 tablespoons of shredded cheese in the center, then top with a generous scoop ( about ⅓-½  cup) of the meat mixture. You don’t want your rolls understuffed. Bring up the sides, a bit at a time, pulling up and over the top, overlapping with each pull. Kind of like if you were making a Chinese dumpling. Pinch a little to seal, and place seam side down onto your prepared baking pan. Brush with melted butter. Continue with rest of rolls.

When 6 are filled and ready to go: Cover the prepared bierocks with plastic wrap or a clean lint free kitchen towel and let them proof (rise) for about 20-30 minutes. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown. Make sure the bottom is done. Nobody likes a soggy bottom. Place on a cooling rack. Brush with melted butter if desired. Bake next tray when the first one are done. I usually use the first sheet pan for the last batch. You can crowd them more tightly if you like, but I don’t like them to touch and they do expand being a yeast dough.

Serve with your favorite side such as fries, chips, or a cucumber onion salad. I like to dip mine into a little yellow mustard and ketchup on the side. Most in my family eat them plain while others are known to enjoy them with spicy brown mustard. 

We prefer to reheat leftovers in the oven wrapped in foil until warm. You can individually wrap these and store them in the freezer for a later meal as well.

Have you ever had or made Bierock’s? If so how does your recipe differ? Please let me know if you have any questions on this recipe. Are you considering trying to make these? Let us know how they turn out.

✌️♥️🙏,

Nick & Christina

HELLO FRESH REVIEW ~Velvety Mushroom Prosciutto Chicken

From time to time we get a weekly delivery from Hello Fresh. If you know me, you know that I have always spent a lot of time in the kitchen. I worked in catering for years and have always been the one to host dinner parties with the friends. Coming up with what to create gets old and to be honest I am so tired of the same ol same ol. You know how it is you get in a rut and buy the same ingredients everytime you go to the market. We needed a change and I happened to find it with Hello Fresh. Shortly after moving my momma to the nursing home back in November I came across a good coupon deal on Facebook. After looking into it I found it appeared to be easy to skip weeks so it wouldn’t be difficult to postpone if we wanted, so I pulled the trigger and signed us up.

This is our third delivery and we have yet to be disappointed. We order 3 meals for 2 people as our son is the pickiest ever and my teenager that still lives at home is rarely here. With the first two shipments we had a friend staying with us and I stretched the meals to feed all three of us. So keep that in mind if you decide to give it a try. You might get lucky and have lunch for the next day. I am used to cooking for a large hungry household and it has been hard to reduce down to a meal for only two. Constantly having too many leftovers that are getting wasted sucks, so this is where Hello Fresh is so helpful in reducing waste. Below is the directions/ingredients list for the meal I was getting ready to create.

ITEMS YOU WILL NEED FROM YOUR KITCHEN

• Large pot

• Meat thermometer

• Strainer

• Paper towels

• Large pan

• Baking sheet

• Vegetable oil (4 tsp | 4 tsp)

• Butter (2 TBSP |3 TBSP)

• Potato masher

• Kosher salt

. Black pepper

INGREDIENTS

Ingredient 2-person | 4-person

• Button Mushrooms 4 oz | 8 oz

• Scallions. 2/4

• Broccoli Florets. 8 oz | 16 oz

• Yukon Gold Potatoes. 12 oz/24 oz

• Chicken Breasts. 12 oz/24 oz

• Prosciutto. 2 oz | 4 oz

• Sour Cream. 6 TBSP/12 TBSP

• Mushroom Stock Concentrate. 1|2

Awww what a pretty Kansas sunset beyond these lovely delivered to my front porch ingredients.

PREP & COOK POTATOES

Adjust rack to top position (top and middle positions for 4 servings) and preheat oven to 425 degrees. We have a convection oven so preheated to 400°. Wash and dry all produce. Trim and thinly slice mushrooms.

So fresh and so clean. Well the scallion is looking a little wimpy…. But the rest is so fresh and so clean clean!!!
Sliced, diced, and chopped

Trim and thinly slice scallions, separating whites from greens. Cut broccoli florets into bite-size pieces, if necessary. Dice potatoes into 1/2-inch pieces, place in a large pot with enough salted water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, 15-20 minutes. Reserve 1/2 a cup of potato cooking liquid, then drain and return potatoes to pot

So easy when you don’t have to peel your potatoes.

SEAR CHICKEN

Meanwhile, pat chicken dry with paper towels. Lay two slices of prosciutto beside one another on a flat surface. Tightly roll prosciutto around chicken. Repeat with remaining prosciutto and chicken. (TIP: You may have some prosciutto left over use the rest as you like.) Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add wrapped chicken; sear until browned, 2 minutes per side. Turn off heat; add to one side of a lightly oiled baking sheet (for 4 servings, spread out across entire sheet)

Prosciutto is a lot like bacon. I mean who doesn’t like bacon!! I seasoned up the chicken real good before wrapping it even though the recipe didn’t tell me to do so. Chicken needs seasoning.

FINISH CHICKEN & ROAST BROCCOLI

Toss broccoli on empty side of same sheet with a drizzle of oil and a large pinch of salt and pepper. (For 4 servings toss broccoli on a second baking sheet: roast chicken on middle rack and broccoli on top rack.) Roast on top rack until chicken is cooked through and broccoli is browned and tender, 14-16 minutes.

(TIP: If chicken is done before broccoli, remove from oven and continue roasting broccoli.) Set chicken aside to rest for a few minutes; slice crosswise.

MASHED POTATOES

Heat pot with potatoes over low heat. Mash with 1 TBSP butter and 2 packets sour cream (4 packets for 4 servings, you’ll use the rest later) until smooth and creamy, adding splashes of reserved potato cooking liquid as needed. Stir in scallion greens. Season generously with salt and pepper. Keep covered off heat until ready to serve.

MAKE SAUCE

Wash out pan used for chicken. Heat a drizzle of oil in same pan over medium high heat. Add mushrooms and scallion whites; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until softened, 2-4 minutes. Stir in stock concentrate and 1/4 cup water (a 1/3 cup for 4 servings). Cook until slightly thickened, 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat. Stir in 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP 4) and remaining sour cream. Season with salt and pepper.

This sauce was super yummy. I must figure out where to get this mushroom concentrate that came with it.

SERVE

Divide potatoes, chicken, and broccoli between plates. Spoon sauce over chicken and potatoes and serve.

So delicious and beautiful if I do say so myself.

We really enjoyed this meal. The chicken breast was juicy which was amazing as we truly are a chicken thigh kind of family. The mushroom sauce was so tasty. My only complaint with it might be that I would have liked extra for my potatoes. The potatoes had a really good flavor with the added sour cream and the chives. Roasted broccoli is always good. I did use additional seasonings that included garlic powder. We like more flavor than salt and pepper alone on our veggies.

Have you tried a food delivery service? If so did you have good or bad results? So far I am pretty pleased with Hello Fresh. I haven’t had any bad products show up in any of the orders. I love that there is a nice variety of weekly menu options, as I tend to be slightly finicky when it comes to food. I also love that we can skip any week we would desire. So far we have ordered once per month. The individual packages meals are perfect portion sizes without the waste we regularly notice when cleaning out the refrigerator on a weekly basis. The price point will be different depending on what meals you choose and the size for your family. I recommend you going to the link and just checking out all the different options yourself.

Nick and I are really enjoying the new variety of flavors in our diet. If you are following along on this blog you know we are currently embracing change in many areas of our lives. #changeisgood. Or so I have heard….

Guess what??? If you would like to try this out at your house you are in luck as I have a discount code for $40 off. Yippee!!! Who doesn’t like a great discount. I know I sure do.

Click here to get your discount and try out Hello Fresh in your home today (or as soon as you can get it delivered).

Please comment below and let us know if you have enjoyed any food delivery services. Or have you considered signing up for one? If you do let us know the results of your home cooked meals.

✌️♥️🙏,

Nick & Christina

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