Meat Chebureki

Guess how many meat chebureki I ate today? No, don’t do that.

I’m so in love with these meat chebureki! If I could, I would ship these out all over the world to you guys!

Chebureki are basically turnovers with a thin crispy pastry, filled with juicy meat filling and deep fried to a golden perfection. They are very popular throughout the Slavic speaking world and are one of my favorite street foods.

My family simply loves these chebureki, and I wanted to share them with you. I usually use ground beef mixed with onions and spices for the filling but lamb is pretty traditional too. The dough ingredients are ridiculously simple as well, with only 3 ingredients – flour, water and salt. That’s it!

There are many recipes for the chebureki dough, some suggest you add oil, eggs and even vodka! My dough recipe is traditional and I find best suits chebureki. Adding ingredients like eggs to the dough makes it tougher and even a tablespoon of oil will make it harder to roll into really thin sheets. Traditional meat chebureki have unique thin and crispy outside with a little chewiness in the middle that holds delicious juicy filling.

The key is to add flour gradually and really work it into the dough and once rested, this dough is smooth, soft and elastic to work with. It allows you to roll the sheets really thin which contributes to the unique crispy chebureki dough.

Don’t these cuties look tempting? I just love the unique taste and texture of them, and I guarantee that you will too! Enjoy!

Dough Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 cup + 2 tbsp cold water

Filling Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (or lamb)

1 big onion, pureed

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 cup of cold water

1 cup deep frying oil

To make the dough, mix water with the salt and gradually add all the flour. Mixing thoroughly between each addition. Don’t add all the flour at once it will be really difficult to kneed and produce soft and elastic dough. Kneed the dough adding all the flour and if it’s getting tough to kneed add a tablespoon or two of water.

Place the dough on a slightly dusted plate and cover. Leave to rest at room temperature for at least for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling by combining ground beef with onion, salt, pepper and water. Mix well, cover and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes.

Once the dough has rested, create the log out of the dough and cut it in 14 equal parts. Press each piece with your hand to form little pancakes and slightly dust them with flour on both sides. Set aside.

Roll each pancake into really thin round sheets on your working surface, about 2 mm. Place 1 tablespoon of the filling on 1/2 side of the sheet, leaving about 1″ border at the edges to seal.

Brush slightly all the way around the edges of your rolled dough with cold water. Fold the meat chebureki in half, making sure to release all the air from the inside. Then seal thm by running a pizza cutter and trimming the edges. Finally press the edges with your fingers or a fork to makes sure that the insides are sealed.

Heat the oil over the medium high heat in your frying pan. I find wok works best for deep frying chebureki. Deep fry each cheburek for 3-4 minutes on each side and transfer cooked meat chebureki onto paper towels to soak up excess oil.

Serve warm. Be careful not to burn yourself when biting into these, as there is very juicy and hot filling inside. Enjoy!