After-Practice Recipe

Late Dinner Pierogi Skillet

Late-dinner pierogi skillet browns kielbasa and cabbage on one side of the pan and crisps frozen pierogi on the other, all inside twelve minutes.

IngredientsTimingStoragepierogi
Comic-book style illustration of hungry kids coming home from practice to a fast hot dinner for Late Dinner Pierogi Skillet.

Push the cabbage aside and the pierogi get the hot spot.

Butter in a big skillet, sliced smoked sausage browned four minutes, then onion and three cups of shredded cabbage for five more with salt and pepper. The cabbage collapses down to almost nothing.

Shove all of it to one side, drop the frozen pierogi into the bare space, three minutes a side until they are golden, then toss it together. Sour cream and a spoon of mustard on the table.

Ingredients

The recipe serves 4. Plan on 12 minutes to finish (plus earlier prep).

  • 1 lb frozen potato-and-cheese pierogi
  • 1 lb smoked sausage (kielbasa), sliced
  • 3 cups shredded green cabbage
  • 1 small onion, sliced
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper

How to Make It

  • Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the sausage and cook 4 minutes until browned.
  • Add the onion and cabbage with the salt and pepper. Cook 5 minutes until the cabbage softens.
  • Push everything to one side and add the frozen pierogi to the open space.
  • Cook the pierogi 3 minutes per side until golden and heated through, then toss it all together.

Do the Slow Part Early

Slice the sausage and shred the cabbage before practice so it is one quick skillet.

  • Slice the sausage and onion in the morning
  • Shred or buy pre-shredded cabbage ahead
  • Keep the pierogi frozen until they hit the pan

Store and Reheat

Reheat in a hot pan, not the microwave, so the pierogi crisp up again.

  • Reheat in a skillet over medium 4 to 5 minutes, tossing
  • Add a pat of butter to bring back the golden edges
  • Keeps 3 days in the fridge
  • Serve with: sour cream, applesauce, a dollop of mustard

Make it fit tonight

Small changes that make this one fit your night

Do not boil them first

Pierogi crisp better going into hot butter straight out of the freezer bag.

Buy the cabbage shredded

The pre-shredded bag turns this into twelve minutes with no cutting board.

Skillet, not microwave

Four minutes in a hot pan brings the golden sides back; a microwave softens them.

Applesauce alongside

A spoonful next to the sausage is what gets small kids eating cabbage.

Turkey kielbasa

It browns the same and leaves less fat in the pan to pour off after.

Plan the next step

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Use the planner to keep filling one-skillet meals like this ready for the nights everyone is ravenous.

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