This Chicken Cabbage Savory Pirog recipe has the softest dough recipe with a savory chicken, cabbage and veggie filling. This pirog is similar to baked piroshki and is melt in your mouth good.
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Hey, hey! This is Valentina with Valentina’s Corner sharing this great twist on the traditional baked Ukrainian piroshki.
What is a pirog?
A pirog is a baked dough with a sweet or savory filling. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Mini pirogs are called piroshki and can be either fried (like these Fried Piroshki), or baked (like these Baked Piroshki).
A pirog can be either closed (with the filling inside), or open-faced (with the filling on top, similar to an American pie).
How to make a Chicken Cabbage Savory Pirog?
- Prepare the dough, set aside to rise.
- Prepare the chicken, cabbage and veggie filling, set aside to cool.
- Roll out the dough. Add filling to the center of the dough and close the filling, sealing the edges.
- Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
- Bake until golden in color and enjoy!
Tip: When closing the dough over the cabbage, it will kind of look like a crunch wrap from Taco Bell (if you’ve ever had one).
Cabbage Filling-
The chicken goes really well with the cabbage filling but if you want to leave the chicken out, you totally may!
When sautéing (lightly braising) the cabbage, cook until desired tenderness is reached. I personally like the cabbage to still have a firmer taste to them, while my husband likes them really tender. So, sauté to your personal preference.
Piroshki (mini pirogs) are really common in the Ukrainian but the recipe stems from the Uzbek cuisine where they mostly make their pirogi as a large pirog (instead of the small piroshki we use in our Ukrainian kitchens, though they make them as well). Uzbek food is so delicious and oh so unique.
What filling can you use when making a pirog?
Popular savory fillings include cheesy potato, ground meat, sautéed mushrooms or like these with cabbage.
Sweet fillings can be either apples, berries, poppy seed or nuts.
What dough is used for a pirog?
A yeast dough is typically used for any pirog or piroshki.
This recipe for baked pirogi is so soft and just melts in your mouth it’s so delicious. Don’t be turned off by the mayo as an ingredient. It is the key ingredients in the dough and you cannot taste it once baked.
More Pirog-Style Recipes to Explore:
- Russian Potato Piroshki– do not skip the garlic dip!
- Cheesy Baked Potato Piroshki– that cheese…
- Fillo Dough with Brie Cheese– favorite appetizer at parties.
- Cherubereki Recipe– crowd pleasing easy recipe.
Chicken Cabbage Savory Pirog
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 2 Tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup warm milk
- 1/3 cup warm water
- 1 ½ tsp active dry yeast
- 1 ½ tsp granulated sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
For the Savory Filling:
- ¾ lb chicken, thighs or breast, cubed finely
- 1 tsp oil
- ½ large onion, finely chopped
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
- 3 cups cabbage, shredded finely
- 2 small carrots, grated
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 ½ tsp ketchup
- 1 ½ tsp sour cream
- 3 Tbsp favorite herbs, I mixed parsley and dill
- 1 egg + 1 tsp water, beaten for egg wash
- ½ tsp sesame seeds, optional
Instructions
Prepare dough:
- Prepare dough. In a bowl, whisk mayo, oil, salt, water and milk. Sprinkle yeast over top of the mixture and sprinkle sugar over yeast. Cover bowl with a kitchen towel, let sit 5 minutes for the yeast to activate and become foamy.
- Gradually add flour, mix until flour is well incorporated. Set dough aside to rise at room temperature, covered, 1 ½ to 2 hours (until the dough doubles, almost triples in size).
Prepare filling:
- In a large skillet, on med/high heat, cook chicken on 1 tsp oil until fully cooked (about 2-3 minutes), stirring as needed. Remove from the skillet.
- Sauté onion on 1 Tbsp butter until tender, stirring frequently. Add the 2 Tbsp butter, cabbage, carrots, garlic and water. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté until cabbage is desired tenderness.
- Add the ketchup, sour cream, herbs and the chicken that was set aside. Cook another minute, stirring frequently. Remove from heat to cool.
How to assemble the pirog:
- On a lightly floured surface, divide dough into 2 equal parts (cover second dough). Roll out until about 12” round.
- Take half of the cabbage filling and place it into the center of the dough, spread evenly (leaving about 3” of dough uncovered around the edges).
- Gently start pulling the edges of the dough over the filling into the center to close the pirog. Continue going around until cabbage is completely covered. Pinch seams together.
- Gently, flip the pirog over. Flatten the pirog as needed so it’s even in size and so the filling is evenly distributed. Gently flip the pirog and repeat with second pirog.
- Brush with egg wash, sprinkle with sesame seeds and let rise 30-45 minutes.
- Bake in a preheated oven to 400°F 18-22 minutes, until golden in color.
Nutrition Per Serving
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Q: Have you ever explored the Uzbek cuisine? I’d love to hear about your favorite Uzbek recipes in the comments below. 🙂
Valentina Ablaev
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Hi Natasha! What dish do you use to bake this pirog? On the photo it looks like you use parchment paper as a ‘lightly floured surface’ as written in the description but nothing says whether you use cookie sheet, round pie pan or right on the rack. Thanks for another great recipe. Excited to try your another pirog!
Hi Tatiana, we used a sheet pan. I hope that helps.
I only buy instant yeast these days. Have you tried this recipe using instant? I’d hate to waste all the ingredients if there is some reason not to use instant. Thanks!
Hi Bill, I haven’t tested that but I think it could work if you make a few adjustments. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
Your recipe says 1/3 cup water and 1/3 cup milk but I tried that and it was way too dry. So I looked at the link you posted for the dough and her recipe is 3/4 cup water and 3/4 cup milk.
Hi Oksana, you will note that her recipe is double what this one is so this is accurate. My guess is too much flour was added. I highly recommend reviewing this post on how to measure flour for baking – if you push your measuring cup into your container, you can get up to 25% too much flour resulting in a dry dough. I hope that is helpful to troubleshoot.
Wow, made this the other day and still enjoying it! gets better and better. Thanks for the recipe and keep it going. this is one of my favorites!
Thank you, Jeff! I’m glad you love it.
Hello, could you possibly comment on whether this recipe would work if made as described, cooled, frozen, and then thawed/reheated? Thanks in advance for an opinion and any pointers!
Hi Heather! You may definitely freeze the pirog once it’s completely cooled. To reheat: thaw and bake until warm.
YUM! The filling is surprisingly sweet (in a good way, I think) and a great way to use a little meat to go a long way. We will definitely make this again.
I’m so happy you loved that, Britt! Thank you so much for sharing that with me!
Made this tonight. Wonderful! Thx for the recipe. Next time I may try a variation of Philly cheesteak.
That sounds delicious, Donna! 🙂
I made this tonight – exactly as described – and found it super delicious.
I used to live for a while with my sister and her Russian husband and we would often make piroshky for special occasion meals, but this variation makes it a bit more accessible for more frequent meals. We usually did beef or pork and cabbage (or bacon and sauerkraut – not my favourite), but this chicken variety is excellent as well. I’ll absolutely make this again.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Kristel! I’m happy you enjoyed it!
Do you have a video for this recipe?
Hi Kim, we do not at this time!
I am going to make it anyway!!
Thank you for another great recipe. The dough turned out perfect. I changed it from chicken to Jimmy dean sausage since that what I had. My sister is very picky and she asked me for the recipe of the dough.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Michaela! I’m so glad to hear it works great with Jimmy dean sausage!
I am a cooking newbie and the instructions to use whatever herbs I wanted up to 3 tablespoons terrified me. Could you provide some real measurements of real spices you think would work? I’m really anxious to try this recipe
Hi Beth, you can actually convert the ingredients to grams just click on Jump to recipe then click Metric. I hope that helps!
A favorite spice for everything in Russia seems to be dill. Toss in a tablespoon of dry dill (if that’s what you have) or more, finely chopped, if fresh. Dill is pretty mild, so it’s not going to be a disaster if you over- or under-do it. I lather dishes like salmon in dill when the Russian relatives visit. When you make this again (and trust me, this is one you are likely to make over and over again!) you can lean in harder on the dill if you liked it last time.