This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
Lena, thank you so much for this amazing recipe. We loved it and so did the guys at our church construction site (see more about that below). They were easy and tasted amazing!
I ended up grinding my own pork and beef but you may use pre-ground. I prefer ground chuck or ground sirloin (“beef” sounds like mystery meat to me!). This recipe is definitely a keeper!
Ingredients for Chebureki:
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
½ medium bunch of cilantro, chopped
½ medium bunch of parsley, chopped
1 large bunch of green onion (1 cup chopped)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbsp milk
15 raw tortillas
How to Make the Meat Mix for Chebureki:
1. I ground my own meat with the KitchenAid attachment. I used boneless pork top loin and boneless beef country store ribs, Fresh is best and there’s no mystery about what’s in it. Mix ground pork and ground beef together (I use my KitchenAid with my paddle attachment to spare my fingers from freezing).
2.Stir in the cilantro, parsley and green onion. Add salt, ground pepper and milk.
Assembling Lena’s Amazing Cherubeki:
1. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add enough canola to cover bottom of pan. Use two skillets to speed up the process.
2. Place a heaping tablespoon over 1/2 of the tortilla.
Spread the meat over 1/2 of the tortilla, leaving about a 1-inch border.
3. Brush water on the entire border of the tortilla; enough so you can see that it’s wet, otherwise it won’t seal.
4. Press the sides together and seal with a fork. Flip the tortilla over and seal the other side with the fork as well to make sure they don’t open while frying.
This is the result of little fingers that really, really wanted to help (and mom turning away for a split second).
5. Saute 3 minutes on each side over medium heat. You may need to adjust your heat settings (not all ranges are created equal), but they do need about 3 minutes per side to cook through. Place them between paper towels when done.
They can get a little juicy inside so be careful that you don’t get a lap-full of juice when taking a bite.
I took a double batch of these to our construction site (we are building a church you know) and the guys loved ’em! They gobbled them up so fast, with ooh’s and ahh’s galore. I only wish I had made more! I love this picture; it looks like my Dad is running to get some chebureky.
Lena's Chebureki Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb ground pork
- ½ medium bunch of cilantro, chopped
- ½ medium bunch of parsley, chopped
- 1 large bunch of green onion, 1 cup chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 3 Tbsp milk
- 15 raw tortillas
Instructions
- Mix ground pork and ground beef together using Kitchen Aid with paddle attachment or by hand.
- Stir in the cilantro, parsley and green onion. Add salt, ground pepper and milk.
Assembling Cherubeki:
- Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add enough canola to cover bottom of pan. Use two skillets to speed up the process.
- Place a heaping tablespoon over 1/2 of the tortilla. Spread the meat over 1/2 of the tortilla, leaving about a 1-inch border.
- Brush water on the entire border of the tortilla; enough so you can see that it's wet, otherwise it won't seal.
- Press the sides together and seal with a fork. Flip the tortilla over and seal the other side with the fork as well to make sure they don't open while frying.
- Saute 3 minutes on each side over medium heat. You may need to adjust your heat settings (not all ranges are created equal), but they do need about 3 minutes per side to cook through. Place them between paper towels when done.
- They can get a little juicy inside so be careful that you don't get a lap-full of juice when taking a bite.
Natasha, I love your recipes! Can you please post a recipe for homemade dough for chebureki? Thank you for amazing recipes! 😊😊😊
Hi Mohinur, we usually use the raw tortillas because it’s so much easier but I’ll see what I can do 🙂
Made an all beef version with parsley, dill and lots of minced garlic…and salt and pepper. My Moldovan husband LOVED them. These will go into the rotation.
Sarah, thank you for sharing such a nice review with us 😀. We are glad your family loves the recipe.
These were delicious. I love trying making foods from different countries. My husband and his friend gave me lots of compliments. Thank you so much for the recipe Natasha!!
Carla, That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review 🙂
My Russian son found this recipe and begged me to make it. I made it “from scratch”, ground the meat myself and made the tortillas from scratch, too. They are VERY easy to make, and I think they are much more tender than store bought ones would be. Other than that, the only change I made to the recipe was to use regular onion, and a lot of it. My Russian friend instructed me that these fillings should be one-third onion and two-thirds meat. My family loves that proportion.
Wow homemade tortillas sound great! I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe and yes, Russian people LOVE onions! 🙂
Great recipe! I divided each tortilla in half so, as a result, my chebureki looked like triangles. I like this size better: it’s easier to hold and again, portion control. :))
Thank you Irina and nice job improvising 😁.
My wife yelled at me saying something to the effect of: “You don’t put kinza in chebuereki!”
Hi Mike, I don’t know what kinza is but these are delicious anyways :). Did she at least try them?
“Kinza” is a Georgian word, I believe, for “cilantro”. I had my reservations about the green stuff too but actually these chebureki (turnovers) came out amazing. I ended up using Goya Empanada Discos instead of tortillas (they came in 10s and the tortillas came in 18s). http://www.goya.com/english/product_subcategory/Frozen-Foods/Discos#134 I used to love chebureki sold by street vendors in Kyiv, one of my favorite childhood treats:) I thought these came out even better.
That’s awesome! I’m so happy to hear you loved the recipe! Thank you Victoria and thanks for the lesson on kinza 😉
LOL–I was shouting the same thing about the cilantro…though not in Georgia. 😉
Kinza is cilantro in Russian.
Thank you so much for the recipe. I was thinking to make chebureki having raw beef parties. I was told by coworker about using raw tortilla.
Three important things that I took from Lena’s recipe made it happen.
One that I was going to use old yellow onion, which is wrong as process to fry is quick and green onion is perfect for it; second I didn’t know that should add milk that made filling juicy; third I didn’t know that needed to brush tortilla with water to seal it. I actually brush whole tortilla before put meat.
Thank you for all the details, Natasha.
You’re welcome and I’m glad that you found the recipe useful!
After looking and looking for raw tortillas, I finally found them at my local grocery store!!! Not sure if I was looking in the wrong place and they had them all this time, or if they just started carrying it. They are soooo good! I ate them just like that kak lepeshki with kefir (love kefir)! Can’t wait to try making chebureki! Thanks for the tip!
Olga, I’m glad you found them and thank you for the great review :).
Natasha, thank you for this recipe! I was finally able to find raw/uncooked tortilla here in the Bay Area in larger Safeway 😀 I was beyond happy 🙂 I love chebyreki, and now with this recipe it is so simple to make it!
Yes!!!! I’m so happy for your find :). I was very excited when I figured out this shortcut too.
Made this 2 nights ago..I used our own farm raised beef and subbed our own lamb for the pork. Everyone loved it..even took some to work. Love being able to share these recipes with my son and husband.
Sarah, thank you for the great review, I’m very happy to hear that your family enjoyed them :D.
Hi Natasha! Am I able to sub the beef with turkey? I bought turkey on accident and don’t want it to go to waste.
Yes, I think that would work just fine 🙂
Hi Natasha,
Do you think I could substitute raw tortilla with egg roll wraps?
Thank you in advance!
Hi :). I don’t think the egg roll wrappers could adequately be sealed the same way for frying in the oil. It might be worth an experiment, but I think it would be tough to seal them.
Thank you!
I improvised and they were amazing! I used 1 lb chicken and added 3 garlic and used used diced onion instead and halfed the others 😉 DELISH! Thanks!!
You are welcome Oksana, thanks for the great review :).
Will definitely try the Chebureki, looks like a good one.
Thank you Jim! I hope you love it! 🙂
Slava Bohy Natasha,
I have a question. Did you ever try adding anions to this recipe, just like you do to the Turkey Chebureki? I think the anion gives it a better flavor. People let me know what you think. Thanks and God bless you all.
Slava Bohy Halina :). This recipe does have a very good amount of green onion so you still have the great onion flavor and it cooks better inside the tortilla rather than using raw onion. A good substitute would be to at least lightly sautee a diced yellow onion so its softer after the chebureki are cooked. Also, if you saute them a little bit, you don’t get the “onion burps” quite as badly afterwards. I’ve found the same to be true with making pelmeni :). I hope that helps.
Спасибо)
Are raw tortillas easy to find? I feel like I’ve never seen them before but then I never looked. I will take a look next time I’m at the grocery store. I definitely want to give these a try. Thanks!
Olga, it depends which grocery store you shop in. I bought them in Walmart and Costco before. I hope this helps :).
Thanks! I was not able to find actual uncooked tortillas but I did find ‘dough for pastries’ (masa para empanadas) also in the fridge of the spanish food section. I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing but I got them anyway and made chebureki yesterday and they came out absolutely perfect! Saved so much too by not having to make the dough from scratch! Thanks for the tip! 🙂
It’s great to know there is yet another alternative that works! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Thank you as always. They turned out perfect. I can’t stand anything about cilantro, so I didn’t add it and they turned out delicious. Easy and affordable.
I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for a great review!
I love this recipe! It’s simple, quick and delicious. I just made some on lunch break 🙂 Thank you, Natasha!
You’re quick if you got these done on your lunch break 😉 I’m so happy you loved them. Now I just have to figure out how to make them baked! 🙂
Just wanted to ask you whether it was possible to bake these. Im trying to get into the habit of making healthier foods so it wouldn’t be so hard to get back into shape after the baby but its hard finding recipes that my family likes. They loves these so I was wondering if it was at all possible. Plus I just hate frying stuff. The oil gets everything and makes my whole oven greasy and then my really teeny house smells like a fast food restaurant. 🙁
Anyways great recipe. Thanks
I agree about the frying; that’s why I wait until the weather is nice before I fry anything so I can keep all the windows open. 🙂 I haven’t tested these in the oven and I think it might have to be a different dough for that. Has anyone else tried baking these?
oooohhh… I kind of had an epiphany. So I was trying to see if there are smaller electric griddles because my kitchen is really, really, really teeny and then I thought.. “mhmmm. if i can fry eggs and bacon and pancakes and a lot of other stuff on this thing why not chebureki????” I think I’m going to try it out and hopefully it will work because it would make making chebureki so much more easy and convenient!!!”
Let me know how it goes!! I’m very curious.