Mashed Potato Pancakes with Meat Filling
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This is a fun and creative way to use up leftover mashed potatoes! You can make stuffed potato pancakes with any kind of meat really; pork, turkey, chicken, or beef. I like ground pork because it seems a little juicier. Potato pancakes can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They also reheat well in the oven or on the stove. I love recipes like this with simple, basic ingredients that taste great together.
My husband, Vadim, is a meat and potatoes kinda guy and these have meat AND potatoes! He actually came up with the idea for this recipe, just like he came up with these. My son isn’t too keen on mashed potatoes but he does like these. Scroll down to the very last picture and you’ll want potato pancakes too 🙂
Ingredients for Stuffed Mashed Potato Pancakes:
6 cups leftover mashed potatoes
1 cup all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 large egg
1 lb ground meat (I used pork, but chicken, turkey or beef will do)
1 small/medium onion, finely diced
1 large carrot, grated
1 garlic clove
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup fine bread crumbs (plain or Italian style)
How to Make Stuffed Potato Pancakes:
1. Heat a large skillet over medium/high heat. Add 1-2 Tbsp olive oil then 1 lb ground meat. Saute, breaking it up with a spatula until cooked through then season with 1 tsp salt and a pinch of pepper. Remove to a separate dish.
2. Add 2 Tbsp oil then add onions and carrots. Stir and saute over medium heat for 5 min until golden and softened. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Return meat with juices to the pan.
3. Press in 1 garlic clove and toss in chopped parsley and cook stirring 1 minute or until fragrant. Remove from heat.
4. Mash or stir together 6 cups mashed potatoes with 1 egg and 1 cup flour, I just used my Kitchen Aid mixer with the paddle attachment.
5. Place a rounded ice cream scoop of mixture into a well-floured hand and pat it into a disk. Since there are different recipes for mashed potatoes, if they seem too sticky, sprinkle with a little flour and it will mold easier. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center and pinch the edges together to seal. Dip stuffed pancake in bread crumb, turning to coat. Pat the stuffed pancake into a flat disk.
6. Heat a large non-stick pan over medium heat and add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Once oil is hot, add pancakes and saute 3-4 minutes per side or until golden. If browning too fast, reduce heat. Repeat with remaining pancakes, adding more oil as needed. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels and serve. We love these with sour cream.
Mashed Potato Pancakes with Meat Filling
Ingredients
- 6 cups leftover mashed potatoes
- 1 cup all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 large egg
- 1 lb ground meat, I used pork, but chicken, turkey or beef will do
- 1 small/medium onion, finely diced
- 1 large carrot, grated
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
- 1/2 cup fine bread crumbs, plain or Italian style
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium/high heat. Add 1-2 Tbsp olive oil and 1 lb ground meat. Saute, breaking it up until cooked through then season with 1 tsp salt and a pinch of pepper. Remove to a separate dish.
- In the same skillet, add 2 Tbsp oil then add onions and carrots. Stir and saute over medium heat for 5 min until golden and softened. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Return meat with juices to the pan.
- Press in 1 garlic clove and add chopped parsley. Cook stirring 1 minute or until fragrant. Remove from heat.
- Mash or stir together 6 cups mashed potatoes with 1 egg and 1 cup flour. Place a rounded ice cream scoop of mixture into a well-floured hand and pat it into a disk. If potatoes seem too sticky, sprinkle with a little flour to keep it from sticking to your hand.
- Place a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center and pinch the edges together to seal. Dip stuffed pancake in bread crumbs, turning to coat. Pat the stuffed pancake into a flat disk.
- Heat a large non-stick pan over medium heat and add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Once oil is hot, add pancakes and sautee 3-4 minutes per side or until golden. If browning too fast, reduce heat. Repeat with remaining pancakes adding more oil as needed. Remove to a plate lined with papertowels and serve warm.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
I hope you enjoy them and if you stuff them with something unique, do let me know! 🙂
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
I used leftover meatloaf for the filling. Just crumbled it up and added it. Yum!
Hi Kari! That’s a great way to use up the meatloaf. Thanks for sharing.
Made these with leftover garlic green onion mash, marinated Grilled leftover tri-tip, and Swiss cheese, and cheddar cheese! with a sour cream,dill, and some raw red onion dip! Omgosh
That sounds amazing!
Hey these recipes look so good, Just wondering if theres any way to save them on your page? Like give a heart to each recipe you want to keep and see them all later. if that makes sense
Hello there. I don’t have that feature on my website yet but that’s a good idea. Hopefully, we’ll be able to add that feature later on.
Hi Natasha,
Love your recipes. But the mashed potatoes were too sticky.
I added the flour, but it was still too sticky to manage. The mashed potatoes were made in the morning with heavy cream. Then I let it cool completely. By the late afternoon I tried making them but had issues with it being too sticky. I ended up turning it into shepherd’s pie.
Hi Karen, I wonder if it could be the way the potatoes were prepared – if they are too loose to begin with, it may need a little more flour.
Hello, those are the so called Samogitian pancakes- one of the most famous traditional Lithuanian meals. Very delicious if served with mushroom gravy.
Good to know that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
I took my mashed potatoes from thanksgiving and chopped turkey and stuffing up and cooked it in fry pan and added sauted onions to it. It was pretty good. Thanks for the idea.
You’re welcome, Amanda! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
can you use mashed potatoes from a box as base?
Hi Monika, I haven’t tested that but I think it could work. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe
I made these over the weekend for the very first time – they were delicious! My family enjoyed them very much. Thank you for all your amazing videos and recipes.
I’m so glad you enjoyed that Tracey!
My mom used to make these but in oval form, I love them either way. This is my first time making them, so it’s prob a dumb question but do I add the egg and flour when the potatoes are cool??
Thank you
Hi Patrish, yes that is correct. We always use cool leftover mashed potatoes when making these.
These are so delicious! Had them yesterday, everyone liked them so much! Will make them again for sure!!
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Svetlana!
Hi, I love many of your recipes. Would be so great if you had some that were whole30.
Thank you for that suggestion Fayth!
Hi. I love your name. My name is Natalie. My question is if these can be frozen after frying. Please let me know. Thank you.
I love your name also Natalia! I actually haven’t tried freezing them. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe
Happy I found u today. I’m about to be a mom for the 2nd time at 45. My son is already 18. So it’s time to start cooking again. I want to be the best mom I can be…as being in charge of my family’s nourishment is more important than I ever gave it credit for. It effects everything they do. Thanks for helping me to set a better example & to better enjoy it this time around. Take care – Kat :)))
I’m glad you found my sit Kathleen! Please let me know what you and your family think of the recipes. Thanks so much for following! 🙂
really can’t wait to try some of your recipes sounds like they are superb
Thanks for following Tony! Please let me know what you think of the recipes!
1) What potatoes do you recommend ?
– should I add milk and butter like I usually do ? Less/More ?
– What is ideal temperature for handling potatoes? cold, room temperature, warm, hot ?
I would like make half a recipe. ( 3 cups)
-should I half the egg?
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I tend to get easily stressed out over the details due to my inexperience, and lack of confidence to at least try. 🙂
Peas and Thank You,
Heidi Keibel
Hi Heidi, we usually use yukons but we’ve also tried with russet 🙂
I have a comment about the mashed potato pancakes, if the potatoes are overworked that will happen and adding more flour does not help . Inna
I tried this recipe and it didn’t work for me 🙁 I did everything right nut the potatoes were sticky. no matter how much flour I added in potatoes they were just very sticky to my skin. Was awful. Is there a specific potato type you have to use for this recepie? Using bread crambs helped not to stick but it was to late I put so much flour that when I made the pancake it didn’t taste like a potato or a pancake. I was so disappointed I wasted so much time as well as embarrassed Infront of my husband for making not a nice dinner 🙁
Hi Tru, I’m sorry to hear that. I would love to help troubleshoot. What kind of potatoes did you use and how did you prepare them? Also did you use leftover mashed potatoes that were cool rather than warm and fresh mashed potatoes?
Can this be baked? If so at what temp and for how long?
Hi Cori, I haven’t tried baking this so I’m not sure how well that would work. If you try, make sure you grease a good non-stick surface or the pancakes will stick to your baking sheet.
I am so happy to have found your site yesterday. I made the meat filled pancakes. I fried the meat with onions then added salsa. They were really good, thankyou. I can hardly wait to make your Mother’s rye, whole wheat bread.
First, WELCOME to my blog! 🙂 I’m so happy you’re here. Second, I love that you got creative with these! thanks for sharing your great review 🙂
Just tried the recipe and my family loved it! I had left over beef taco meat along with rice added the onions and carrots and turned out great. Thanks for all the recipes.
Ali, thank you for the nice review, I’m glad everyone loved it 😁.
I used half pork, half sauteed cabbage in mine. Fantastic! Thank you for the idea — I’ve been making mashed potato pancakes for years and this never occurred to me. Your husband is a genius. 🙂
I have to agree with you there – he is a genius! 🙂 Thanks so much Sally! I love your idea of using cabbage. Brilliant!
I have been wondering how to make these for years now. I have tried to fry mashed potatoes with no success. Thank you for sharing Natasha!
I will be making these tonight for sure.
I’ll check back in when I have made them but I already can tell they will be out of the park. большое спасибо
Thanks Jimmy! I hope you love them! 🙂
Recipe looks smashing! Would you you think a pound of the breakfast sausage meat would work for this or does it have too much of a fat content? Thanks!
Violet, It should work, as long as it’s not a sweet variety. If there is too much fat, you can alway dab it out with a paper towel.
The recipe calls for chopped parsley, but the ingredient list is lacking the amount.
Did I miss it all together?
David, thank you for noticing that. Recipe calls for 2 Tbsp of finely chopped parsley. I also updated the recipe :).
I have been eating these all my life and love them so much ,my family served them with a mushroom sauce and it was dinner .Zrazy are usually ground meat as for katlety follow your procedure and fill with a mixture of rice plus diced hard boiled egg ,dill ,salt pepper to flavor .Roll in breadcrumbs and fry , you can make a sauce if desired . I love your blog .
Hi Inna! Thank you so much :). I’m glad you enjoy my blog :). Thanks for sharing that about zrazy! Do you put raw or cooked meat into yours?
I think my husband would love these. His family came to America from Scotland and he has happy memories of the Shepherd’s Pie his mom made when he was a child. Mom always added green peas to her pies so I will too. Have you ever frozen them?
Actually, these are somewhat like the pasties that the Irish made for their miner husband’s lunchbox. Interesting, isn’t it, the similarities between different peoples?
That is really interesting and awesome!! I actually haven’t tried freezing them. Did the shepherds pies freeze well?
My mom has been making these since childhood they were my favorite! She used to add alot of garlic too ;P she recently made them and I was going to ask her for the recipe and u posted it;)
That’s awesome! Alot of garlic sounds very good too! We’re major garlic people around here 😉
Natasha –
Is this the Ukrainian zrazy? They look delicious. About how many potatoes is 6 cups? Thanks as always for all your good recipes.
We’ve never called them that but yes I guess they are! I am guessing it is about 7-8 medium potatoes (maybe 3 lbs).
No, seriously, it just happened that I had 6 cups of mashed potatoes left over in my fridge today😄and I was in the store when i opened this recipe, bought the pork and just made dinner for my family:)
Even my picky eater ate two of them, and for other boy it was huge because he loves potatoes with sour cream😋
Me and my husband liked them a lot too😍Thank you🌹
That’s awesome!! I love it when I already have everything I need for a recipe! I’m so happy you all enjoyed the recipe 🙂
Oh these potato pancakes look out of this world! My husband would love them too. Who am I kidding…I would love them! Meat and potatoes are such comfort food for us but not to our kids. They are another generation.
These kind of recipes bring back memories from childhood :). My son is not a big fan of mashed potatoes but eat few of these with appetite.
Mmmmm!! This is like Shepherd’s Pie in the form of a kotletka! Your pictures always make me hungry even after eating a big meal 🙂 so mouth-watering! Will be making these for sure. Yum!
Yes I can totally see that! :). Thanks Julia!
These are like my most favorite thing in the world. Always.
I want them so bad now :*…
Marina, start cooking potatoes and your dreams will come true :D.
One of our favorite meals! I used Ruffles instead of bread crumbs and used gravy to dip em in! It’s soooo goood!
Isn’t the flavor amazing, Anna! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed this recipe.
Natasha, this recipe is a winner! My grandmother Wilhelmine used to make these. They were such a treat. Years after she passed away, my mom and I tried and tried and tried to make them, but failed miserably. The thing that we missed was the flour. Going to take your recipe to Mom’s and make these with her. Thanks! xo
The flour helps alot! We’ve tried without flour and the top breaded part just separates from the pancake and it cracks miserably. This method worked much better 🙂
I was just telling Mom about you last night and she wasn’t too convinced the flour would be so important.
We’ll have to make a batch on the w/end to prove it to her! Thanks, Natasha. xo
Let me know how it goes! I hope they are everything you remember them to be 🙂
I miss those. Mama made the for us with left over mashed potatoes. Mouth is watering 🙂
Mouth watering = mission accomplished. ;).
Great recipe, Thank you for sharing. usually when I am making mash potato pancakes I always use ice cream scoop. less messy and amount per serving almost the same… and doing it with bread crumbs I really like it.. makes it more browner… will try soon.
Ice cream scoop does make the job a lot easier :). Let me know how they turn out.