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If you liked the potato or apple pirojki, you will love these meat filled Belyashi! Some people refer to theses as chebureki, but chebureki are usually made with raw meat and have a thinner dough. The dough is so easy when using a Breadmaker. Serve these meat piroshki by themselves or pair them with that awesome garlic dip you might recall from the potato piroshki. I know these are originally made with lamb, but turkey and beef are more practical and the flavor is fantastic!
Ingredients for the Meat Piroshki Dough:
1 1/2 Tbsp oil
15 oz warm water
4 cups + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (divided)
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast
Ingredients for the Meat Filling:
1 lb ground turkey
1 lb ground beef (Fat content: 80/20)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 large onion, finely diced
1 medium carrot, finely grated
3 Tbsp dill
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 cup warm water
Other Ingredients:
Enough canola oil to go half-way up the side of the piroshky when frying.
Lots of extra flour to dust the cutting board (I probably use at least 1/2 cup extra flour)
Ingredients for Garlic Dip – “Vmochanka”
(this is for one serving, so increase it accordingly):
1/4 cup warm water
1 Tbsp olive oil (you can use any kind of oil really)
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/2 tsp salt
How to Make Russian Pirojki (Chebureki) Dough:
How to make the Dough:
1. The easiest way to do this is in a bread maker. If you have one, set it to the dough setting and add the ingredients in the following order: Oil, water, 2 cups flour, salt, 2 cups + 2 Tbsp flour*, yeast.
A bread maker will do the following: mix, let dough rise, mix again and let the dough rise (It takes about 1 to 1 1/2 hours) and once it’s done in the bread maker, its ready to go.
*to get an exact flour measurement, use a dry ingredients measuring cup and scrape off the top with the back of a butter knife.
You can also make this dough using a stand mixer with a dough hook on speed 2 (mix all the ingredients together, let rise, mix again and then let it rise in a warm place (like the oven). (It should be 2 to 2 1/2 times in volume). While it’s rising, work on the meat filling for piroshki – see below.
2. Put the finished dough onto a well floured cutting board, dust the dough with flour and with well-floured hands, shape it into a large log.
It will rise more as you make the piroshki
3. Cut off pieces one at a time about 3/4″ thick.
4. Place the piece of dough over your well-floured hand (dough will be sticky) and shape it into a 3″ to 4″ circle using your hands. Do not put flour on the side where you are going to put the meat, otherwise the sides won’t seal.
5. Stir the meat mix to distribute the juices. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of meat filling in the center.Cover the meat with the sides of the dough (being careful not to let oils or juices seep out), and pinch the edges together to seal the dough. Flatten the pirojki slightly to make them a more uniform size.
Notes:
It helps to wash your hands half-way through the process to keep the dough from really sticking to your hand. And keep those hands well-floured!
6. Heat oil in a large, deep, heavy-bottomed pan or cast iron dutch oven. There should be enough oil to cover the pirojki half-way up the side.
7. Place them in the hot oil (about 330˚ F) and fry until deep golden brown on each side. Sometimes they puff up a lot on one side so you may end up with a third side that needs to be fried.
8. Place on paper towels to cool and enjoy! Try the garlic dip – it’s GOOD!
How to Make Meat filling for Belyashi:
1. Heat a large skillet over medium/high heat. Brown ground beef and turkey, breaking it up into small pieces with a spatula. Season meat with 1/2 tsp salt, 1/ tsp pepper and 1/2 tsp garlic powder.
2. When the meat is almost done, add diced onion and saute 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add shredded carrots and saute another 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add 3 Tbsp dill, mix well.
5. Add mayo, stir well.
6. Stir in 1/2 cup water to moisten the meat mix. Transfer meat mix to a bowl and let cool to warm or room temperature.
Meat Piroshki (Belyashi)

Ingredients
Ingredients for the Dough:
- 1 1/2 Tbsp oil
- 15 oz warm water
- 4 cups + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour, divided
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast
Ingredients for the Meat Filling:
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 lb ground beef, Fat content: 80/20
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 large onion, finely diced
- 1 medium carrot, finely grated
- 3 Tbsp dill
- 2 Tbsp mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup warm water
Other Ingredients:
- Enough canola oil to go half-way up the side of the piroshky when frying.
- Lots of extra flour to dust the cutting board, I probably use at least 1/2 cup extra flour
- this is for one serving, so increase it accordingly
Instructions
How to Make Meat filling for Belyashi:
- Heat a large skillet over medium/high heat. Brown ground beef and turkey, breaking it up into small pieces with a spatula. Season meat with 1/2 tsp salt, 1/ tsp pepper and 1/2 tsp garlic powder.
- When the meat is almost done, add diced onion and saute 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add shredded carrots and saute another 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add 3 tbsp dill, mix well.
- Add mayo, stir well.
- Stir in 1/2 cup water to moisten the meat mix. Transfer meat mix to a bowl and let cool to warm or room temperature.
How to make the Dough:
- The easiest way to do this is in a bread maker. If you have one, set it to the dough setting and add the ingredients in the following order: Oil, water, 2 cups flour, salt, 2 cups + 2 Tbsp flour, yeast. A bread maker will do the following: mix, let dough rise, mix again and let the dough rise (It takes about 1 to 1 1/2 hours) and once it’s done in the bread maker, its ready to go.
- You can also make this dough using a stand mixer with a dough hook on speed 2(mix all the ingredients together, let rise, mix again and then let it rise in a warm place (like the oven). (It should be 2 to 2 1/2 times in volume). While it's rising, work on the meat filling for piroshki - see below.
- Put the finished dough onto a well floured cutting board, dust the dough with flour and with well-floured hands, shape it into a large log.It will rise more as you make the piroshki.
- Cut off pieces one at a time about 3/4″ thick.
- Place the piece of dough over your well-floured hand (dough will be sticky) and shape it into a 3″ to 4″ circle using your hands. Do not put flour on the side where you are going to put the meat, otherwise the sides won’t seal.
- Stir the meat mix to distribute the juices. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of meat filling in the center.Cover the meat with the sides of the dough (being careful not to let oils or juices seep out), and pinch the edges together to seal the dough. Flatten the pirojki slightly to make them a more uniform size.
- Heat oil in a large, deep, heavy-bottomed pan or cast iron dutch oven. There should be enough oil to cover the pirojki half-way up the side.
- Place them in the hot oil (about 330° F) and fry until deep golden brown on each side. Sometimes they puff up a lot on one side so you may end up with a third side that needs to be fried.
- Place on paper towels to cool and enjoy!
The dough looks right, but the filling is not suppose to be precooked and there is no carrots in the beliashi.. Filling is suppose to be juicy, that is why you use fat meat and mayo is not a good way of adding fat to the recipe. It is funny that a lot of people in Ukrainian community are adding mayo to many recipes after moving to USA, we did not do it back home. Any way precooking your filling makes it dry and it is not the same anymore.
You are right about belyashi needing raw meet. Belyashi are flat and cook through better. That is why raw meat wouldn’t work for piroshki – the dough is thicker and fluffier and it would never cook raw meat completely. I’m actually fond of using mayo to make meat more moist. If you think about what mayo is made with: mostly mayo and egg, it actually works really well and tastes awesome! If you have a good recipe for real belyashi filling and dough, please do share 🙂
Hi Natasha,
thank you for your recipe: I have always struggled to make dough with yeast and decided to give yours one a try. It turned out well, much better than all my previous ones: again thank you-very tasty..
I can see people have been asking you for the oven version.
I thought the dough had to be a little different for the oven version and if you have the recipe for that: I would love to have it. My mum and dad want me to make it.
Thanks
Suzanna
I think it is a different recipe too. I’ve never tried baking them, but I’ll look into it. Maybe my aunt has a good recipe. I’ll ask around.
How far in advance can you make these? Can they be served at room temperature? I’d love to serve them at my son’s birthday party, along with other закуски…
These are best fresh and can be at room temp for 3-4 hrs. U can make them the day before but it won’t be the same quality of fresh piroshki.
Can you prepare the dough in advance and just fry them straight before? Preparing dough with yeast in advance is always a bit problematic… :/
Otherwise, if you were to do them a few hours in advance would you reheat them in an oven or keep warm in an oven or how?
I wouldn’t make the dough ahead of time… too risky! You can re-heat them in the oven or even micro if you wanted to.
This is just like what we Italians make, Panzerotti! I bet these are delicious!
Do you make pepperoni rolls, Annamaria? I use my piroshki dough to make pepperoni rolls since my husband is Italian. Delicious! (Baked!)
This is just like what we Italians make, Panzerotti! I bet these are delicious!
I tried these and they are amazing! Thank you so much for your recipes! I always go on your website and look for something new to make.
I dont know why but my dough didn’t even rise. I think it was because my “warm water” turned cold quickly.. I will have to try the dough again today.
If you aren’t using a bread maker, the most likely reason was the place you set it to rise probably wasn’t warm enough. A warm oven or in a sunny, warm spot on the counter works great.
I don’t do especially well with “na vkys” either, thats why your recipes help so much. It will come with time, i’m sure 🙂
I made two batches of these today and ate more than was good for me. I just gotta say, this is a great recipe, it’s going straight into my recipe book. Natasha, you are so wonderful for taking the time out of your busy life to post your recipes for everyone to enjoy. No one ever has the exact measurements for traditional Russian/Ukrainian food, it is assumed this is something we should know from birth. Your exact measurements and clear instructions help so much (pictures help too!) This is exactly what i’ve been looking for. Keep up the great work and keep those recipes coming!:)
What – you mean you weren’t born knowing? 🙂 I especially love when someone tells you “na vkys” (to taste), when you don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like! I have to say, Russian/Ukrainian moms are geniuses aren’t they? They have so much experience that they just know what to put in and how much to put in and it always turns out great! I’m not at that level yet. I work pretty well from recipes 🙂
LOL! Actually, we were by our mother’s knees helping out and THAT’S how we znali na vkys! 😉 and 🙂
Natasha, can you please tell me how many piroshki one batch makes?Approximately…
Maybe 20
Some russian websites might have good recipes for oven. I think meat piroshki are really good oil fried it makes them taste like real belyashi lol
True – I haven’t tried any baked meat piroshki, but it would be pretty hard to make it taste better than the fried piroshki 🙂
I always bake my meat piroshki and they’re wonderful. My “bread” part of the recipe differs very little, so I imagine that the principle is the same. And yes, super delicious. Good idea w/ the mayo…I’ll give that a try. My grandmother made both the fried version (which, of course, I loved) as well as the baked. I find that I don’t even need to put any yolk or egg white wash on them before placing them in the oven, that they bake beautifully at 425, high, I know. Love your website…great job!
I’ll try the egg wash. Thank you! What’s different about your dough? I haven’t tried baking them so I don’t know if my dough would work or not.
It looks like there’s egg and dry milk (I think this makes the dough special) with a bit of sugar, which would help the dough rise, in our recipe. But looking at the consistency of the dough in your pictures, it really reminds me of our family’s. And I like a lot of meat filling in the piroshki, so the dough is spread pretty thin as I start to close it up. I then them rise again for 10-20 minutes (quite nicely!) on the baking sheet (covered lightly) before putting them in the oven. When my kids were growing up, the piroshki were quite popular with the kids’ friends.
Ира
If you bake them in the oven you gotta have the right dough. I think this dough is only good for to oil.
Good to know – thank you! I’ll have to find a good baking recipe. I’ve tried one I found online awhile ago and it was terrible. I’ll see what I can come up with.
Natasha, I have a lot of really good baking recipes. I often bake sweet piroshki as well as the normal ones with potatoes, meat, etc.
One of the recipes that always worked for me since I was a little girl is this:
1 стакан (200 грам) кефира, 1/2 стакана (100 грам) растительного масла , 11 грам сухих дрожей, 1 ч.л. соли, 1 ст.л. сахара, 3 стакана муки.
Кефир смешать с маслом и немного подогреть, добавить соль и сахар.
Муку смешать с дрожами. Влить постепено кефирную смесь и замесить тесто. (I always use the KitchenAid mixer)
Тесто накрыть и поставить в тёплое место нв 30 минут.
Пока тесто подходит я готовлю начинку, any kind will work.
Пирожки ложу на кальку, смазую яйцом, и пеку на 350 до золотистого цвета.
For me this recipe always worked. It is super easy and fast. I really like that they turn out really soft. We always bake them with girls at church and sell them as a fundraiser for missionary trips. People like them and often ask me for a recipe. I hope you try this recipe out and like it as well.
I also often do кальцоны at home they are somewhat like piroshki but they taste like pizza. I use the bread maker to make the dough. I put 300 ml of warm water, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil, 500 grams of flour, and 3 teaspoons of dry yeast. It usually takes 1 hour and 30 minutes.
For the filling I cut 300 grams of meat (chicken, varenaya kolbasa, or any of your choice) cut into small cubes, 1 bell pepper, garlic 3-5 cloves minced, 1 raw egg, and 300 grams of cheese grated.
For this recipe I make 6 big kaltsioni (такой же формой как пирожки), смазую яйцом, и пеку 30 минут на 350.
My family really likes this recipe, especially the boys. They often ask me to make them so they can take them to work for lunch.
Wow! Vera thank you so much for sharing. I’m going to print your recipes and try them! 🙂
Natasha I strongly recommend you to try this recipe.
В хлебопечку ложить в таком порядке:
Теплую воду или молоко 240 мл. (я ложу воду)
Растительное масло 3 ст.л.
1 яйцо
1 ч.л соли
2 ст.л сахара
480 грам муки (замерять висами)
1.5 ч.л дрожей
Включить на програму dough 1 час и 30 минут.
Когда тесто готовл оно будет очень нежное и воздушное. Выкладывать тесто на стол и немножко посыпать мукой ( мне это ненадолго было делать тесто неприлипало). Разделяет тесто на кусочки (~25 маленьких или 16 больших). Лепим пирожки и ложим на продвинь застелены бумагой для выпечки. Края пирожков немножко смазываем маслом потому что пирожки очень поднимаются и немного слепляются а масло помогает разлепить.
Разогреть духовку на самый маленький огонь и выключить. Туда ставить пирожки чтобы подходили примерно 30 минут. Потом достаем пишные пирожки и смазываем желтком немного раздавленые с водой. Печь в разогретой духовке на 355 примерно 20-25 минут.
Пирожки получаются очень мягкие и пишние. Их можно делать с любой начинкой.
Vera thank you so much for sharing! Do you use a meat, fruit or cheese filling for this recipe or can it be any of them? Also, are you using Canadian flour or American all-purpose?
Can you please post some recipes for ribs? 🙂 Also some recipes with mushrooms! yum! thanks
Yes please try out by baking them. I would love to know =)
When I bake these in the oven I rub some butter into the dough and brush the shaped piroshki with egg before baking.
Thank you! I’ll refer to your tip when I try baking them 🙂 what temp and how long do you bake them?
Can you bake them in the oven?
I haven’t tried baking them and I honestly forget to try it every time. I need to stick a sign on the breadmaker to jog my memory!
My mother used to make pirozhki for company; she deep-fried some, and baked the rest… She filled them with meat, povidlo (jam), or cooked kapusta (cabbage). Everyone always looked forward to them.
I don’t think there was any mayo in her filling tho…;)
I’ve made them with cabbage too and they were so so good! 🙂
Can You please post Manti? 🙂
What are manti? Maybe I make them and call them something different? 🙂
Manti are similar to pelmeni but they are big and are made with lots of onion and chopped meat-mostly are made with lamb(look like pig asian potsticker but way better tasting) Also you need to have a special “pot” or maybe its more like a steamer that has two to three levels with holes in them(depends on size). So you basically put water on the bottom of the pot and then put the Manti on each level with holes and stack the levels up and close with a big lid and steam them. I think its more of Kirgiz or Turkish dish. The steamers I heard are sold at Asian stores. I never made them by myself but helped my sister in law make them- very yummy.
Manti are a Bukharian (Uzbekistan) dish. They are simply steamed dumplings. The dough however is not a yeast dough and, like piroshki, is braided or pinched closed. Manti are filled with raw meat and onions or tikvah with onions. The meat is finely diced and onions finely chopped and zera (cumin) is added. You then dip the dumplings in oil then place on the steamer. They steam for about 45 minutes depending on which cut of meat is used. If you have left overs you can fry then the following day. We eat them with a drizzle of olive oil and vinegar. 🙂 yummy!!
Natasha…….Thanks for posting this recipe. My Mother, Baba and Aunt use to whip out almost 100 of these at a time. They are my favourite…..I love your recipe. I’m for sure going to make these soon. Sometimes they filled them with potatoes or Kapusta [cabbage].
I make something similar like these that I learned from my Turkish Mother/in/Law……..they call them Pogaca.
I love your Blog…..you have such good recipes that I grew up with in growing up.
……….have a great day!!!!
Thank you Irina! I have the potato filled piroshki posted too. I love those!! Try the garlic dip for the potato filled ones if you haven’t allready. But, be warned – it’s hard to stop eating them!! 🙂
Eww lol good to know! This time around means its the meat season? lol
I learned that from one of those food documentaries.
Did you use your meat grinder to get ground beef and turkey?:)
I purchased the meat at Winco this time around. You can grind the meat yourself or buy pre-ground. I think it was a ground chuck? I don’t like getting just “ground beef” because it’s sometimes a mystery meat – you don’t know what’s really in there. (sorry, I know that’s a little gross).
Yay!!! Thanks so much for posting this recipe! When you get a chance can you please post the thin dough chebureki that would be totally sweet! Thank you Natasha!!!!!!!!!!
You’re welcome! It’s on my list 🙂