Air Fryer Pierogies
Potato and cheese pierogi brushed with butter and air fried for 12 minutes until the pastry is golden, served with onions and soured cream.
Photograph credit: Pierogies and veggies by mroach · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Flickr · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Make Ahead and Storage
Best eaten at once. Keeps 2 days in the fridge; reheat in the air fryer for 5 minutes.
Air Fryer Pierogies: The Method
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Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat. Cook the onions with the salt for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden.
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Heat the air fryer to 190°C / 375°F. Brush the frozen pierogi on both sides with the melted butter.
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Arrange in a single layer in the basket. Cook for 12 minutes, turning once, until golden and puffed.
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Pile the hot pierogi on a dish and top with the onions.
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Serve with the soured cream and chives.
Tips for Success
- Cook the pierogi straight from frozen, not thawed.
- Do not stack them in the basket: they will stick.
- Go slowly with the onions: they should be sweet, not burnt.
Why the Method Is What It Is
Can you air fry pierogi without boiling them first? Yes, and the result is closer to a fried one than a boiled one. The dumplings need no pre-cooking if they are made from a shop-bought frozen pack, as the fryer heats them through while it browns the dough.
Pierogi are the filled dumplings of Poland, usually stuffed with potato and cheese, sauerkraut or mushrooms. Fried with onions, they are a staple of Polish and Polish-American kitchens. The air fryer gives you the same blistered crust with much less butter.
Brush the dumplings with melted butter or oil on both sides before cooking. Dry pierogi turn leathery, but a thin film of fat gives a crisp, tender skin.
Cook the onions separately in the pan until sweet and deeply golden, which takes about 15 minutes. Spoon them over the hot pierogies with a good dollop of soured cream and a sprinkle of chives or dill.
Serving Ideas
Soured cream · Fried onions · Kielbasa · Beetroot salad
Nutrition per Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (most of the energy comes from foods with no recorded source). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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