A cheburek is classic deep-fried Eastern European street food snack. It is made of a piece of unleavened dough folded over filling and shaped into a crescent. The filling is simple with only and few basic ingredients – ground meat (beef, pork, lamb, or even chicken), onions, parsley, salt, and a pepper. Unlike other pan-cooked flatbreads, this one is made with a raw meat filling which cooks along with the dough. The result is a kind of giant deep-fried delicious dumpling.
You can modify the filling by using any meat you prefer and by adding any spices and herbs that you like. Be sure to fry the chebureki in a deep pan because some of the meat juice will inevitably leak out and make the oil sputter and splash quite violently.
This recipe makes 5 chebureki which is enough for two hungry people.
Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.
Ingredients
For the dough –
140g (5oz) water
5g (0.17oz) salt
10g (0.35oz) vegetable oil
250g (8.8oz) white bread flour
For the filling –
100g (3.5oz) minced onion
10g (0.35oz) chopped parsley
3g (0.1oz) salt
2g (0.07oz) pepper
250g (8.8oz) ground beef
Method
- Make the dough. Dissolve the salt in the water. Add the oil and the flour and mix to a dough. Divide the dough into 5 equal pieces. Shape into balls.
- Cover and rest for 15 minutes.
- Reshape the dough balls, place them on a plate and cover them. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
- Make the filling. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together.
- Shape the cheburek. Cover a dough ball with flour, flatten it by hand and then roll it out using a rolling pin. Place 1/5 of the filling onto one side of the dough and spread it out to cover it in an even layer. Moisten the edge of the dough and fold the loose side over to meet the other edge. Try to press out all the air.
- Seal the edge by pressing with your fingertips. Crimp the edge by pulling the dough and folding it over repeatedly. Shape the rest of the chebureki.
- Fry the chebureki in pre-heated oil at around 180C (355F) for 6 minutes. First, fry them for 2 minutes, then flip and fry for another 2 minutes. Then flip again and fry for 1 more minute per side. Drain on kitchen paper.
Leave to cool down slightly and tuck in!
