Skillet Pierogies with Onion Cream
Shelf-stable pierogies browned in butter, with a sour cream and fried onion dip made from powder.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 14 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 120 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Snack
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Shelf-stable pierogies | 12 | vacuum-packed potato and cheese, sold unrefrigerated; frozen ones work on night one from a cooler |
|---|---|---|
| Sour cream powder | 1/2 cup | |
| Dried minced onion | 3 tbsp | |
| Onion powder | 1 tsp | |
| Butter | 2 tbsp | ghee keeps longer in heat |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Sugar | 1/2 tsp | helps the onions brown |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Dried chives | 1 tsp | optional |
Method
- Stir the sour cream powder, onion powder, and chives into 120 ml of cool water in a mug or bottle. Let it sit while you cook; it thickens as it hydrates.
- Heat the oil and half the butter in the pan. Add the dried minced onion and the sugar with a splash of water and cook it low, stirring, for about eight minutes until the pieces go brown and sweet.
- Scrape the onions into the sour cream and stir. Salt it.
- Wipe the pan, add the rest of the butter, and lay the pierogies flat in a single layer.
- Cook four to five minutes a side over low heat until both faces are browned and the filling is hot through. Work in batches rather than crowding the pan.
- Salt, pepper, and eat them out of the pan with the dip.
Caramelized onions are a thirty-minute job at home and nobody is doing that on a camp stove. Dried minced onion gets most of the way there in eight minutes, because the drying already did the work of driving off water. The sugar and the low flame do the rest. Rehydrated sour cream powder carries it, so nothing needs a fridge.
The pierogies are the reason this stays a car-camping and basecamp meal. Vacuum-packed shelf-stable ones exist and are worth hunting down; frozen ones out of a cooler work the first night. Low heat matters when browning them, since the dough scorches well before the filling warms up.
Packing
Sour cream powder, onion powder, and chives premixed in one bag. Dried onion and sugar in a second small bag so it can hit the hot pan alone. Butter in a screw-top tub.
Variations
- Skip the dip and dump the browned onions straight over the pierogies to save a step.
- A spoonful of mustard powder in the dip cuts the fat.
- Bacon bits or a foil packet of ham in the pan adds protein, but drops the vegetarian tag.
https://homeandkind.com/blogs/food-recipes/sauteed-pierogies-with-caramelized-onion-dip