Have you ever heard of Runza before? If you’re not from the Midwest, chances are you probably haven’t. When I moved here, I saw all these Runza restaurants and wondered what the heck they were.
According to handy dandy Wikipedia, Runzas are the Russian term for any food consisting of a dough stuffed with a savory filling. The ones in Nebraska are beef-based. Since I don’t eat beef, I haven’t been able to try these Nebraska specialities. Lucky for me, Joanna’s family has a delicious homemade Runza recipe that could be modified for chicken-eaters and vegetarians. Hannah, Joanna, and myself decided to get together and recreate the classic.
We thought this would be the perfect theme for our October edition of Three Cooks One Kitchen!
In case you aren’t familiar, Three Cooks One Kitchen is a monthly cooking installment that Joanna, Hannah and I do. We pick one of our places to get together and a food theme we want to focus on. For the homemade Runzas, we thought it would be fun if Joanna made the classic beef version, I made a chicken version, and Hannah made a veggie version.
It all started with this delicious dough. A HUGE thanks to Joanna for prepping this ahead of time!
The star of my Runzas. I was planning on making chicken in the crock pot to use, but last week was insane so I picked up a rotisserie chicken on the way to Joanna’s instead.
I typically buy precooked chicken breast so I don’t have to handle bones and cutting meat. This was the first time I had to do it since being a vegetarian for two years and it was an experience.
The three ingredients besides meat are carrots, onions and cabbage. Again, another huge thanks to Joanna for prepping this all ahead of time.
All mixed together!
And ready to be rolled and stuffed into Runzas!
Chicken Runzas
Makes 12 Runzas
Dough Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup milk
- 1/2 Cup water
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 Cup bread flour
- 1/4 Cup flaxseed meal
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons yeast
Runza Stuffing Ingredients
- 2 pounds of shredded chicken
- 1/2 cup grated onion
- 1/2 cup grated carrot
- 2 cups grated cabbage
- Salt and pepper.
Directions
- Assemble dough in bread maker
- Stir fry onions, carrots, cabbage, salt and pepper
- Mix stir fried veggies with chicken
- Heat oven to 375 degrees
- Cut dough into 12 even sections
- Roll out one section of dough into a flat oval
- Place filling down the middle of dough in a straight line
- Pinch the sides of the dough together so that the dough covers the filling
- Squeeze each end together so the filling doesn’t fall out
- Put pinched Runza side down on greased baking sheet
- Let rest 20 minutes
- Bake 20 minutes
- Let cool
- Serve and enjoy!
This dough was SO good.
Here is Joanna demonstrating how to properly use a rolling pin for me. I’m pretty sure my kitchen skills would rival those on Food Network’s Worst Cooks. Being raised by a single dad meant I grew up cutting everything with a steak knife and thinking garlic salt was the only seasoning worth using. Somehow I’ve managed to not cut off an appendage and still cook yummy food. 😉
Hannah rolling up her veggie Runzas. I think they look so cute.
All ready for baking! Joanna taught us this trick of flipping the baking sheet over. She does this for everything, but it’s especially useful for cookies. No more crushing cookies into the corners when you’re trying to lift them out!
All ready for eating.
Tell me these don’t look delicious.
Me with my yummy lunch.
Behind the scenes of what it really means to be a blogger. 😀
These were fantastic. Flavorful, moist, and perfectly seasoned. This is going to be a weird analogy, as there is no mashed potatoes, turkey, or stuffing involved, but they tasted like thanksgiving to me. That warm, comforting, rich, hearty taste you associate with a Thanksgiving meal. I’m so thankful Joanna shared her family recipe as I plan on making these A LOT more.
My goal next time? To NOT bake a Runza with an entire chicken bone inside. 😉
For the beef and veggie version of these homemade Runzas make sure to check out Hannah and Joanna’s posts:
- Makingmine’s Beef Version
- Clean Eating Veggie Girl’s Veggie Version <— I brought home two of these for Josh and he devoured them.
Questions of the Days: Have you ever had a Runza? Do you own a bread maker? If you had to pick between chicken, beef, and veggies as your filling of choice which would you pick?
Omg I want a Runza so bad now! My dad took us to Runza all the time when we were little! “Funza in a bunza” he would say..which I’m not sure if that wa a catch phrase or something he made up haha.
And I’m with ya on not liking to deal with bones..I’ve only even bought raw chicken a couple of times because it sleeves me out.
I love, “Funza in a bunza!” If they’re not using that for their marketing slogan, they should be! haha
I love that we all found a recipe that worked for us! We’re already eaten almost ALL of ours, haha! Can’t wait for November now!
I’m so excited for November!
I have never even heard of these!!!
They’re so delicious!
These look so good! I need y’all to bring them down South please : )
Next time I’m down there you got it! 😀
I’ve never heard or seen of a Runza but they sound really good. I love your photos showing the “real blogger’s experience”! 🙂
They taste so good! I’m so glad we made a version I could finally try!
I’m from the Midwest and I hadn’t heard of runzas before this- where have I been?! Haha. These look yummy!
-Ashley
Le Stylo Rouge
I hope you get to try one soon! They’re delicious!
I can literally smell this through my monitor. Looking forward to trying this out 🙂
It’s so good! I hope you love it!
I am STILL laughing about the chicken bone!! 😉
I cannot believe I did that!! haha
Is it bad I’m from the Midwest and have never heard of these!? Definitely need to try them out!
I hope you love them!
I haven’t had a runza in years! Love them! I’m totally going to have to try this recipe.
oh, my! I haven’t had a runza in years! Love them! I’m totally going to have to try this recipe.
I hope you love it! I’m already looking forward to making more!
hehe…whoops on the bone there! but, it looks delicious regardless! I had no idea what a runza was before this post. I literally asked myself that when I read your post title! hehe
xo,
nancy
I’m so happy I finally got to try them! I love them!
These look yummy! I live in STL and have not heard of them. A must try!
xo,
Jacqueline
stylininstlouis.com
I hope you get to try them soon! I love them!
I’ve never heard of putting carrots in a Runza. And they definitely sound interesting with chicken – you should suggest that to Runza 🙂 What’s crazy is that I worked at Runza in high school & college, made these all the time but I’ve never actually had one!
I didn’t know you worked there! We should get together and make Runzas sometime so you can have one! 😀
Thanks so much for visiting my blog the other day 🙂 The Runzas look delicious–what fun the three of you must have cooking together!
We always have a blast! 😀
How fun are these?! Thanks for linking up to #recipefriday!
Thanks for hosting!
Chicken Runzas sound tasty! I’ve made my own beef ones before but never thought to do a chicken version. Yum!
They were so good! I already want to make more!
I’ve never heard of these before. They look really good! I grew up in Wisconsin, and we didn’t have runza. We did have pasties though, which are a Cornish handheld pie.
Ohh those sound really tasty!
These look insanely delicious!