10 Authentic Polish Recipes You Have to Try
I grew up eating these dishes at babcia’s kitchen table in a small apartment that always smelled like dill and butter. Every Sunday, every holiday, every “just because” dinner — the same recipes, made the same way, with the same love. When I moved to Chicago and started cooking for my own family, these were the first things I made. Not because I had the recipes memorised (I called my mama approximately 47 times the first year), but because these dishes ARE Polish home cooking. They’re not restaurant food. They’re not fancy. They’re the food that Polish families have been making for generations, and every single one of them tastes like home.
What makes Polish food special isn’t complexity — it’s care. The time you spend folding each pierogi. The patience of simmering rosol for hours. The ritual of shredding cabbage for bigos on a cold morning. Polish cooking rewards effort with flavour, and every recipe on this page has been tested in my kitchen hundreds of times over 15+ years. These are my babcia’s recipes, adjusted slightly for American kitchens and ingredients, and written for anyone who wants to cook authentic Polish food — whether you’re Polish, Polish-American, or just someone who loves hearty, satisfying food made from scratch.
The Dumplings
Authentic Pierogi (Potato-Cheese)
The dish that defines Polish cooking. Handmade dough wrapped around creamy potato-cheese filling, boiled, then pan-fried in butter until golden. My babcia’s recipe uses sour cream in the dough for tenderness — a small detail that makes a real difference. This recipe includes the full process from dough to filling to folding, plus the pan-fry technique that turns good pierogi into extraordinary pierogi. If you only make one recipe from this page, make this one. Everything else will follow naturally once you’ve mastered the dumpling.
The Soups
Żurek (Sour Rye Soup)
Poland’s most distinctive soup — a tangy, fermented rye broth with kielbasa, hard-boiled eggs, and potatoes. The sour base comes from a fermented rye starter (zakwas) that you can make at home or buy at a Polish deli. Żurek is served at Easter and on cold winter days, and it’s the soup that separates people who’ve tasted real Polish food from people who think Polish food is just pierogi. If you want to understand Polish cuisine beyond dumplings, żurek is where you start.
The Mains
Kotlet Schabowy (Breaded Pork Cutlet)
Poland’s national dish — pounded pork loin, breaded in the classic three-station method (flour, egg, breadcrumbs), and fried until golden and crispy. Served with mashed potatoes and mizeria (cucumber salad), it’s the most common Sunday dinner in Polish homes. My babcia seasoned her breading with marjoram, and I’ve carried that tradition forward into every cutlet I make — including my fusion versions with miso butter and gochujang glaze.
The Dumplings
Placki Ziemniaczane (Polish Potato Pancakes)
These “little hooves” are Poland’s answer to gnocchi — soft potato dumplings shaped by hand and served with butter, fried onions, or meat sauce. Faster than pierogi (no filling, no folding) and just as satisfying. Kopytka are what I make on weeknights when I want Polish comfort food without the 2-hour pierogi commitment. They’re also the base for some of my fusion experiments — kopytka with carne asada and salsa verde is a Polish Mom original that has no right to taste as good as it does.
The Mains
Bigos (Hunter’s Stew)
The legendary hunter’s stew: sauerkraut, fresh cabbage, kielbasa, pork, mushrooms, and a dozen other ingredients slow-cooked for hours until everything melds into a rich, tangy, smoky masterpiece. Bigos is better on day two than day one, and better on day three than day two. It’s the dish I make on the first cold weekend of autumn, and it feeds our family of six for nearly a week. Every Polish family argues about the “right” bigos recipe. This is mine. It’s right.
Gołąbki (Stuffed Cabbage Rolls)
Blanched cabbage leaves wrapped around a filling of ground pork, rice, and onion, baked in tomato sauce until tender and bubbly. Gołąbki (“little pigeons”) are one of Poland’s most iconic dishes and one of the most labour-intensive — blanching, shaving ribs, rolling, arranging, saucing. The effort is worth it. If you want the flavour without the rolling, try my taco cabbage casserole shortcut.
The Soups
Rosół (Polish Chicken Noodle Soup)
Every Polish family has a rosol recipe. It’s golden chicken broth simmered for hours with parsley root, carrots, celery, and fresh dill — served with thin egg noodles called lane kluski. Rosol is Poland’s healing soup, the one babcia made when someone was sick, sad, or cold. It’s also the first course at every Sunday dinner and every holiday meal. My recipe simmers for 3 hours minimum, because shortcuts don’t make good rosol. The depth of flavour in properly made rosol is what separates Polish chicken soup from every other chicken soup in the world.
The Sides and Extras
Naleśniki (Polish Crepes)
Thin, delicate crepes that can be filled with anything: sweetened farmer cheese (twarog) for dessert, or meat and mushrooms for a savoury meal. My babcia made naleśniki every Tuesday. I make them whenever the crepe craving hits, which is approximately once a week. The batter takes 5 minutes and the crepes cook in 1-2 minutes each.
Mizeria (Polish Cucumber Salad)
Thinly sliced cucumbers in a sour cream and dill dressing. Mizeria is the side dish that accompanies every Polish meal — it sits next to schabowy, alongside pierogi, and at every holiday table. It takes 5 minutes and it’s the perfect cooling counterpoint to rich, heavy Polish mains.
Sernik (Polish Cheesecake — No-Bake)
Polish cheesecake is denser and less sweet than American cheesecake, made with twarog (farmer cheese) rather than cream cheese. This no-bake version is the easiest entry point — creamy, tangy, and satisfying without turning on the oven. Babcia’s baked sernik recipe requires more effort, but this version delivers 90% of the flavour for 30% of the work.
Where to Start
If you’ve never cooked Polish food before, start with pierogi — they teach you dough-making, filling, and the assembly-line patience that defines Polish cooking. Then try rosol to understand Polish broth culture. Then schabowy for the breading technique you’ll use across dozens of recipes. Once you’ve made those three, you’ll understand the foundation of Polish cuisine, and everything else on this page will feel like a natural extension.
And if you’re already comfortable with Polish basics, explore where they go next: Polish-fusion recipes that combine babcia’s techniques with flavours from Korea, Mexico, Japan, and Thailand, or dumplings from around the world that show how pierogi skills transfer globally.
What are the most popular Polish dishes?
Pierogi, bigos, żurek, kotlet schabowy, gołąbki, and rosol are the core dishes of Polish home cooking. Every Polish family makes these regularly, and they’re the recipes most requested at holidays and Sunday dinners.
Is Polish food hard to make?
Most Polish recipes use simple ingredients — potatoes, cabbage, pork, flour, eggs, sour cream. The techniques aren’t complicated, but some dishes require patience: pierogi need folding time, bigos needs hours of simmering, and rosol demands a long, slow cook. The effort is always rewarded.
What ingredients do I need for Polish cooking?
Stock your pantry with: sour cream, butter, fresh dill, marjoram, caraway seeds, sauerkraut, kielbasa (from a Polish deli if possible), farmer cheese (twarog), and good-quality potatoes. These ingredients appear across dozens of Polish recipes and form the foundation of the cuisine.