Polish Burger with Kotlet Mielony

Dzień dobry! A Polish burger is a kotlet mielony in a bun, and that is how half of Poland eats one. The patty is a weeknight dinner, and the bun is what happens to the leftovers. In English you will see it called a Polish hamburger, which is the same thing.

The patty is minced pork with fried onion, garlic and marjoram, coated in breadcrumbs and fried until the outside crackles. Mine goes into a brioche bun with crisp boczek, caramelised onion rings, tomato, lettuce and Polish gherkins, under a smoky sauce built on horseradish and Sarepska mustard. My guide to Polish food covers the everyday plate it comes from. Smacznego!

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

PPin it

What is Kotlet Mielony?

Kotlet mielony means minced cutlet, and that is exactly what it is: a seasoned pork patty, fried. Every Polish household makes them and every household makes them a little differently. Do not confuse it with kotlet schabowy, which is a pork loin steak beaten thin and breaded. The schabowy is Sunday lunch. The mielony is Tuesday.

Mine is pork shoulder, with the onion softened in a pan first rather than grated in raw, then garlic, marjoram, salt and pepper. Marjoram is what makes it taste Polish rather than simply of pork, and I would not leave it out.

The traditional binder is a stale bread roll soaked in milk or water and squeezed dry, which is what most Polish recipes use. I use dry breadcrumbs instead: through the mixture to bind, and on the outside to crisp. If you want the classic version, half a soaked kajzerka in place of the breadcrumbs in the mix does it.

On a plate it goes with mashed potato and something sharp alongside, mizeria or buraczki.

Polish Bacon - Boczek

Boczek is pork belly, cured and usually smoked, and it is sold in a piece rather than in rashers, so you slice it as thick as you like. That is most of the difference. British streaky bacon comes off the same part of the pig and is the right substitute. Back bacon is not: it comes off the loin, it is much leaner, and it will not crisp the same way.

Three hundred grams cut into six means a proper slab on each burger rather than a rasher, and it needs longer in the pan than thin bacon does. Give the fat time to render and the edges to crisp. A Polish shop sells it as boczek wędzony; a supermarket will sell you thick-cut smoked streaky, which is close enough that nobody will complain.

Polish Burger Sauce

Mayonnaise and ketchup are the base, as they are in most burger sauces. What makes this one Polish is what goes in after: horseradish, the juice out of the gherkin jar, Sarepska mustard and a little liquid smoke. The horseradish gives a heat that arrives late and clears rather than burns, and the pickle juice does the job the vinegar does in a bottled sauce while actually tasting of something.

Sarepska is a Polish mustard, sweet and mild with a strong mustard flavour rather than a fierce heat. You do not need to find a substitute for it: most of the big British supermarkets carry it in the Polish section, and mine comes from Sainsbury’s. Liquid smoke is not a chemical trick either. It is smoke condensed into water with the tarry part filtered out, so you get the flavour and none of the soot. Half a teaspoon is plenty and it is easy to overdo. Leave it out altogether and the sauce is still good, only less smoky, and the boczek is doing that job anyway. Then taste it and move the horseradish up or down. That is the dial.

Choosing the Meat

Pork shoulder is the cut. It carries enough fat to keep the patty juicy, and lean mince is the commonest reason kotlety come out dry. If you are buying it ready-minced, look for around 20 per cent fat.

Mincing your own is worth the trouble if you have the kit. Cut the shoulder into chunks and give them fifteen or twenty minutes in the freezer first, because cold meat cuts cleanly instead of smearing, and use a medium plate. Fine mince goes pasty and coarse falls apart.

Equipment You’ll Need

A Closer Look at the Ingredients

A kotlet mielony is a well-seasoned Polish meat patty:

• Pork shoulder one cut, minced, and no beef. Beef makes a firmer, drier patty and needs the fat putting back; shoulder brings its own.
• Onion, fried first softened in a pan and cooled before it goes in. Raw grated onion works and plenty of Polish cooks do it that way, but frying takes the harshness out and leaves the sweetness, and it stops the mixture going watery.
• Marjoram the seasoning that makes it taste Polish. A teaspoon of dried, and I would not swap it for anything else.
• Breadcrumbs through the mixture to bind it, and on the outside to crisp. Two jobs, one ingredient.
• Cold water a quarter of a cup, worked in with everything else. It sounds wrong and it is the single best thing you can do for a kotlet: the salted meat takes the water up and keeps it there, so the patty stays moist rather than drying out in the pan.
• Egg one, to hold it together. More than that and the mixture turns rubbery rather than tender.
• Boczek, sauce and buns the parts that turn a kotlet into a burger, and the parts you can change freely.

Ingredient Substitutions

• Pork shoulder a pork and beef mix is common in Polish homes and makes a firmer patty. Beef on its own is leaner, so keep the fat up. Turkey thigh works; turkey breast is too lean and will come out dry whatever you do.
• Breadcrumbs the traditional binder is half a stale bread roll soaked in milk or water and squeezed out, which is what most Polish recipes use. Swap it in for the breadcrumbs in the mixture, but keep dry ones for the coating. Gluten-free breadcrumbs behave the same in both jobs.
• Boczek thick-cut smoked streaky bacon. Not back bacon, which comes off the loin and is too lean to crisp properly.
• Sarepska mustard if your shop has no Polish section, use whatever mustard you like and accept that the sauce will taste of that mustard instead. Do not reach for anything fierce.
• Liquid smoke leave it out. The boczek is already smoked and the sauce works without it. A pinch of smoked paprika gets you part of the way.
• Brioche buns any soft bun that will take the weight. A crusty roll fights the patty rather than holding it. My chałka buns are made for exactly this.

How to Make a Polish Burger, Step by Step

The card below has the quantities. This is the same method with the reasons attached, which is where the difference between a good kotlet and a dry one actually lives.

1. Fry the onion first. Two onions, diced small, into a little oil over a medium heat until soft and just starting to colour. Then take them off and let them cool before they go near the meat.Raw grated onion works, and plenty of Polish cooks use it, but it leaves a harsh edge and lets water into the mixture. Frying takes the edge off and leaves sweetness. Hot onion would start cooking the egg.
2. Mix it well, and for longer than feels necessary. Pork, the cooled onion, garlic, salt, breadcrumbs, egg, pepper, marjoram and the cold water into a big bowl, and work it with your hands for a good five minutes, until it is completely even and has turned sticky. Keep everything cold while you work.The stickiness is the point. Salt pulls one of the meat proteins out to the surface, where it works like glue and holds the patty together in the pan. A mixture that has only been stirred is the most common reason kotlety fall apart.The water: It goes in now, with everything else. The salt lets the meat take the water up and hold it through cooking. Added late, it sits in the mixture instead and the patty comes out spongy.
3. Shape them. Six patties, about a centimetre and a half thick, all the same thickness. Wet your hands first.With wet hands the mixture stops clinging and the surface comes out smooth, not cracked, and a cracked edge is where they start to fall apart. Even thickness means they finish at the same time.
4. Coat them in breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs onto a plate, press each patty in so every face and the edge is covered, then shake off the loose ones.This is what gives you the crust. A bare patty browns but never crisps the same way, and the coating holds the surface together while it fries.
5. Fry them, three at a time. Enough oil to come a little way up the sides, over a medium heat. Get the oil hot before they go in. Four to five minutes a side, until deep golden. Drain them on kitchen paper.Patties that sit in cool oil soak it up and turn greasy. Crowd the pan and the temperature drops, and you get the same thing.
6. Crisp the boczek. A separate pan, no oil, and the bacon slices in over a medium heat until the fat has rendered out and the edges are crisp. Onto kitchen paper with the patties.Thick slices take longer than rashers, so give them the time.
7. Fry the onion rings in the bacon fat. Same pan, do not wipe it out. Lay the rings in flat and turn them carefully so they stay whole, until golden and soft.The bacon fat is the best thing you could fry these in, and it costs nothing. Broken rings taste the same but will not sit on the burger.
8. Toast the buns. Cut side down in the same pan until golden.A toasted cut face stops the sauce soaking in, and it is the difference between a bun that holds to the last bite and one that falls apart halfway.
9. Mix the sauce. Mayonnaise, ketchup, horseradish, pickle juice, Sarepska mustard and the liquid smoke into a small bowl. Do this before you start frying.It is better for twenty minutes standing, because the horseradish and smoke settle into the mayo. And you do not want to be measuring mustard with three patties in a hot pan.
10. Stir it smooth and taste it. Keep going until it is one even colour with no streaks of ketchup. Taste it, and add more horseradish if you want more heat.It should taste sharper on a spoon than you think you want, because the bun and the patty flatten it.
11. Sauce the bottom bun. A good layer on the toasted cut face, right to the edges.Sauce only in the middle means dry bread on the first bite and all of it on the last.
12. Lettuce, then the patty. The lettuce goes under the meat, then the kotlet on top.Under the patty, the lettuce sits between the sauce and the hot meat and keeps the bun from going soft.
13. Boczek, tomato, onion rings, gherkin. In that order. Salt the tomato slice if you like.The bacon goes straight onto the hot patty so it warms through. The onion rings go near the top, where you taste them.
14. Sauce the top bun and close it. More sauce on the cut face of the lid, then on it goes. Press down once, firmly. Eat it while the patty is still hot.Pressing again and again just squeezes everything out of the sides.

Recipe Card for Polish Burger with Kotlet Mielony

Recipe Card

Polish Burger with Kotlet Mielony

Kotlet mielony in a brioche bun with crisp boczek, caramelised onion rings and a smoky horseradish sauce.

★★★★★ 5 from 2 votes · Rate this recipe

Print Pin

Prep

20 min

Cook

30 min

Total

50 min

Serves

6

Per serving

720 kcal

Scale the recipe

Quantities update as you change it

−

6 Burgers

+

Switch units Metric US

Cook mode Keeps the screen awake while you cook

Equipment I Use

Mixing BowlFrying panSpatulaMeat Grinder

Ingredients

Reset ticks

Kotlet Mielony Ingredients:

500 g pork mince, preferably shoulder 2 medium onions, small diced 4 garlic cloves, minced 6 g salt, approximately 1 teaspoon 100 g breadcrumbs, 40 g into the mixture, the rest for coating 1 large egg 60 ml cold water, worked into the mixture at the start, not at the end 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon dried marjoram 120 ml vegetable oil, 2 tbsp for frying the onion, the rest for shallow frying the patties

Additional Burger Ingredients:

6 brioche buns 300 g Polish bacon, boczek, sliced into 6 pieces 6 large Lettuce leaves 1 beef tomato, sliced into 6 rings 2 onions, peeled and sliced into rings 2 Polish gherkins, sliced

Polish Burger Sauce:

4 tablespoons mayonnaise 2 tablespoons ketchup 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish, adjust to taste 1 tablespoon gherkin pickle juice 1 teaspoon Sarepska mustard, or your preferred mustard ½ teaspoon liquid smoke

Instructions

Tap a step to tick it off as you cook.

Prepare the Kotlet Mielony:

1

Sauté the Onions

In a small pan, heat a little oil over medium heat. Add the diced onions and cook until they become soft and translucent, then continue cooking until they start to brown a little. Remove from heat and let them cool slightly.

2

Mix the Ingredients

In a large bowl, combine the pork mince, sautéed onions, minced garlic, salt, breadcrumbs, egg, black pepper, dried marjoram and the cold water. Work it with your hands for a full five minutes, until the mixture is completely uniform and has turned sticky. That stickiness is what holds the patty together in the pan.

3

Form the Patties

Divide the mixture into 6 equal portions, shaping each into a round, flat patty about 1.5 cm (½ inch) thick.

4

Coat the patties

Tip the coating breadcrumbs onto a plate and press each patty into them, turning it so every face and the edge is covered. Shake off the loose crumbs.

5

Cook the Patties

Heat the remaining oil for shallow frying over medium heat. Fry 3 patties at a time, cooking each side for about 4 to 5 minutes until golden brown. Set aside on a plate lined with paper towels and repeat with the remaining patties.

Prepare the Bacon and Vegetables:

6

Fry the Bacon

In a separate pan, fry the Polish bacon slices until crispy. Set aside on a paper towel to drain any excess oil.

7

Fry the Onion Rings

In the same pan, without wiping out the bacon fat, gently place the onion rings without breaking them. Fry over medium heat until they turn golden brown, flipping carefully to keep the rings intact. Set aside.

8

Toast the Buns

Slice the brioche buns in half and lightly toast them in the pan or on a griddle until golden brown.

Make the Polish Burger Sauce:

9

Mix the Sauce Ingredients

In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, horseradish, pickle juice, mustard, and liquid smoke.

10

Stir Until Smooth

Stir well until smooth and creamy. Taste and adjust any ingredients as desired.

Assemble the Burgers:

11

Spread the Sauce

Spread a layer of the Polish burger sauce on the bottom half of each toasted brioche bun.

12

Layer the Ingredients

Place a lettuce leaf on the sauced bun, then add a kotlet mielony patty.

13

Add the Toppings

Top with a slice of Polish bacon, a tomato slice, onion rings, and Polish gherkin slices.

14

Finish with the Top Bun

Spread more sauce on the top bun, then place it over the stack and press down gently.

★

Cooked it? Rate it right here.

One tap. No name, no email, and it counts straight away.

Chef’s notes＋

• Knead it for a full five minutes, until the mixture turns sticky. That stickiness is what holds the patty together in the pan.
• The water goes in at the start, with everything else. Added late it sits in the mixture instead of being taken up, and the patty goes spongy.
• Cool the fried onion before it meets the egg.
• Wet hands make shaping easier and stop the surface cracking, and a cracked edge is where a patty starts to fall apart.
• Three at a time, in properly hot oil. A crowded pan drops the temperature and the patties soak the oil up instead of crisping.
• Reheat with steam, not dry heat: a splash of water in a covered pan. Dry reheating is what makes leftovers hard.

Nutrition per serving＋

720 kcalProtein 32.9 gCarbs 40.8 gFat 43.6 gSat fat 14.4 gFibre 2.6 gSugar 5.9 gSodium 1148 mgServing 323 g

Polish Burger with Kotlet Mielony · https://chefsbinge.com/polish-burger-with-kotlet-mielony/

Check out my other Recipes:

PPin it

Storing, Freezing and Reheating

The mixture can be made the day before and kept covered in the fridge, which is worth knowing if you are cooking for people. Add the egg at the start as usual; it comes to no harm sitting overnight, and a rested mixture is if anything easier to shape.

Shaped raw patties freeze well. Open-freeze them on a tray so they are not touching, then bag them once they are solid, and cook them from frozen over a slightly lower heat for a few minutes longer a side. Cooked ones keep two to three days in the fridge and freeze too, though they come out drier than the raw ones do.

The best way to reheat a fried kotlet is with steam rather than dry heat, which is a trick I picked up from Polish cooks and it works. A splash of water in a covered pan over a low heat, a few minutes, and it comes back juicy instead of hardening the way it does in a dry pan or a microwave. Leftovers are also good chopped into a tomato sauce for pasta, or minced up as a filling.

FAQ for Polish Burger

A Few Words from the Chef

This is what I grew up on. A kotlet mielony with potatoes and something sharp beside it: mizeria in summer, which is cucumber sliced thin in soured cream, or buraczki, grated beetroot, when it was not. And if one was left the next day it went in a bun. Two dinners out of one, which is how a good deal of Polish home cooking works. So no, the burger is not a traditional dish and I am not going to pretend it is. It is what happens to a leftover kotlet in a house that has bread in it, and it is very good. If you make it, tell me how it went in the comments. Smacznego!