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!

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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. In a bun it becomes this, which is not traditional and is not pretending to be. It is what happens when there is a kotlet left over and bread in the house.

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.

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 they are soft and just starting to colour. Then take them off and let them cool. Raw grated onion works, and plenty of Polish cooks use it, but it leaves a harsh edge and it releases water into the mixture. Frying takes the edge off and leaves sweetness behind. Do not put them in while they are hot or they will start to cook the egg.
2. Mix it properly, 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 uniform and has turned sticky. The stickiness is the whole point. Salt pulls one of the muscle proteins out onto the surface of the meat where it behaves like glue, and that is what holds the patty together in the pan, so a mixture that has only been stirred is the commonest reason kotlety fall apart while they fry. The same salt lets the meat take up the water and hold on to it through cooking, which is why the water goes in now with everything else rather than at the end. Add it late and it sits in the mixture instead of being taken into it, and the patty comes out spongy. Keep everything cold while you work, and do not warm the mixture in your hands more than you have to.
3. Shape them. Six patties, about a centimetre and a half thick. Wet hands make this much easier, because the mixture stops clinging to you and the surface comes out smooth rather than cracked, and a cracked edge is where they start to fall apart. Keep them all the same thickness so they finish at the same time.
4. Coat them in breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs onto a plate, and press each patty into them so every face and the edge is covered, then shake the loose ones off. This is what gives you the crust. A bare patty browns but it never crisps in the same way, and the coating also 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, and three patties at once so the pan is not crowded. Four to five minutes a side until deep golden. Two things matter here: the oil has to be properly hot before they go in, because patties that sit in cool oil soak it up and turn greasy, and the pan needs the space or the temperature drops and does the same thing. Drain them on kitchen paper.
6. Crisp the boczek. A separate pan, no oil needed, and the bacon slices in over a medium heat until the fat has rendered out and the edges have gone crisp. Thick slices take longer than rashers do, so give them the time. Onto kitchen paper with the patties.
7. Fry the onion rings in the bacon fat. Same pan, and do not wipe it out. The rendered bacon fat is the best thing you could possibly fry these in and it costs nothing. Lay the rings in flat and turn them carefully so they stay whole, until they are golden and soft. Broken rings taste the same but they will not sit on the burger.
8. Toast the buns. Cut side down in the same pan until golden. This is not decoration. A toasted cut face is a barrier, and it is the difference between a bun that holds together to the last bite and one that goes to pieces halfway through under the sauce.
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 rather than after. The sauce is better for twenty minutes standing, the horseradish and the smoke settle into the mayo instead of sitting on top of it, and you will not want to be measuring mustard with three patties going in a hot pan.
10. Stir it smooth and taste it. Keep going until it is one even colour with no streaks of ketchup left in it. Then taste it, and move the horseradish up if you want more heat. It should taste sharper on a spoon than you think you want, because the bun and the patty will flatten it out.
11. Sauce the bottom bun. A proper layer on the toasted cut face, right to the edges. Sauce in the middle only 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 rather than over it, so it sits between the sauce and the hot patty and keeps the bun from going soft. Then the kotlet on top.
13. Boczek, tomato, onion rings, gherkin. In that order. The bacon goes straight onto the hot patty so it warms through, the tomato and the gherkin sit above it, and the onion rings go on last where you will taste them. Salt the tomato slice if you like.
14. Sauce the top bun and close it. More sauce on the cut face of the lid, then on it goes and press down gently. Press once and firmly rather than repeatedly, which just squeezes everything out of the sides. Eat it while the patty is still hot.

Recipe Card for Polish Burger with Kotlet Mielony

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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

What is the best meat for kotlet mielony?

Pork shoulder, and ideally minced yourself. It carries enough fat to keep the patty juicy, where lean shop mince is the commonest reason they turn out dry. If you are buying it ready-minced, look for around 20 per cent fat.

Why did my kotlety come out dry and hard?

Almost always one of three things, and usually the first. The meat was too lean, so use shoulder rather than anything sold as lean mince. The mince was ground too fine, which packs it tight. Or they were simply cooked too long: four to five minutes a side is enough for a patty a centimetre and a half thick, and past that you are squeezing the moisture out of it. If you have done all three and they are still dry, it is the water. A quarter of a cup worked into the mixture at the start is what keeps them soft, and it is the step most people leave out.

Can I bake them in the oven, or use an air fryer?

Half and half. Fry them to a good colour first, then finish them in the oven for about fifteen minutes at 160C, which is what several Polish recipes do as standard and which saves you standing over spitting fat. Baking them from raw is a different thing: the coating needs contact with hot fat to crisp, so they cook through but they never really brown. An air fryer will cook them through as well, though the crust stays paler unless you spray them with oil. Whichever way you go, they are done at 70C held for two minutes, or 75C straight off the heat.

Can I make the mixture the night before?

Yes, and it is a good way to split the work. Mix it completely, egg and all, cover it and keep it in the fridge, then shape, coat and fry the next day. Shape them in advance too if you like; they sit happily on a tray in the fridge for a few hours.

Can I use turkey or beef instead of pork?

Both work with a caveat each. A pork and beef mix is common in Polish homes and gives a firmer patty. Beef on its own is leaner, so do not buy the lean mince. Turkey thigh is fine; turkey breast is too lean and will be dry however carefully you cook it.

What do I serve them with?

In a bun as a Polish burger, which is what this recipe does. On a plate, the classic is mashed potato with something sharp alongside: mizeria, which is raw cucumber with soured cream and dill, or buraczki, which is cooked grated beetroot.

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!