This dish is also commonly called bigos. It consists of sauerkraut and meat. He considers himself to be Latvians, Ukrainians, Poles and Belarusians. It is in the countries of these peoples that such a dish is more than popular.
This dish is more suitable for lunch. It will be too heavy for dinner, as well as for breakfast. Today we will offer you five lighter and “summer” options. Why did we call them that? Because we will not cook from sauerkraut, but from fresh cabbage. And, as you know, the first of them is very difficult to find on sale during the warm season.
Prepare your stomach for a dish with chicken, potatoes, sausages, rice with minced meat, as well as the Old Polish version. There are only five recipes, but they are all different and all delicious. To understand which one tastes best to you, we suggest trying them all. No, you don’t need to cook everything at once, but over the course of a week this is quite possible if, for example, you cook only half a portion. What do you think?
If you agree, then we will then share with you how to properly prepare this dish so that everything turns out correctly and tasty. Then, of course, all the recipes with detailed lists of cooking processes. At the end of each of them, by the way, you will receive advice that is best to adhere to. And at the end of the article there will be many recommendations that will also help you.
First of all, of course, you need to choose the right, beautiful and juicy cabbage. After some thought, you might decide to add some sauerkraut to it. Rest assured, it will only taste tastier, but it’s up to you to decide.
Next, you need to select the meat or meat product that will be used in the appetizer dish. It can be pork, beef, veal, chicken, turkey, sausage, ham and other types. If you wish, you can prepare a lean dish, excluding all these products from it.
After this, you need to decide how you will diversify your dish. That is, vegetables, berries, dried fruits, wine and other products that will make bigus even more beautiful, tastier and more original.
When the choice is made, you can safely begin:
- First of all, you need to fry the meat product until golden brown, and then cook it under the lid until half cooked;
- Next, the cabbage is washed, peeled and shredded, and then stewed until half cooked in a nearby frying pan with butter;
- After this, the components are combined and brought together until ready. If you have additives, you need to add them to the dish at this moment;
- At the end of cooking, spices and herbs are added to taste. Serve hot as a full meal, or cool and then replace an unusual appetizer on the table.
Classic bigus made from fresh cabbage
Cooking time
calorie content per 100 grams
An excellent choice for those who prefer to prepare light and tasty lunches. Even beginners can make this kind of curler!
How to cook:
Tip: to make the cabbage softer, you need to sprinkle it with salt and mash it with your hands, and only then add it to the meat.
A very tasty version of the dish, which has one twist. Or rather, a berry! Its sour taste complements the meat interestingly.
How long - 60 minutes
How to cook:
- Fry identical pieces of meat in a deep frying pan, then add finely shredded cabbage and cover with a lid;
- After ten minutes, pour two glasses of boiling water and add two bay leaves, cook under the lid for forty minutes;
- Cut the onion into half rings and transfer to another frying pan, add the sausage cut into strips and fry;
- Grate the carrots and add along with the tomato paste to the sausage, simmer for a couple of minutes, transfer to the cabbage;
- Simmer for another ten minutes, then sprinkle berries on top and add finely chopped garlic.
Tip: instead of cranberries, you can use red currants, and they are also suitable in the dried version.
Bigus recipe with rice and minced meat
A hearty bigus, an analogue of which is present in dishes from different countries. It is impossible to eat it in one sitting!
How long is it - 1 hour.
What is the calorie content - 133 calories.
How to cook:
- Cook the rice as usual;
- Finely chop the onion and grate the carrots;
- Cabbage should be cut into thin strips;
- Wash the tomatoes and cut into cubes;
- Melt the butter in a frying pan, sauté the onion for five minutes, then add the carrots and stir;
- When it becomes soft, add minced meat, salt, keep on fire until the liquid evaporates;
- Add tomatoes and simmer for another six minutes;
- Sprinkle everything with cabbage and cover with a lid, simmer until the cabbage is soft. About half an hour;
- Add rice and cook for another seven minutes. Serve with fresh herbs.
Tip: Rice can be either round or long. If you take the first option, you will get a more mushy mass, but if you take the second option, the dish will be crumbly.
Light bigus of fresh cabbage with chicken
A dietary recipe for those who like to eat delicious food without harming their figure.
How much time - 40 minutes.
What is the calorie content - 63 calories.
How to cook:
- Chop the cabbage into squares and place in boiling water for three minutes, allow time to drain, transfer to a frying pan with a spoonful of oil;
- Grate the carrots into the cabbage and fry everything together for ten minutes under the lid;
- Finely chop the onion and fry it in another frying pan;
- Cut the meat into cubes and add to the onion, and when it turns white, cover and simmer for another seven minutes;
- Mix the ingredients from both frying pans in one, add salt and season, simmer for another five minutes and serve.
Tip: You can add a pinch of sugar along with the seasonings to balance the flavor.
Hearty bigus made from fresh cabbage with sausages
The fastest recipe for making bigus and, perhaps, the most budget-friendly.
How much time - 55 minutes.
What is the calorie content - 97 calories.
How to cook:
- Wash the cabbage and chop into squares;
- Cut sausages into large circles;
- Finely grate the carrots, cut the onion into half rings;
- In a saucepan, first fry the onions and carrots in oil;
- Then add the sausages;
- After a couple of minutes, add cabbage and dill, add salt and stir;
- Dilute tomato paste in water and add to the total mass;
- Cover with a lid and simmer for at least half an hour. After this you can serve.
Tip: the finer the cabbage is chopped, the faster the dish will cook.
Bigus in the oven
Bigus from sauerkraut can be prepared not only with pork, but also with chicken - we offer you another recipe with a photo.
Bigus cooked in the oven on a tray
- Place shredded white cabbage in a cast iron pot and, after filling with water, simmer for 10 minutes, then add sauerkraut to it and leave it to simmer over low heat for an hour. Boil the mushrooms separately, fry the sausages with pieces of chicken fillet, add fried onions and tomato paste to them and simmer everything for about five minutes.
- Then put all the ingredients in a baking dish, pour in wine, add salt and spices to taste - and put the dish in the oven for one hour.
Spicy bigus made from fresh cabbage with potatoes and smoked meats
Recipe for a dish with smoked notes. Potatoes significantly add nutritional value and go well with all the ingredients.
How long is it - 1 hour and 15 minutes.
What is the calorie content - 83 calories.
How to cook:
- Potatoes, carrots and onions must first be peeled and then cut into equal cubes;
- Cabbage should be chopped into strips;
- Cut sausages into slices;
- Fry the onion, then add the carrots and fry for another five minutes in oil;
- Add cabbage and let it soften;
- In another pan, fry the potatoes until golden;
- Place all ingredients in a cauldron and add sausages;
- Puree the tomatoes in a blender and add to the cauldron;
- Season, cover with a lid, bring to a boil and continue cooking for about an hour.
Tip: if the tomato juice is very thick, it needs to be diluted with water.
If you are planning a holiday in your home in the near future, we advise you not to throw away any meat scraps. That is, tavern, ham, sausages, etc. All this is suitable for bigus. Just pack it in a bag or airtight container and let it wait in the refrigerator.
To be honest, the dish is often prepared in advance, as it is believed that it tastes much better this way. So you can safely prepare it a few days in advance. This is usually from two to four days. The Poles even manage to freeze bigus so that during this time it “reaches” the ideal taste.
You can experiment and cook this international dish in a slow cooker. In the stewing mode, the cabbage will become soft, while remaining juicy and even crispy. Try it, you might like it better.
This dish can be served as a complete and quite filling dish, but it often serves as an appetizer for strong drinks. In the second case, of course, it is served cold and after 24 hours in the refrigerator.
Be careful while preparing the bigus and do not add too much water. We warn you, since inexperienced housewives quite often repeat this mistake one after another. Ideally, the dish is thick; there is no need to make soup out of it.
To diversify the dish, you can safely add various mushrooms or vegetables and root vegetables to it. Also dried fruits or wine. All these components go well with cabbage and meat, so you definitely can’t make things worse.
You've definitely never eaten such a dish before!
It's time to finally find out what bigus is and what it is eaten with. Ready? It couldn't be easier and quicker, so get started now! Bigus of fresh cabbage with chicken and potatoes
Bigus of fresh cabbage with potatoes is a tasty, nutritious and very satisfying dish. It is based on shredded fresh or sauerkraut. To improve the taste and add variety, various vegetables or meats and sausages are often added. For example, you can cook bigus with ribs. In this recipe, chicken fillet is used as the meat component, which certainly makes the cooking process easier and simpler.
To make cabbage bigus you will need:
450–600 grams of chicken fillet; - 1-2 onions, - 1-2 carrots, - 1 head of medium-sized fresh cabbage, - 4-5 tomatoes or half a glass of tomato juice; - 5–6 potatoes; - 2-3 large cloves of garlic; - vegetable oil for frying; - salt - to taste; - ground black pepper.
From this quantity of products the yield is 6-7 servings.
Preparation 1. We collect all the necessary ingredients. 2. Chop the peeled onion and sauté in refined vegetable oil until light golden brown. 3. Then cut the washed and peeled carrots into thin strips and add to the onion. Fry over medium heat. 4. Wash the chicken fillet and cut into small cubes. Also add to vegetables and fry. Instead of chicken, you can use lean pork or veal pulp, but in this case it will need to be cooked longer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and continue to simmer. You can add your favorite spices. 5. Cut the prepared peeled potatoes into medium-sized cubes and add to the onions and carrots. Fry until golden brown for 5 - 7 minutes, according to the recipe for bigus with fresh cabbage. 6. Meanwhile, wash and remove dry and limp leaves from the cabbage. Then chop it into strips, add salt and press a little so that it releases the juice. Pour the prepared cabbage into the pan with the meat and vegetables, cover with a lid for 5 minutes to soften the cabbage leaves. Simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. If necessary, add vegetable oil little by little. 7. Then pour in the tomato or diluted tomato paste, mix all the ingredients. To give bigus a pleasant, appetizing sourness, you can use sauerkraut instead of tomato. Simmer the bigus over low open heat for about 15 - 20 minutes, stirring so as not to burn. 8. And the final touch: finely chop the garlic and, before turning off the heat, add it to the pan with the bigus, stir and let it brew for 15 to 20 minutes before serving. You should not cover the finished dish with a lid, otherwise it will become damp and look like simple boiled cabbage. 9. Bigus made from fresh cabbage with chicken and potatoes, served with sour cream and tomato sauce or regular sour cream, season with chopped dill and parsley. To diversify your menu, try making vegetable stew with mushrooms and meat.
Recipes
Now let's move on to cooking. In our version of bigus, both components (meat and cabbage) are cooked together, in one saucepan.
Bigus of meat and cabbage in a saucepan
You can prepare juicy bigus from sauerkraut with sausage according to an old recipe, using the following products as in the photo:
- Fresh cabbage;
- Sauerkraut;
- Carrot;
- Pork;
- Smoked meats (ham or sausages);
- Spices (cumin, ground black pepper, peppercorns, salt);
- Tomato paste;
- Prunes;
- Vegetable oil for frying;
- Wine (white or red) or water.
Bigus made from cabbage, meat and smoked sausage
- Cut the washed and dried pork into small pieces. Pour vegetable oil into a cast iron or saucepan and fry the pork. When the pieces begin to brown, sprinkle the meat with salt and add grated carrots. After 5 minutes, add chopped sausage or other smoked meats.
- We make sure that the frying temperature is not too high and stir the dish periodically so that nothing burns.
- After another 3 minutes, add tomato paste to the meat and add wine or water with spices.
- Then we put finely shredded fresh cabbage into the cast iron pot with meat, followed by sauerkraut. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the bigus under the lid for about half an hour.
- When the bigus is almost ready, add chopped pieces of prunes to it, mix everything and simmer the dish over low heat for about 10 minutes.
The finished bigus is served hot, with a piece of bread and herbs. A hearty dish with pork and smoked meats has an indescribable aroma and tempting sourness. It will be enjoyed both at a regular home dinner and on a holiday table.
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Description
And today we will cook fresh cabbage at home in a regular frying pan.
You will find a step-by-step recipe for preparing this dish with photos below. With its help, you can easily prepare your own delicious bigus from fresh cabbage, fried vegetables and pieces of dietary chicken breast.
This dish will go perfectly with a variety of sauces to suit your taste.
We will use carrots and onions, as well as fresh herbs as additional ingredients for this chicken bigus.
The dish itself will be very simple, but you can easily diversify it by adding fresh sweet paprika or any other vegetables.
Bigus can be prepared not only in portions, but also covered for the winter.
Ingredients prepared in this way are perfectly stored in a cold place and do not lose their taste.
Let's start preparing a hearty and aromatic bigus from fresh cabbage and chicken.
History of the dish
Traditionally, bigus is prepared in the cold season - autumn or winter. It is very nutritious and can delight you on a cold winter evening. In Poland, bigus from sauerkraut has been prepared for several hundred years, but in other countries people are also interested in the recipes for this dish; just looking at the photo makes your mouth water.
We are accustomed to the fact that bigus is a dish of cabbage with meat, prepared in a special way. However, in the old cookbooks of Poland there are even recipes in which meat is not used. For example, in the famous book by Wojciech Velondko “The Perfect Cook”.
Before the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was divided, bigus was made from fish or meat, adding onions, parsley, vinegar or sour fruits to the main ingredient. The famous Polish author Stanislav Czerniecki, in his book of recipes, lists variations of bigus made from hazel grouse, crayfish or carp, and even with bacon. Such original combinations were easy to prepare at that time and most often dishes were made with them.
Juicy bigus made from cabbage, meat, and mushrooms
The bigus, which has survived to this day, was “invented” only in the 18th century and was called the “robber” bigus because it was inexpensive. In its composition, the main role is given to cabbage, and smoked meats and meat only complement its taste. If earlier sourness was created with the help of fruits, then later we had to abandon such an expensive option and limit ourselves to just sauerkraut.
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