Stroll through the freezer section of your local Costco and you’ll find a wide variety of meats, vegetables, fruits, treats, and pre-made meals that are perfect for stocking your freezer. But once you’ve added some frozen berries, chicken, and sorbets to your cart, you can swing by to pick up my absolute favorite frozen meal at Costco: Kasia’s Pierogi. These potato and cheese dumplings go well with any meal and are so satisfying that they can easily be the main course at dinner. Here’s why I think you should give these fluffy potato dumplings a try the next time you shop at Costco.
They taste authentic
Some of my friends find it funny that I buy frozen food, since I am a trained chef and I write about food and develop recipes for a living. But with all the time I spend cooking and writing about food during the day, I am often exhausted by the time dinner comes to the table. Still, I have a family to feed and I insist that at the end of the day we eat together, share a meal, and reconnect. So I have no shame in using good quality frozen food so that I can get dinner on the table quickly.
Quick is the key word when it comes to Kasia’s Pierogi. They only take a few minutes to make, which is much, much faster than making homemade pierogi. I usually only make homemade pierogi for special occasions, because they’re quite labor-intensive and time-consuming. First, you have to whip up the mashed potato and cheese filling, which you can make with leftover mashed potatoes, but only if you plan ahead. Then, you have to prepare the wrappers by making a simple flour dough. Finally, you have to spend time filling those soft wrappers with the potatoes and cheese, pinching the edges shut just right so they don’t burst when they’re done cooking. It’s not that making pierogi is difficult; they’re just time-consuming, especially for a weeknight dinner. Kasia’s Pierogi are the next best thing to making homemade. These are real, authentic-tasting potato dumplings, made with russet potatoes, baker’s cheese, and a little yellow onion.
They are versatile
Costco sells a large container of frozen pierogi for $11.49, which is a great price considering we get at least four meals out of them. They’re sold in three individually sealed 14-ounce packages, so it’s easy to open them one at a time and save the rest in the freezer for another meal.
There are a few ways to cook pierogi, whether you make them yourself or buy them from the store. You can either place them in lightly salted boiling water and cook them until they are tender and hot, usually when they float to the surface. Or, my favorite method, you can fry the pierogi in a large skillet over medium heat with a little olive oil or butter. When they are pan-fried, the potato dumplings get a slightly crispy, toasted appearance that is divine. This method takes about 10 minutes, but if I’m in a hurry, I just boil them and have dinner ready in about 3 minutes.
So how do I like to serve Kasia’s Pierogi? I keep it super simple and top them with sour cream and thinly sliced chives. However, my wife loves it when I saute some onions in the same pan that I cook the pierogi in. It adds a wonderfully flavorful and sweet element to the dish. My daughters like it when I serve them with a fried or poached egg on top. I often add broccoli or another green vegetable as a side.
If I’m feeling really ambitious, I’ll pan-fry the pierogi until golden brown and crispy, then make a simple sauce with onions, garlic, and frozen peas. Then I’ll stir in a few dollops of sour cream for a deliciously creamy finish. I top it all off with an over-easy fried egg for a satisfying and delicious meal that comes together in about 15 minutes thanks to these quick-cooking frozen pierogi. If meals like this make your mouth water as much as I do writing about them, pick up a package of Kasia’s Potato and Cheese Pierogi the next time you’re at Costco.
