Cabbage pockets are a favorite meal around here. Cheeseburger pockets are well loved also. These Cheeseburger Cabbage Pocket Rolls are a combination of 2 of our favorite meals made easy.
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Growing up, my mom made cheeseburger pockets often. She would buy the frozen pre-made roll dough, let it thaw a bit, roll it out into a circle and fill it with ground beef and cheese. They were so delicious and fairly simple to make using the pre-made dough.
After I got married, I found out that my mother-in-law made cheeseburger pockets too! My husband was a very picky eater when we were first married, but he loved cheeseburger pockets. I would make them often, using frozen dough just like my mom did.
It probably took me 10 or so years to realize that I could make roll dough from scratch. It was better for us, no preservatives or crazy ingredients that I couldn’t read on the label. My mother-in-law has the best roll recipe so I asked for it and started making my own dough.
The cool thing is that you don’t have to let the dough rise for long before you can start rolling it out to make these pockets. 20 minutes is plenty of time to let it sit, giving it a nice elasticity that makes it easy to roll out.
Those Look Like Cinnamon Rolls!?!
Making traditional cabbage pockets takes a lot of time. Its very tedious to roll out every circle of dough, fill it with meat and then form it into a perfect little pocket ready to bake. One day while I was making cinnamon rolls I had the thought, “I wonder if I could make cheeseburger pockets this way?” I put it in the back of my mind to give it a try.
A few days later, I decided to experiment. I used to only made cheeseburger pockets, filled with just meat and cheese. But in the last few years, my kids have all grown to love the addition of chopped cabbage. I was thankful because cabbage is cheap and it stretches the filling to feed more with less meat.
Instead of making regular cheeseburger pockets, I decided to add some chopped cabbage and roll the dough out like a cinnamon roll instead of making little circles. Then I put the cabbage, meat and cheese all over the dough and rolled it up, giving birth to these cheeseburger cabbage pocket rolls!
A very sharp knife is best for slicing these rolls. With cinnamon rolls you can use a piece of floss to get the perfect cut, but that doesn’t work for these. You need something that is sharp enough to cut through the meat.
How We Like It
After I sliced these up, I put them on an oil sprayed baking sheet about 1.5 inches apart. They will expand quite a bit when you bake them. Topping them with some more cheese will give them a nice melty, golden brown top.
Fry sauce is the dipping sauce of choice for most of my kids. I enjoy mine with just ketchup, and a few others eat theirs plain. My mom always ate hers with salsa.
To Make the Rolls
To make these delicious cheeseburger cabbage pocket rolls, the first thing you need is dough. You can make your own with my roll recipe or you can purchase the pre-made frozen bread dough at the store.
Next, you’ll want to brown some ground beef. I usually add a chopped onion to mine, along with some seasoning salt. You could really add whatever seasonings you like. Italian would be fun or try some steak seasoning to give the meat a good punch.
You’ll also need a head of cabbage. I tend to get the largest ones I can find, but if you have a smaller family, you can go smaller. You can also purchase a bag of coleslaw mix to make this step super simple. If you decide to buy a head of cabbage, chop it up into small pieces.
Cheese! I have a couple of kids who are not cheese lovers. I’m not sure where they came from (wink, wink). In these rolls, they don’t mind the cheese I put inside the roll, but I make sure to leave the cheese off the top for them. My cheese of choice is shredded colby jack. Really, you can use whatever you like best, but for the topping you’ll want to make sure it melts well.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Tools Needed
Kitchen Knife
First Steps
If you are going to make your own dough for the breading, start that first. Get everything into your mixer and start mixing. Let it mix while you get out a pan and start cooking the ground beef.
After the dough is done mixing, set it aside and let it rise while you are preparing all the other ingredients. While your ground beef is starting to sizzle in the pan, chop your onion up and add it in along with the seasoning salt. Then start chopping up the cabbage.
Add the cabbage into the pan after the meat and onions are completely cooked. You don’t need to cook the cabbage for long in the pan. The baking process helps to finish cooking it and since the pieces are so small they don’t take much time to get tender.
Form the Rolls
When the meat mixture is done cooking, turn off the heat on the stove. Make sure you have a clean counter top. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and then dump the dough out onto the flour. Roll the dough into a large rectangle shape about 1/4 inch thick. Try to get it as even as possible.
I like to then sprinkle the cheese on next. Take about 3 cups of shredded cheese and spread it evenly over the dough. The reason I do the cheese first is because it creates a barrier between the hot meat mixture and the dough. When I forget this step and put the meat on first, it slowly starts to melt the dough and by the time I’m ready to roll it up, I end up with holes in my dough. By adding the cheese first you keep the solidity of the dough making them easier to roll up.
After you have your cheese spread out, take the meat mixture and distribute it evenly over the dough. Make sure you get cheese and meat all the way to the edge of the dough, otherwise you’ll end up with rolls that don’t have anything inside of them
Starting on the long edge of the dough, begin rolling in the middle, working your way out to the ends. Keep rolling until you have a long log. Seal up the other long edge by turning the whole log over so the seam in on the bottom, between the countertop and the log.
With a sharp knife slice the log into 1 -1/5 inch slices. I like to keep my cheeseburger cabbage pocket rolls as uniform as possible so they all cook up at the same time. It also makes your pan of finished rolls look really pretty.
Place the rounds onto a sprayed baking pan about 1.5 inches apart. They will grow when you bake them! Make sure you leave enough space for them to expand.
Now sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of each roll. This gives them the delicious looking golden top.
Bake the Cheeseburger Cabbage Pocket Rolls
Put your pan of rolls in an oven that has been preheated to 350 degree Fahrenheit. Set the timer to 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, check the rolls to see if they are done. The way I know if they are done is by how brown the top and sides of the rolls are. If they are just starting to brown, they are done.
Serve these with some of our favorite fry sauce, ketchup or salsa. They pair great with tater tots or keep it simple with a green salad and dressing.
Cheeseburger Cabbage Pocket Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 batch roll dough or pre-made frozen rolls
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 onion chopped
- 1/2 head of cabbage chopped small
- 4 cups shredded cheese colby jack is my favorite but use whatever kind you like best and is easily melted
- seasoning salt
Instructions
- If making your own dough, start the dough in the mixer. If using frozen bread dough, make sure the dough is thawed and ready to roll out.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
- Put ground beef into pan over medium-high heat.
- Add chopped onion to the beef. Cook until they are translucent and the beef is done.
- Sprinkle with seasoning salt and stir.
- Add chopped cabbage to the meat mixture. Stir until mixed and turn off the heat.
- Sprinkle the counter with flour. Dump dough onto the counter and roll out into a large rectangle shape about 1/4 inch thick.
- Sprinkle 2-3 cups of shredded cheese onto the dough.
- Spread meat and cabbage mixture on the top of the cheese.
- Starting with the long edge of the dough in the middle, roll the dough into a log.
- Slice the log into rounds that are 1-1.5 inches wide.
- Put the rounds onto a baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Top the rolls with the rest of the shredded cheese.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until done.
If you’re family loved these as much as mine do, let me know in the comments below! Make sure to share the recipe with your best friends so they can enjoy them too.
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