You could say there are two types of people in this world – people who know and love Runza and people who haven’t yet had one. In case you’re one of the latter, I’ll give you a little explanation – a Runza is a bread pocket that’s stuffed with beef, cabbage or sauerkraut, and onions. Think savory, filling, beefy hot pocket, but even better. The sandwich has old German-Russian roots but is most popular in Nebraska where you can find multiple restaurant chains that serve it but all you really need to know is that it’s good and our Runza Casserole pays homage to it in a comforting baked dish that’s family-friendly and super simple to make.
Believe it or not, you only need six ingredients to make this tasty casserole. There’s no bread to worry about here, just a stand-in of refrigerated crescent rolls which provide a delicious buttery and doughy base and top for a sandwich feel. And then there’s the filling, which is just ground beef (seasoned to perfection of course), onions, and cabbage that are cooked together into a tender and flavorful medley.
The only other component is cheese, because, well, casseroles and cheese just seem to belong together, and trust me that melty mozzarella is the perfect unifier here. It doesn’t alter the flavor much, but it just adds that stringy, melty comfort that only cheese can.
And that’s it! It’s a quick bit of stovetop work to brown the ground beef, and then you layer the crescent rolls, beef mixture, cheese, and more crescent rolls and bake. So simple, but so very satisfying. It’s Runza flavor through and through but in a way that makes it easy to feed a crowd… or just a few people who might want second servings (and I promise that with this, that’s kind of inevitable).
Yield(s): Serves 6
20 m prep time
20 m cook time
