Meat Pie Recipe with Ground Beef (Ćoravi Burek)

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Meat pie with ground beef (ćoravi burek) is a tasty, golden, crustless pie. Delicious pancake-inspired batter combined with flavorful minced (ground) meat, and topped with heavy cream is so good you might as well make two of them at once. Shall we?

Piece of pie on a blue plate, a napkin and a pan with pie in the back, on a gray background.

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Background
Ingredients
Instructions
Recipe FAQs
Other Ground Beef Recipes
Thoughts?
Meat Pie Recipe with Ground Beef (Ćoravi Burek)
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Background

Today's meat pie recipe is one of our favorite go-to lunches. It's delicious and incredibly easy to make! So easy, people sometimes affectionately call this dish 'the lazy housewife.' (?!)

However, the more widely known name for this dish is ćoravi or 'blind' burek (not to be confused with traditional burek), due to the ground beef pieces that are 'hidden' in the batter.

Like most of our dishes, you probably already have all the ingredients on hand. Prepare it once, and mark my words, you'll find yourself revisiting this meat pie recipe time and again.

Ingredients

Below are the ingredients you'll need to make today's oven-baked crustless meat pie recipe (ćoravi burek). (Topping ingredients are not pictured.)

Ground Beef.
Flour: regular white flour. (If you try it with other types, let us know in the comments.)
Egg.
Baking Powder: regular baking powder works best. No substitutions!
Mineral Water: any unflavored mineral, soda water, or carbonated water works.
Onion: a small yellow onion, grated. Substitute with white onion. Avoid red onion.
Vegeta is your best friend for that perfect oven-baked chicken drumsticks and thighs crisp! Don't have it? Use stock powder or a (crushed) bouillon cube instead. Alternatively, use your own mix of preferred spices.
Paprika.
Salt and pepper.
Yogurt: plain non-flavored European-style yogurt is best. Substitute with Greek yogurt, however, stir until it's runny (add a pinch of water if necessary!). Avoid flavored yogurts or other substitutions.
Oil: your choices are canola, sunflower, vegetable, coconut, or avocado oil. Avoid olive oil.
Heavy Cream. (Not pictured.)
(Optional) Sour Cream: for serving.
(Optional) Milk: to mix with heavy cream topping.
(Optional) Clotted cream: to mix with heavy cream topping.

Instructions

Here are the meat pie instructions. As you'll notice the steps are similar to the chicken bake.

Two photos side by side of ground beef with other ingredients in a white bowl on a gray background.

Step 1 for Meat Pie with Ground Beef (Ćoravi Burek). Season ground beef.

Four photos, two by two, one of black pan, another three with batter being made in neon green bowl.

Steps 2 and 3 for Meat Pie with Ground Beef (Ćoravi Burek). Grease the pan and heat it up. Prepare the batter.

Two photos side by side, first one of batter poured into a pan from a green bowl, second with batter in the pan.

Step 4 for Meat Pie with Ground Beef (Ćoravi Burek). Pour batter into the hot pan. Shake the pan from side to side.

Two photographs side by side, one of a hand holding meat and the other of the pan full of batter with meat.

Step 5 for Meat Pie with Ground Beef (Ćoravi Burek)."Hide" meat in the batter.

Two photographs, side by side, of the pie baking in oven in black pan.

Step 6 for Meat Pie with Ground Beef (Ćoravi Burek). Bake the pie.

Two photographs, side by side, of the pie in black pan with toppings of heavy cfream and butter.

Step 7 for Meat Pie with Ground Beef (Ćoravi Burek). Add toppings.

Handling

Serving: let the pie rest for about 20 minutes before eating. It tastes best while warm or hot. For the creamiest taste, top with sour cream. Eat with hands or utensils.
Storing: Keep it in the cooled-down oven for up to 5-6 hours. It's best to consume on the day it was made. Wrapped in plastic wrap, or a sealed container, it lasts up to 24 hours in the fridge.
Reheating: reheat using your preferred method. Top with a little more heavy cream or stock. As always, the oven is the best choice.

Meat pie in a black pan on a gray marble background.

Recipe FAQs

Isn't burek made with phyllo pie?

In most cases yes. However, like today's meat pie recipe, there are dishes called burek that are based on a (pancake-like) batter instead of phyllo dough.

What countries eat meat pies?

Almost every country in the world has some type of meat pie in its culinary arsenal. The more famous ones include the Irish and German meat pies, and of course, the Balkan burek.

In fact, the Balkans boasts at least several different meat pies. Most of them are based on phyllo pie mixed with meat and vegetables like potatoes. Today's meat pie recipe includes a pancake inspired batter and ground beef.

What is a meat pie made out of?

Depends on which meat pie you are making. For our Balkan meat pie recipe, you'll need some mineral water, flour, baking soda, yogurt, and seasoned ground beef.

Other Ground Beef Recipes

Thoughts?

If you make today's meat pie with ground beef (ćoravi burek) and like it, please consider leaving a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5-star) rating. This will help others find the recipe more easily!

You can also leave a comment, I read EVERY one! Finally, if IG is more your thing, consider tagging us @balkanlunchbox.

Prijatno, Dobar Tek, and Bon Appetit!

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just finished baking this. It looks fantastic. The only downside so far is that you are...how can i say...European, and the recipe is a mix of ounces, tablespoons and cups. As an ignorant American it sent me scurrying to the internet for conversions. After I got that all sorted out it was a straight forward recipe. The only thing that gave me pause was the high cooking temperature. Wow, that's a fast oven!
The burek is resting on the top of the stove now, and boy, does it smell amazing. Paired with Macedonian baked beans and a salad, I think this is going to be extra special.
Wow. It's a crepe. It's a pizza. It's a souffle. It's a crepizzasouf.
And it's really tasty. Another great recipe. Thanks again for the culinary trip through the Balkans.