Soft, fluffy, savoury potatoes baked under a layer of delicious helzel stuffing. This comforting winter recipe is a great accompaniment to almost anything!
Apparently, I made a mistake about Spring’s arrival. It’s gone back to being FREEZING, and the wind seems to have come here from somewhere in the arctic. It actually sleeted on me yesterday. Ugh.
Any excuse…
However, it does give me a good excuse to make amazingly delicious, cosy, comforting, helzel potatoes.
Delicious, warming stodge is just about all I crave when the weather is cold and vile. I’ll certainly be enjoying these delicious spuds a lot before Spring actually arrives. Hopefully properly, next time.
Helzel – a traditional Jewish food
Helzel is a very traditional Ashkenazi Jewish food. It’s a simple mixture of fat, onion, flour and matza meal. Traditionally it was used to stuff the neck skin of a chicken (or goose), hence the name helzel – a Yiddish word for neck that derives from the German word hals (also meaning neck).
Helzel is very similar to that other traditional stuffed Ashkenazi delicacy – kishke. However to make kishke the stuffing is inserted into an animal’s intestines (sometimes called derma) before cooking. It’s so similar in fact that helzel is sometimes referred to as falsa kishke or ‘false’ kishke!
Both chicken neck skin and beef/lamb intestines fell out of favour around the mid 1920s with the introduction of synthetic sausage casings. Traditional helzel also suffered as kosher butchers began to sell chickens ready prepared – without their heads and feet – so the neck skin was no longer available. (My Grandma used to recall taking a live chicken in a shopping bag on the bus to be shechted (slaughtered).)
Fortunately for us, the delicious stuffing lives on! The term ‘helzel’ is now used to refer to the stuffing, rather than what surrounds it. It is most commonly used to stuff chicken, or else simply cooked and served alongside.
(If you want to learn more about the history of helzel, kishke, and other Ashkenazi Jewish delicacies, I strongly recommend investing in a copy of the awesome Encyclopaedia of Jewish Food by Gil Marks. I have spent many a happy hour browsing its pages.)
Helzel potatoes – a family recipe
When I was little, my Mum used to make helzel potatoes – soft, fluffy pieces of potato baked in the oven under a layer of delicious helzel stuffing. Mum cooked it in a red enamelled casserole pot with a lid. The potatoes became deliciously soft and the helzel fluffed up during cooking. Then Mum would remove the lid for the last part of cooking, and the dish would become golden and crispy and delicious on the top. Mmmmm.
When I was around 10, we took part in a car boot sale to clear out a load of stuff from home. Mum put the red enamelled casserole pot in with the stuff to sell. We asked her what she was going to use to make helzel potatoes, and I suppose she must have had some idea of another suitable pot. Or maybe she didn’t. Either way, I don’t really remember her making them after that. No red pot, no helzel potatoes. Sadness.
Craving comfort food
Recently, I found myself longing for these delicious helzel potatoes again. Deeply savoury, with lovely contrasting textures, they are a wonderful winter comfort food. These spuds also score points because you can make them ahead of time and leave in a pre-set oven to cook. Perfect.
The fat in my Mum’s original recipe is schmaltz – rendered chicken fat. Obviously, not being a meat-eater, I substituted something vegetarian instead. I considered using butter, which I bet would have tasted amazing. However, since I have been thoroughly indoctrinated with the Jewish dietary laws, which prevent mixing milk and meat products, the idea of using butter in helzel was completely unacceptable! Even if my version wasn’t going anywhere near an actual chicken.
Ingredients to make helzel potatoes
Helzel potatoes require just a few basic ingredients. Somehow the slow cooking merges everything into something super cosy and delicious! To make a batch yourself, you will need:
- Potatoes – of course!
- Hot vegetable stock – or you can use chicken stock if you don’t mind about keeping the potatoes vegetarian
- Plain flour – also called ‘all purpose’ flour
- Matzo meal – ideally a medium coarseness but any will do
- Ground black pepper
- A small onion
- Vegetable oil – or you can use schmaltz if you’re not vegetarian
Practice makes perfect helzel potatoes
I made these helzel potatoes a couple of times before I perfected the recipe. You will need more liquid than you imagine, and also more topping – my first batch used only half this amount and it really wasn’t adequate.
This version of the dish is pretty darn close to the one I remember from childhood, and is totally delicious. Even DH, who is not normally a lover of traditional Jewish foods, was quite taken by it. And my daughter Kipper couldn’t decide if she liked the potato or the helzel more. A success all round!
Serves 4.
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📖 Recipe
Helzel potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 kg potatoes
- 200 ml hot vegetable (or chicken) stock
- 80 g plain (all-purpose) flour
- 25 g matzo meal
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- 1 small onion
- 3 tablespoon vegetable oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).
- 1 kg (2 ¼ lb) potatoesPeel the potatoes, rinse, and cut into smallish dice – around 1.5cm (¾ inch). Place the cut up potatoes in an ovenproof casserole dish with a lid.
- 200 ml (6/7 cup) hot vegetable (or chicken) stockPour the hot stock over the potatoes, and set aside.
- 80 g (⅔ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour, 25 g (2 ½ tablespoon) matzo meal, ¼ tsp ground pepper, 1 small onion, 3 tbsp vegetable oilTo make the helzel, mix the flour, matzo meal and pepper in a bowl. Peel the onion, then grate it on a coarse grater. Cook the grated onion in the vegetable oil in a small pan for a few minutes until soft and beginning to brown, then add to the dry ingredients. Mix well – the mixture should clump together into moist crumbs.
- Sprinkle the helzel over the potatoes and stock in an even layer. Put the lid on the pot and bake at 190°C (375°F) for around an hour.
- Remove the lid from the pot, reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F), and bake for a further 30 minutes to brown the helzel.
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
More delicious Ashkenazi Jewish recipes
If you like ‘classic’ Ashkenazi Jewish dishes, how about easy vegetarian cholent, or delicious lokshen kugel. And if you can’t get enough helzel, what about vegan gantze tsimmes with a helzel topping?
More fabulous potato recipes
More delicious potato dishes for you to enjoy include everyone’s favourite rosemary & garlic scalloped potato roast, yummy roasted baby potatoes with mushrooms and onions, and wonderfully comforting leek and potato kugel.
Hollis Ramsey
Where’s the fat?
Helen
Hi Hollis. The recipe calls for 3 tbsp of oil which is used to cook the onions and then bind the crumbly helzel topping together. All the best, Helen.
Katherine
These topped potatoes look incredible. Ultimate comfort food.
Helen
Thanks Katherine. Comfort food FTW!!
Kate
Comfort food at its best! Perfect for this time of year when we all want comforting carbs. Looks delicious!
Helen
Thanks Kate. Agree – definitely heading into comfort carb season 🙂
Jess
Wow! What a great comfort meal. I love recipes recreated from childhood experiences. Adds something extra special to it. Thanks for sharing!
Helen
Thanks Jess. I have loads of nostalgic recipes! You’re right, it does add something extra special.
kim
Love this recipe! It was super easy and tasty. I’ll definitely be making again!
Helen
Thanks Kim, that’s great to hear 😀
Kylie
You had me at potatoes! What an amazing dish! Thanks for making our dinner time more delicious!
Helen
Thanks Kylie! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
ev
Do you know what “helzel” really means? It means sausage made of stuffing in a skin, either chicken neck skin or some other material. I kept reading through your recipe trying to find the helzel. Maybe in future you could define your terms a little better. This recipe is not for helzel. although it does look tasty.
Helen
Hi Evelyn,
My apologies. After reading your comment I realised that I had not included any information about the history of this dish, and I have now addressed this. I hope you try the recipe and enjoy it, whatever you want to call it! All the best, Helen.
SD
What would you recommend as a substitute for matza meal when making this gluten-free?
TIA
Chag Samay’ach
Helen
Hi, and thanks for your question. I haven’t used it myself but I know there are several brands of gluten-free matza meal available, although of course it will depend where you are located how easy (or not!) they are to get hold of. Otherwise, if you have a brand of GF breadcrumbs that you like to use, they would probably be OK too, although the texture will be a little different. I hope this helps! All the best, Helen x.
Brenda
Finding it hard to wait for dinner tonight.
Came back from a short holiday last night and just need some comfort food.
Helen
We are having this for dinner tonight too! Shabbat Shalom x.
Lisa
How do you convert this recipe into cups, pds, teaspoons? Would like to know the measurements. Thanks
Helen
Hi Lisa. I’ve added converted measurements to the recipe for you – hope this helps.
Google has a good conversion too if you need it in future.
Hope you enjoy the potatoes. All the best, Helen.
ronnievfein
Oh gosh, I haven’t had helzel since my mother-in-law passed away. So comforting and wonderful.
FFF
I think it’s time for a helzel revival 😀
goodiegodmother
I’ve never heard of this, but it sounds so comforting and I have a weak spot for childhood recipes. Good thing I just purchased some potatoes, I must have had a premonition about finding this recipe haha!
FFF
I hope you enjoy it. I’m forcing myself not to make it all the time at the moment…
Bintu @ Recipes From A Pantry
I like the sound of these potatoes and then some.
FFF
Thanks Bintu! Make some quick before the weather turns warmer!
Helen @ Fuss Free Flavours
These look lovely and comforting and very rib sticking which is perfect for this cold again weather. Why does spring tease up with false promises?
FFF
Thanks Helen. False promises indeed – I wish the weather would make its mind up!
HedgeComber
Wow! This isn’t one I’ve ever heard of before but I am totally smitten. I see exactly what you mean about it being comfort food stodge, I kinda want a big bowl full right now 🙂
Janie x
FFF
Thanks Janie. Yes, definitely in the category of ‘food to be eaten under a duvet’ 😀