An ode to (and riff upon) Nebraska’s most notable culinary contribution.

Unlike most people, I actually knew what a Runza was before I set foot in Nebraska for the first time. (I credit Food Network for that knowledge on the periphery of my brain.) Moreover, I actually wanted to try it, and made sure I did on my first trip.

It’s one of the few things about trips to Nebraska I’d actually look forward to – the stuffed bread pocket with beef, cabbage, onion and cheese. When I no longer had a reason to go to Nebraska, I actually missed it. Occasionally I’d track down a recipe for Runza casserole and make it when I wanted the flavors (I’m far too impatient to make the bread pockets, so the casserole was much easier), and on my trips to watch FC Dallas play Sporting Kansas City, I’d often detour into Lawrence, KS to stop at the closest Runza restaurant to my route and pick up lunch/dinner.

Fast forward a few years, and an awesome restaurant opened just a couple miles from where we lived downtown (RIP, Local Urban Craft Kitchen). This was relatively early in the DFW craft beer boom, and one of the main selling points was a list of ~40 beers on tap from within 100 miles of the restaurant. I was sold the moment I heard about that, so I dragged Michelle to dinner there pretty soon after it opened.

As is my wont, I was much more fixated on the beer menu than I was the food menu, so I made sure to pick the beer that sounded best before looking for food. I glanced down the appetizer menu and saw bierocks. I read the description…

“Ohmigod, Michelle, they serve Runzas here!!!”

By this time I’m almost certain she had eaten my Runza casserole, so she wasn’t completely stunned when I mentioned that, but it was still a revelation. We ordered them, and they were delicious (unsurprisingly), and would get them every time I’d go back there for food and/or beer.

Long story short, there was no way on Earth I was going to start cooking/blogging without making a Runza casserole. I wasn’t born in eastern Nebraska, so I didn’t have the complete recipe committed to memory, but I had the basics. I was also going to be making this gluten-friendly, so I went down the mental checklist:

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Gluten-friendly Runza casserole

Author: John R Cooking Method: Baking, Sauteeing Cuisine: American, German Courses: Main Course Recipe Keys: C cabbage G ground beef

Difficulty: Beginner Cook Time 60 mins

Servings: 8

Dietary:

G gluten-friendly

Ingredients

Scale

1/2x 1x 2x 3x

• 1 tbsp mustard oil
• 1 lb ground beef
• 4 slices thick-cut bacon (chopped into 1/2″ strips)
• 1 medium red onion (sliced thinly)
• 1 head green cabbage (cored and roughly chopped)
• 1 ¹⁄₂ cup gluten-free Bisquick mix (or use the copycat recipe)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cup 2% milk
• 1 cup Chihuahua cheese (grated)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour the mustard oil into a 9″x13″ oven-safe pan, then use a brush or cloth to coat the bottom and sides.

2. Place a large skillet on a stovetop burner over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and bacon and cook until the beef is browned. Remove the beef and bacon from the skillet, leaving the fat. Add the onions and cook until the slices begin to take on color, 3-4 minutes. Add the cabbage and stir to combine. Cook the cabbage/onion mixture until the cabbage has reduced by half, 6-8 minutes. Add ground beef and bacon and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes, then remove from the heat.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the Bisquick mix, the eggs, and the milk with a whisk until well-mixed. Pour half of the mixture into the bottom of the oiled 9″x13″ pan and smooth out. Add the meat/cabbage/onion mixture on top of the Bisquick, then smooth out. Add half of the cheese, then pour the remainder of the Bisquick on top, smoothing out. Sprinkle the remaining cheese all over the top of the pan, then place in the preheated oven and cook until the top is golden brown, approximately 30-40 minutes. 

Rate this recipe:

Ground beef.
Green cabbage.
Onion.
Gluten-free refrigerated crescent rolls.

…record scratch…

Whaddya mean they don’t make gluten-free crescent rolls?!

I had to dig further.

I found a recipe¹ from the Joy Filled Table recipe blog for a Gluten-Free Runza casserole. It seemed simple enough – the only thing that I didn’t have immediately at hand was gluten-free Bisquick, but they sell Bisquick everywhere.

Dear reader, I went to two different grocery stores looking for GF Bisquick, and I couldn’t find it. Back to the drawing board…

This sent me down a rabbit hole looking for a way to replicate GF Bisquick. I looked at several recipes, including some that required shortening/Crisco, so I ordered that. I then realized that the simplest recipe I found didn’t even include that (hence, the hijinks from the previous day), Instead I found a recipe² at EZ Gluten Free that I followed to a T (I feel bad even documenting it because I didn’t change a thing about it, but it’s part of the overall recipe here).

Thoughts:

1) I’m kinda glad they don’t make gluten-free crescent rolls at this point. Otherwise I would have never found this version, and I like the biscuit topping more than the crescent rolls.

2) The tasting panel was unanimous – more cheese!!!

3) There’s nothing traditional at all about putting bacon in this. However, I had purchased the cheapest ground beef I could find at the store I went to…and it was 93/7. Fat is flavor, so I figured this needed some more flavor.

4) I’d add the bacon again, but I’d do it differently. I cooked the ground beef and the bacon together, so the bacon never got crunchy and completely rendered its fat. Next time I’ll cook the bacon first, let it get crispy, then leave the bacon grease for the beef and cabbage to cook in.

Verdict:

Taste: 7/10. There was nothing wrong with this that about 3x the cheese wouldn’t fix. I also used the Chihuahua cheese I had been working through because I couldn’t find the more traditional grated Swiss.
Availability: 8.5/10. It’s easy to have either gluten-free Bisquick or the makings for the copycat handy in the pantry. Beyond that, the only thing that wouldn’t be on my normal shopping list would be the cabbage.
Story: 8/10. There were no hiccups in actually cooking this, but the personal history with Runzas and the zaniness that was the previous meal (fed into by this) make for a pretty good story.

Administrivia:

I’m slowly catching up on the backlog of recipes. It would probably help if I stopped cooking until I finished that, but that would be pretty unproductive overall.

I’m posting this on January 14th. From January 1-7 I cooked 4 times. Since January 8, I’ve cooked 4 times, with at least one more meal being prepared today. This part of the resolution has been a success.

I’m also slowly working on making the site look better. It’s definitely still a construction zone though.

1. https://www.joyfilledtable.com/2020/10/gluten-free-runza-casserole.html ↩︎
2. https://ezgf.blogspot.com/2013/06/gluten-free-bisquick-copycat-recipe.html ↩︎