Rakott Krumpli Hungarian Layered Potatoes
Rakott krumpli is a Hungarian layered potato dish with sausage and boiled egg, brought together with sour cream and baked to perfection.
Often served as a hearty main, it can also be served as a side or part of a multi-course meal. Everyone loves this dish!
Hungarian Potato, Sausage and Egg Bake
I'm on a bit of a drive to introduce my readers to more classic Hungarian dishes. Rakott krumpli is definitely a real Hungarian family favourite.
It translates as pleated spuds. Krumpli is a colloquial term for potatoes in Hungarian. Yes, my site is called SPUD!
If you are so inclined, you should check out my paprikas krumpli and krumplis tészta, other delicious Hungarian dishes that share a name with my site.
Anyway, I digress! It is a simple dish of potatoes layered with Hungarian smoked sausage, boiled egg and sour cream before being baked.
Like many Hungarian recipes, it is part of a family of dishes that include rakott kaposzta (layered cabbage), which is a personal favourite.
My American readers would probably call this a potato and sausage casserole.
It joins other less well-known Hungarian recipes like beef porkolt, Brassói aprópecsenye and catfish paprikash on my site. As well as really famous dishes like chicken paprikash and Hungarian goulash.
I sometimes eat this as a side, but Hungarians often eat this as a main. They will throw bacon and occasionally sweet peppers between the layers to bulk out the recipe.
Adding the egg to the sour cream comes from a local restaurant and is not strictly traditional. But it does add a wonderful glaze and stabilises the sour cream a little whilst it bakes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I prepare this in advance?
Yes. You can either bake this in advance, cover it in tin foil and then reheat it in a moderate (180°C or 350°F) oven until it is piping hot, or you can layer up the dish, cover it and then bake it later.
What sort of smoked sausage should I use?
Living on the Great Hungarian Plain gives me a whole world of smoked Hungarian sausage or kolbasz to choose from. I usually ask my local supplier what is particularly good at the time!
You should do that too; any smoked sausage will work well and will give a slight twist to the flavour of your rakott krumpli every time you make it.
Anything from kielbasa to chorizo and salami to isterband, go to town!
Does the type of potatoes I use matter?
You can make this recipe with any type of potato, but a medium or waxy potato works best, as far as I am concerned. In the UK, they will often be called "all-purpose potatoes" and be labelled as being good for both boiling and mashing.
Floury potatoes are not as available in Hungary, and they tend to crumble when being sliced after you have boiled them. They will still work, but you will not get those beautifully defined pieces of potato.
Something like Marfona or Desiree is about as floury as you want to go. If the season is right, Cyprus potatoes are awesome in this recipe.
Can I use low-fat sour cream?
I would advise against using low-fat sour cream because it could split. The dish would still be edible, but it would look awful!
Serving Suggestions
This is a big old hearty dish, and if you are serving this rakott krumpli recipe as a main,n you will not need a side as such.
However, something sharp to contrast the richness of the dish is always good. I use pickles, which are ubiquitous on Hungarian tables.
I've used some csalamádé, Hungarian pickled vegetables, pickled chillies and some gherkins in these pictures.
It's also a hearty old portion for two, but don't worry, it will store in the fridge after cooking for up to a week, and I love to eat the leftovers cold for lunch with some pickles.
If I am serving it as a side, I often serve it with borsos tokany, a Hungarian pork stew loaded with black pepper.
But it is also great served alongside a nice schnitzel.
Equipment Used
I only mention brands of equipment if I think that they make a material difference to a recipe. But if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section below the recipe.
- Hob/stovetop.
- Oven.
- 20cm or 8" saucepan.
- Slotted spoon.
- 20cm x 15cm (8"x6") baking dish.
- Kitchen knife.
- Chopping board.
- A combination of weighing scales, a measuring jug, measuring cups and spoons.
- Mixing bowl.
Rakott Krumpli Recipe Hungarian Layered Potatoes
Ingredients
- 900 g Potatoes 7 Small-Medium
- 3 Large Eggs
- 1 Large Egg Yolk
- 150 g Smoked Sausage 4½oz (I use Chorizo)
- 300 ml Sour Cream 1½ Cups
- 1 teaspoon Salt (plus extra as required)
- Black Pepper (a pinch for each layer)
- Butter (for greasing)
Instructions
- Bring a 20cm or 8" saucepan of well-salted water (I use 1 Teaspoon in a pan this size) to a boil and add the potatoes and the eggs.Boil the eggs for 8-9 minutes before removing them, and continue cooking the potatoes for a total of 25 minutes.
- Cool the eggs in cold water, peel them and set them aside.
- When the potatoes are tender, remove them and allow them to cool for 10 minutes and then peel them.
- Mix the egg yolk with the sour cream.
- Cut the sausage, boiled eggs and potatoes into 3-4mm (⅛-¼") thick slices.
- Grease a 20cm x 15cm (8"x6") baking dish with butter.
- Layer up the dish, starting with potatoes, then sausage, then egg and then drizzle over 2-3 tablespoons of the sour cream mix.Season this layer with salt and pepper and add another identical layer.
- Finish with a layer of potatoes and then add the remaining sour cream.
- Place in an oven and cook for 50-60 minutes at 180°C or 350°F. Let it sit for 10 minutes before serving.
My parents are Hungarian but technically from Romania. They always make this without sausage...I didn't even know that was common until I asked them after reading this recipe. One other thing that is different in our version, we don't bake it with sour cream. Instead, sour cream is used on top/mixed into it after serving out each person's serving.
Like many "homestyle" recipes, this one varies from place to place and person to person massively. We spent 13 years living in Eastern Hungary, not a million miles from the Romanian border, and every one that I ate whether cooked at home, or in the homes of our friends and neighbours was baked with sour cream, with plenty on the side of course 🙂
As for meat, gosh, everything went in there, and there were of course, many many arguments as to what should have been omitted added 😉
I'm always fascinated by how much Hungarian food varies by region and among its diaspora, when we arrived in Hungary, we obviously were aware of the "big hitters", but the food is glorious, hearty old fashioned grub that I absolutely adore. We've been back in the UK for a few years now, but Hungarian food is still a staple on our table, especially in winter!
All the best.
Brian 🙂
I live in Canada and I’m German with a Hungarian husband (Married 60 years). He taught me how to make this dish. I add a little twist by frying the sausage with onions and then layering it with the eggs and Potatoes. We really like it like that. Thank you for posting this recipe.
Gisela
Hi Gisela.
Sausage in rakott krumpli is a pretty common addition, realistically this is a dish made with whatever people have at home and a bit of hurka or kolbasz is a stalwart in Hungarian kitchens.
Thank you for taking the time to comment and leave a kind review, they make a huge difference to independent sites like mine 🙂
All the best
Brian
Sounds wonderful , I’ll be making it soon.
I’m assuming it’s in the oven uncovered?
Thanks!
Hi Kathy... yes it is uncovered in the oven, enjoy.
Brian 🙂
My grandmother used to make a variation on the Rakott Krumpli. It didn’t have any sausage, but it had layers of potatoes, hard boiled eggs and sour cream. In addition, she included butter in the layers, so when it was done, it was swimming (or more accurately, wading) in butter. I’ve been trying to replicate Grandma’s recipe. I’ll give this one a try. Thanks.
Like most Hungarian dishes there are huge variations depending on where people originate from in Hungary and if they are part of the "diaspora" where they ended up in the world. This version hails from the Alföld in the Central/Eastern region of Hungary where I lived for 13 years 🙂
Enjoy
Brian
I made this for my apu for father's day and he almost demolished the lot! It was my favourite dish when visiting my Hungarian family years ago. It was delish!
Awesome, I love being part of making people smile with food, it's why I do what I do.
Thank you for taking the time to write to me, I love stories/comments like this.
Brian 🙂
Brian, you do not state whether 180oC is for fan oven for rakott krumpli. Please clarify.
Mike Ogonovsky
Hi Mike...
All of my temperatures are for a standard oven unless otherwise stated.
Brian
This recipe was great! I made it for some friends for a Hungarian themed dinner. I modified the sour cream mixture a bit by adding some paprika, garlic, and onion powder and it turned out delicious!
Glad you enjoyed this Sophia, thanks for taking the time to write to me.
Brian
Thank you for sharing this old family recipy,this is a meal i had as a child and i have made it a couple of times for my children ,now my grande children would like to try this dish.
You are welcome Dion, I'm always happy if I've triggered childhood food memories 🙂
You nailed this dish, with one small difference; my mom (born in Hungary 🇭🇺) always cooked the slices of smoked sausage. But thank you, thank you, thank you for the recipe. I plan to make this very soon, as I have not eaten this in close to 60 yrs., as well as your recipe for Rakott Kaposzta. So many wonderful childhood memories. . .
Thanks Szuszy, I spent 13 years living in rural Hungary and loved this dish... where I loved (in the east of the country) no one I spoke to cooked their sausage (kolbász) although if bacon was going in, which was common it was fried before. Very happy to trigger memories and I hope you enjoy this 🙂
I stumbled across your site, and wow! I have been making rakott kaposzta and chicken paprikas forever, but really needed to revisit my childhood and made lecso and rakott Krumpli tonight. I’m going to bring some to my brother tomorrow 😉
I am Swedish-Hungarian, and have fond memories of Hungarian foods cooking in my mom’s kitchen ❤️❤️
Thank you!
Superb, so happy to have triggered happy food memories 😀
OMG! I can't believe I found this recipe! Both my parents came from Vienna Austria to America mid-50s! My mom made this in a cast iron Dutch oven. I had forgotten about the eggs. She used cheddar cheese too. Can't remember her using sour cream though. Her patents were of Czech lineage. Seykora was her mom's maiden name.
SO glad to spark some memories 🙂
Sour cream is pretty much an indispensable part of rakott krumpli in Hungary, but it is a dish popular across central Europe and it varies greatly from place to place.
I grew up in the UK eating this - my Mum married a Hungarian and learned to cook from his friends. We use a mix of sour cream and cottage and cottage cheese as the "sauce", and then top it with grated cheddar so it becomes this big yummy chewy mass of goodness! And for some reason we always ate it with chopped up dill pickles, so I can't imagine eating it any other way.
Pickles are such a huge part of Hungarian cuisine, after spending over a decade there they are a huge part of my diet now too, I often have them on the side of Hungarian dishes even if I do not photograph them.
I love seeing how diaspora use local ingredients to adapt recipes in their new homelands, I certainly did it in Hungary and the cottage cheese in your family recipe is part of that same process.
I'm preparing this dish in Buenos Aires, my mum is slovak and grandmother was part hungarian. So we ate this very often. And now it's my turn to make some east European dishes! Thanks for the recipe ♡
Hey Tamara, I'm honoured to be part of revisiting food memories!
Amazing
Thank you 🙂
(typo-dotted, not fitted!)
One of my favorite dishes my grandmother made- she sliced the eggs with the yolk intact and omitted the meat. She fitted the top with butter and baked until golden. It was out of this world!
She also made a fantastic wiener schnitzel! Great memories.
I hear the omission of meat from a lot of Hungarians who moved away from Hungary but I've never had a meat-free layered potatoes anywhere in Hungary. To be fair, I've never had meat-free anything in Hungary, but we lived in the heart of the old-school Hungarian countryside and everything was very meat-based.
@Brian Jones, many of the meat free people may have been Hungarian Jews or learnt the recipe from them. Many jews make this recipe meat free so it is kosher.
That is a really good point Alexis, thank you 🙂
@Alexis, 100%! My dad is Jewish, born in Transylvania. It's done exactly like this, but without sausage, and add some paprika to the sour cream.
My mother made her "rakott krumpli" with only butter in place of sour cream. I remember how we all loved the crispy top layer - my mother passed away, but the memory remains.
I am making this for dinner tomorrow - thanks for this recipe. For a simple dish with only a few ingredients, four cookbooks resulted in four different recipes! 👍
Haha... I spent 13 years living in the Hungarian countryside and have eaten dozens of rakott krumpli and the thing that stands out more than anything is that every single one of them was very different... so I would not worry so much about the cookbooks all being different. I would be shocked if they were the same or even similar 😉
I hope you enjoy this... I also have a rakott kaposzta recipe that is rather special if rustic Hungarian grub is your mojo.
Fantastic recipes es nagyon finom minden .
Nagyon szépen köszönöm 🙂
Learned this dish from my father-in-law.
My wife won't make it, because it's not "healthy", but she eats it when I make it, because "it's rude to refuse a meal made especially for you." 😅
I second the addition of some paprika to the seasoning.
Thanks for the incentive for tonight's dinner!
PS I could not locate your site, "Spud"?
lol, that is a fantastic excuse for consuming "hefty" grub... Not sure I can get away with it though as cooking is usually my job 😀
Came out fantastic for 2, multiplied the recipe x4 for my family. Love the old Hungarian recipes, my wife is Austrian/Czech, she ate a lot of this type of fare growing up.
The second go round, I added Hungarian hot paprika...I can't help it, it needed a kick!
Joe Barbeau
Hampden, MA
lol... Glad you liked it Joe, it's a real stalwart in these parts. I'm always glad to hear of people making my dishes these own, a wee "csipet" of spicy paprika never hurts a Hungarian dish 😉
I am Hungarian and cook this regularly. The only difference is I add melted butter on each potato layer as I find it to be less dry. I was brought up on this dish and love it so much. I eat it as a main with gherkins on the side