Photography by Hudi Greenberger

Sugar-Free Chicken-Stuffed Cabbage with Brown Rice

I don’t have stuffed cabbage on my menu in the restaurant, but I do prepare it once a year for Simchas Torah, by preorder only. When one of my favorite customers requested a sugar-free stuffed cabbage with brown rice and chicken… that’s how this recipe came about. I ended up taking home a few pieces and my family loved it. I decided I’d prepare it again this year for our Purim seudah.

YIELDS AROUND 15 CABBAGE ROLLS

• 1–1½ large head of cabbage
• 2 lb (910 g) ground chicken
• 24 oz (740 g) brown rice, cooked and cooled
• 3 eggs
• 2 Tbsp salt
• 1 Tbsp coarse black pepper

Sauce

• 36 oz (1 kg) tomato sauce
• 24 oz (740 g) crushed tomatoes
• 8 cloves garlic, crushed
• 8 oz (225 g) honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp cumin

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Use a small knife to cut out the center root of the cabbage and place it in the boiling water. After a few minutes, the outer leaves will start coming apart. Using two forks, remove the cabbage leaves from the hot water. Continue until your cabbage leaves are too small to stuff. (If you want, you can take the center of the cabbage, slice it very thinly, and add it to your sauce.) Trim the lower part of the cabbage spine off the cooked leaves.

Mix ground chicken, brown rice, eggs, salt, and pepper. To make uniform-sized cabbage rolls, use a scooper to fill the leaves. Scoop the rice and chicken mixture into the center of an open cabbage leaf. Fold in the two sides and roll up the leaf. Repeat with remaining leaves.

Mix all the sauce ingredients in a bowl. Place the cabbage rolls into a pot or a pan and pour in the sauce.

Preheat oven to 260°F (126°C). Place the pan in the oven and bake for around 6 hours.

Note: Cabbage rolls can be prepared ahead of time and kept frozen until ready to cook.

(Originally featured in Family Table, Issue 732)