My Stuffed Cabbage Rolls are a wonderfully flavorful combination of ground chicken, vegetables and spices that produce the ultimate comfort food dish.
If you like ground chicken recipes like this, you will love another “stuffed” option in our ground chicken stuffed peppers!

This recipe was originally posted February 21, 2015, we’ve tweaked it a bit since then. This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
Lazy stuffed cabbage rolls are an easier version of traditional cabbage rolls. A regular cabbage roll is usually a combination of ground meat, onion, rice, and carrot rolled into steamed cabbage leaves. For this recipe, all the ingredients are bundled up into a meatball instead. They can easily be prepared a day in advance and baked the next day. This recipe makes about 50 meatballs. It may seem like a lot but you’ll be surprised how quickly they disappear.
Ingredients for Cabbage Rolls Recipe
Rice
Cabbage
Carrots
Onion
Ground Chicken
Salt
Pepper
Oil
Sour Cream
Tomato Sauce
Cabbage
Carrots
Onion
Ground Chicken
Salt
Pepper
Oil
Sour Cream
Tomato Sauce
How to Make Stuffed Cabbage Rolls will cook the
Following the directions in the printable recipe below, begin by cooking your rice. While your rice is cooking, you can work on preparing the cabbage, onion, carrot, and garlic to mix together later. You will cook the onion and carrots separately before combining with the spices, ground chicken, and cabbage to form meatballs. You can use a cookie scoop to create meatballs that are equal in size. Place the cabbage rolls in a baking dish and bake as directed adding additional vegetables to the top before the final time in the oven.

How to Serve Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
Since this makes such a large batch, it is an ideal option to use as an appetizer. Much like my chicken croquettes, they display beautifully and are a protein-packed satisfying addition to an appetizer buffet. You may, however, want to serve these as a full meal at dinnertime. If that is the case, they go beautifully with our simple eggplant rolls or a classic Russian potato salad like Olivier.
Full Recipe Instructions

Easy Cabbage Rolls
My Stuffed Cabbage Rolls are a wonderfully flavorful combination of ground chicken, vegetables and spices that produce the ultimate comfort food dish.
Print Pin Rate Servings: 10
Calories: 57kcal
Ingredients
Instructions
- Rinse the rice a few times and place it in a saucepan. Add enough water so that there is about 4 inches of water above the rice. Bring the rice to a boil and cook on medium high heat for 11 minutes. Once the rice is about 90 percent done, strain the water and set aside.
- Cut out the core off the cabbage and chop the rest of the cabbage into tiny little pieces. Add the finely chopped cabbage into a large bowl of boiling water and let it sit for 2 minutes. Then, strain the water and rinse with cold water so that the cabbage stops cooking.
- In a skillet heat oil to medium high heat and cook 1/2 cup chopped onion and 2 shredded carrots. Cook until the onion becomes translucent.
- In a large bowl mix the ground chicken, cabbage, rice, salt and pepper, with the sautéed onion and carrot. I find it easiest to just mix it with my hands.
- Using a cookie scoop, scrape out balls of the mixture. Make sure each scoop is very full. Round each ball in your hands so that its more compact. In a 9x13 baking dish tightly place the cabbage rolls.
- Preheat your oven to 370 degrees F.
- In a skillet heat 3 tbsp olive oil and sauté rest of the onion and carrots. Once the onion is translucent add in the sour cream and tomato sauce. After about 5 minutes, stir in 1/2 cup water.
- Spread the sautéed mixture over the cabbage rolls, cover with foil, and bake for 1 hour.
Nutrition
Calories: 57kcal | Carbohydrates: 7.4g | Protein: 3.4g | Fat: 1.4g | Saturated Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 8mg | Sodium: 179mg | Fiber: 0.6g | Sugar: 0.8g
Did you make this recipe? Snap a photo of it and tag me on Instagram @simplyhomecooked or use the hashtag #simplyhomecooked so I can see it and feature it!
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Anna says
I made these tonight and they were sooooo good! I will be making them from now on. Thank you for such delicious recipes using simple ingredients!!
simplyhomecooked says
Yay! So glad you loved them, Anna! Thank you for taking the time to write such kind feedback.
Zhanna says
So yummy! Made this tonight! Hubby and family destroyed almost all! Thank you so so much for this recipe! ????????????
simplyhomecooked says
Awesome! Thank you for the great review Zhanna! 🙂
Liyana says
I made this recipe with 2 pounds of meat and there was a lot of rice, didnt put all of it. I would recommend 1 cup for 1 pound of meat; my preference. And I made a lot more sauce, first time I followed the recipe, rolls were kind of dry and almost no sauce.
simplyhomecooked says
Thank you for leaving feedback. Some people prefer more meat…. I personally don’t. Hmm I’m not sure why there was so little sauce. Usually if it’s covered with foil, there’s quite a bit of sauce.
sviatlana says
Thank you for this great recipe! My husband loves those cabbage rolls! He doesnt like cabbage, but he eats those like there is no cabbage since its inside the roll and he cant really taste it.
simplyhomecooked says
Sviatlana that’s so awesome! I’m so happy to hear that. Thank you for letting me know how they turned out 🙂
Lorraine says
When do you add the chicken?
admin says
Add the chicken in a large bowl with the rice, cabbage, sautéed carrot, onion, salt, and pepper.
Victoria says
I’ve made these tonight one word amazing!!! My family loved them, I couldn’t stop eating them. So much easier then making them like this. Thank you.
admin says
Thank you Victoria 🙂 I’m so happy you and your family enjoyed it. They are pretty addicting 😉