Flaky spirals of phyllo dough filled with seasoned ground beef and onions, baked until golden and crispy. Bosnia's most iconic food.
Nutrition & Info
Allergen Warnings
Equipment Needed
Presentation Guide
Vessel: round baking pan, sliced into portions
Garnishes: sesame seeds
Accompaniments: plain yogurt, ayran
Instructions
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1
Brown the ground beef in a skillet over high heat, breaking it into fine crumbles as it cooks. Add the diced onions, paprika, and allspice, cooking for five more minutes until the onions are soft. Season well with salt and pepper, then let the filling cool completely.
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2
Preheat the oven to 200C (390F). Brush a large round baking pan (about 35cm diameter) generously with oil. Lay out three sheets of phyllo dough on a clean surface, overlapping them slightly along the long edges to create one wide rectangle.
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3
Brush the phyllo generously with the oil-water mixture. Spread a thin line of the cooled meat filling along one long edge of the layered phyllo sheets, leaving a two-centimetre border at each short end.
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4
Roll the phyllo around the filling into a long, tight log, tucking the ends under as you go. Starting from one end, coil the log into a spiral shape, like a snail shell. Place this coil in the centre of the oiled baking pan.
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5
Repeat the process with the remaining phyllo sheets and filling, creating more logs and continuing the spiral outward from the centre coil until the entire pan is filled with one large continuous spiral of meat-filled phyllo.
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6
Brush the top of the entire spiral generously with the oil-water mixture, ensuring every exposed surface is coated. This creates the characteristic shatteringly crispy, flaky exterior that defines a well-made burek.
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7
Bake for thirty to thirty-five minutes until the phyllo is deep golden brown and crispy. Remove from the oven and immediately drape a clean tea towel over the pan for five minutes — the steam softens the top layer slightly while the base stays crispy.
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8
Cut the burek into wedge-shaped portions and serve warm with a generous bowl of cold plain yogurt on the side. In Bosnia, burek is traditionally eaten for breakfast or as a hearty mid-morning snack with strong Bosnian coffee.
Did You Know?
In Sarajevo, burek specifically means meat-filled; cheese-filled is 'sirnica' and spinach-filled is 'zeljanica.'
Chef's Notes
Equipment Tips
- large round baking pan
- rolling pin
- oven
- pastry brush
Garnishing
sesame seeds
Accompaniments
plain yogurt, ayran
The Story Behind Burek
The Story: Bosnian burek is a spiraling coil of thin phyllo dough (jufka) filled with seasoned ground beef and onions, baked in large round pans and sold by weight. While burek exists across the former Ottoman territories, Bosnians are fiercely protective of their version and its naming conventions: in Bosnia, only the meat-filled version is properly called burek, while cheese-filled is sirnica, spinach-filled is zeljanica, and potato-filled is krompirusa. This taxonomic precision is taken extremely seriously.
On the Calendar: Burek is everyday food, eaten at breakfast, as a snack, or as a quick meal at any hour. Burek shops open before dawn and serve workers, students, and late-night revelers. It is traditional to eat burek with yogurt (plain drinking yogurt poured from a glass).
Then & Now: The craft of hand-stretching jufka dough over a large table until it becomes nearly transparent is a skill that dedicated burek masters spend years perfecting. Mass-produced versions exist but are considered inferior.
Legacy: Burek is Bosnia's most democratic food and most contentious — a dish so beloved that the proper naming of its variants can spark genuine debate at any Bosnian table.
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