Easy Beef Empanadas Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Which dough is best for empanadas? ›

If you're looking for a shortcut, store-bought pie dough can be used to make empanadas.

Both cooking methods produce delicious empanadas. If you want a healthier merienda, bake them in the oven. If you're working with less time, frying them is the way to go. Try both and ask your loved ones to vote on their favorite.

Handle the dough as little as possible. The more I handled each empanada, the quicker they seemed to dry out and start to crack. Do not overfill your empanadas. Trying to close your dough over a too-large mound of filling is just asking for it.

While pie dough is designed to be flaky, empanada dough is meant to be more tender. Pastry for empanadas has a higher flour-to-fat ratio, making it sturdy and perfect for wrapping around meaty fillings. Some recipes use lard or an additional egg as the fat source, but our recipe keeps it simple and easy with butter.

Texture: The empanada dough is to die for. It's buttery with the perfect amount of crunch and interior softness. The chorizo adds bits of meatiness, the potato adds starchy softness, while the eggs add fluffiness.

As you fold your empanadas they may become warm in the heat of your kitchen, so be sure they are cold before baking or frying. Chilling both the filling and the dough will keep the liquid inside where it belongs and keep the edge sealed, preventing bursting and that dreaded soggy bottom.

Empanadas have their origin in the Spanish action Empanar connoting “wrap in bread.” Traditional empanadas hence are simply beef stuffing wrapped in pastry dough. Beef empanadas are small palm-sized meat pockets. They resemble the Arabian Samosas and Italian calzones.

The best empanadas have a rich, moist filling that contrasts with the baked dough exterior. The moisture in the filling comes to a simmer in the oven, expanding as it heats. If the filling expands too much, it can push through the sealed edge of the empanada.

And while we love traditional empanadas, fussy pastry dough is a lot to tackle on a busy weeknight. Here, we use our favorite dough hack, ready-made pizza dough, for a quick-ready-to-roll crust. It's crisp and tender and works perfectly to enclose the grass-fed ground beef, bell pepper, and golden raisin filling.

Adding a little vinegar to your dough will result in a tender, pliable, and flaky crust because it slightly inhibits gluten development, leading to a crust that is flakier and easier to work with. The great thing about vinegar is that you really only need a little bit of it to help your pie/empanada dough.

How much oil do you put in a pan for empanadas? ›

Heat 2 or 3 cups of canola oil in a frying pan; you want it at least 1 1/2 inches deep, and 2 inches is better. (Remember you can later strain the oil and reuse it several times) You're looking for 350°F. Set a cooling rack over a baking sheet in your oven and set the oven to 200°F.

Making Empanada pastry from scratch

– Cold dough is harder to screw up – The dough is easier to work with and more forgiving the colder it is. You can tell when it's not cold enough because it will stretch and break more easily.

Just place them on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet.

In much the same way, putting fried food on a cooling rack means the excess oil will drip off, but there's enough air circulating underneath the food that the bottoms don't get soggy.

Whether making them tonight, or preparing for a future fiesta, empanadas can be made ahead of time. Baked empanadas can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. Simply reheat them in the microwave or toaster oven when you are ready to eat.

Similar to an American turnover but far more versatile, an empanada is a fried or baked pastry shaped like a crescent moon. Once the bread has been made with flour dough or corn flour dough, it's then stuffed with myriad fillings depending on the occasion and your taste.

GOYA® Empanada Dough-Puff Pastry for Baking are versatile and convenient puff pastry discs, ideal for creating sweet or savory recipes with a gourmet touch. Just fill them with simple ingredients—like fruit, cheese, meats, or vegetables—and then bake them until crispy and golden brown.

The most iconic variety being the oven-baked empanada de pino, which is filled with ground beef, minced onion, half or a quarter of a hard-boiled egg, and a single unpitted black olive. Empanadas in Chile are eaten year-round and are either oven-baked or deep-fried; the latter is a popular street food.

What are they made of? The dough or bread dough used to make empanadas is usually made from wheat flour. However, depending on the region where they are being made, other types of flour may be used instead.