These tasty empanadas are homemade Argentinian street food snacks made of crispy homemade pastry filled with beef. Great party food. Easy recipe and so popular! These really are tasty! One of our most popular recipes, these are great to serve at parties, potlucks, weddings, Thanksgiving, summer parties, yep... any time!
This delicious recipe has been generously shared by one of our great cooks, Carina. Carina's Tasty Empanadas come from her Argentinian roots and these are often made for special occasions and Christmas Time.
There are many variations to Empanadas, often depending on which province in Argentina you are from, and these ones Carina's made contain beef, and Carina says this: " now you can truly find them stuffed with everything. Ham and cheese and corn (humita) are very popular. And also spinach with hard-boiled egg. In Buenos Aires, there are stores that only sell empanadas. Those stores have an incredible variation in the filling including " sweet" ones. The typical are quince or sweet potato jams but these are not a spread but a solid brick."
Carina is going to show us how to make these tasty empanadas, street food style! The recipe is for making your own homemade empanada pastry and for the filling, we've used a classic beef empanada filling as that is the most common of all fillings for empanadas. So you will get a real taste of Argentina!
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You will also find out how to shape the empanadas so they have the characteristic shape you see in the photos below.
Sounds like we all need to go visit Argentina to sample all these wonderful empanadas!
Recipe by Carina Duclos
Prep Time
20 minutes
Cook Time
5 - 7 minutes (approximate)
Yield
24
Ingredients
The Filling
600 g or 1 ½ lbs ground beef
800 g or 1 ½ lbs onions (I mix yellow onions and green onions)
2 garlic cloves
half a red pepper
⅓ cup Pimenton Dulce (this is an Argentinean spice- the closest here in North America is paprika)
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp nutmeg
salt pepper to taste
The Pastry
¾ kg or 6 Cups All Purpose flour
300 g or 1 ⅓ cups lard at room temperature
1 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
If you would like to make sweet empanadas, you could fill them with jam or a simple fruit pie filling.
For a very quick and easy recipe for making your own pie filling, see here
Instructions
Prepare the Filling:
1. Chop and Cook the onions, garlic, and peppers till soft, add the beef and cook till brown. I used butter for cooking the meat but you can use oil if you wish. When meat is brown add the spices and let simmer at low heat for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring every now and then. Try it and add salt and pepper if needed.
2. Now this is important: put the filling in the fridge for 6 to 8 hours or even better overnight. The filling needs to be cold to use.
Make the pastry:
1. Add salt to flour. Add lard and incorporate well using your hands. When mixed, add water. I used my stand mixer to make the dough.
2. Bring to the table and split in 3 to better be able to roll. With the rolling pin, roll the dough to a thickness of about 3 or 4 mm. I cut my discs about 4" diameter. (use a saucer or similar to cut like a template)
3. Pile the cut discs and separate them using sheets of parchment paper and cover with a towel so they don't dry out. Keep rolling and cutting until all the dough is gone. Depending on the thickness this should yield about 24 discs.
How to shape the empanadas:
4. Fill the discs and fold. If you find it too challenging to fold the closure like in the picture, use a fork to join the sides. Make sure you wet the edges so the folded edges stick to each other.
5. Make sure the oil has reached the temperature of 400 F. If the oil is not hot enough, the empanadas will not be nice and crispy.
Then carefully place the empanadas in the oil, and cook for around 5 - 7 minutes, until golden and the pastry goes bubbly like in the photo.
Do not overfill the pan, but cook in batches so everything can cook evenly.
Place on some kitchen paper then serve.
You can bake these but you won’t get the same crispiness as you get from frying. So long as the oil is hot enough and you drain on kitchen paper after frying, these empanadas should not be oily.
Recipe Card
Tasty Empanadas
Tasty Empanadas.
These tasty empanadas are homemade Argentinian street food snacks made of crispy homemade pastry filled with beef. Great party food. Easy recipe and so popular!
Ingredients
The Filling:
- 600 g or 1 ½ lbs ground beef
- 800 g or 1 ½ lbs onions, I mix yellow onions and green onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- half a red pepper
- ⅓ cup Pimenton Dulce, this is an Argentinean spice- the closest here in North America is paprika
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- salt pepper to taste
The Pastry:
- ¾ kg or 6 Cups All Purpose flour
- 300 g or 1 ⅓ cups lard at room temperature
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup warm water
Instructions
Prepare the Filling:
- 1. Chop and Cook the onions, garlic and peppers till soft, add the beef and cook till brown. I used butter for cooking the meat but you can use oil if you wish. When meat is brown add the spices and let simmer at low heat for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring every now and then. Try it and add salt and pepper if needed.
- 2. Now this is important: put the filling in the fridge for 6 to 8 hours or even better overnight. The filling needs to be cold to use.
Make the pastry:
- 1. Add salt to flour. Add lard and incorporate well using your hands. When mixed, add water. I used my stand mixer to make the dough.
- 2. Bring to the table and split in 3 to better be able to roll. With the rolling pin, roll the dough to a thickness of about 3 or 4 mm. I cut my discs about 4" diameter. (use a saucer or similar to cut like a template)
- 3. Pile the cut discs and separate them using sheets of parchment paper and cover with a towel so they don't dry out. Keep rolling and cutting until all the dough is gone. Depending on the thickness this should yield about 24 discs.
Form the empanadas:
- 4. Fill the discs and fold. If you find it too challenging to fold the closure like in the picture, use a fork to join the sides. Make sure you wet the edges so the folded edges stick to each other.
- 5. Make sure the oil has reached the temperature of 400 F. If the oil is not hot enough, the empanadas will not be nice and crispy. Then carefully place the empanadas in the oil, and cook for around 5 - 7 minutes, until golden and the pastry goes bubbly like in the photo. Do not over fill the pan, but cook in batches so everything can cook evenly.
- Place on some kitchen paper then serve.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 310Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 36mgSodium: 149mgCarbohydrates: 28gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 11g
Nutrition information isn’t always accurate
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Joy
says:Thank you for the recipe
Loretta
says:To make these vegan or vegetarian could I use crisco instead of lard..
the fill with my desired filling?
Lovefoodies
says:Hi Loretta, yes of course, Crisco is a great alternative to lard and fill with whatever you prefer. I’m sure they will be delicious!
Cecilia
says:I am Colombian and we have very similar empanadas. It depends on the region in Colombia. I do not know about using lard.