Beef Empanadas
Updated July 27, 2022
- Total Time
- 1½ hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 4ounces lard or butter, plus more for brushing tops
- 1½teaspoons fine sea salt
- 750grams all-purpose flour, about 6 cups, more as needed
- 1pound beef chuck, in ⅛-inch dice (or very coarsely ground)
- Salt and pepper
- Lard or olive oil, or a combination, for sautéing
- 1cup diced onion
- 2ounces diced chorizo
- ½pound potatoes, peeled and diced
- 4garlic cloves, mashed to a paste
- 2teaspoons chopped thyme
- 2teaspoons chopped marjoram or 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1tablespoon tomato paste
- 1tablespoon pimentón dulce or paprika
- Large pinch cayenne
- Beef or chicken broth, as necessary, or use water
- ½cup chopped scallions, white and green parts
- ¼cup chopped pitted green olives
- 2hard-cooked eggs, sliced
For the Dough
For the Filling
Nutritional analysis per serving (36 servings)
181 calories; 9 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 0 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 138 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Make the dough: Put 2 cups boiling water, 4 ounces lard and 1½ teaspoons salt in large mixing bowl. Stir to melt lard and dissolve salt. Cool to room temperature.
- Step 2
Gradually stir in flour with a wooden spoon until dough comes together. Knead for a minute or two on a floured board, until firm and smooth. Add more flour if sticky. Wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Step 3
Make the filling: Season chopped beef generously with salt and pepper and set aside for 10 minutes. Melt 3 tablespoons lard in a wide heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef and fry until nicely browned, stirring throughout to keep pieces separate, about 5 minutes.
- Step 4
Turn heat down to medium and add onion and chorizo. Keep turning mixture with a spatula, as if cooking hash, until onion is softened and browned, about 10 minutes. Add potatoes, garlic, thyme and marjoram and stir well to incorporate. (Add a little more fat to pan if mixture seems dry.) Season again with salt and pepper and let mixture fry for 2 more minutes. Stir in tomato paste, pimentón and cayenne, then a cup of broth or water. Turn heat to simmer, stirring well to incorporate any caramelized bits.
- Step 5
Cook for about 10 more minutes, until both meat and potatoes are tender and the sauce just coats them — juicy but not saucy is what you want. Taste and adjust seasoning for full flavor (intensity will diminish upon cooling). Stir in scallions and cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Step 6
Divide chilled dough into 1-ounce pieces and form into 2-inch diameter balls. Roll each piece into a 4½-inch circle. Lay circles on a baking sheet lightly dusted with flour.
- Step 7
Moisten outer edge of each round with water. Put about 2 tablespoons filling in the center of each round, adding a little chopped green olive and some hard-cooked egg to each. Wrap dough around filling to form empanada, pressing edges together. Fold edge back and finish by pinching little pleats or crimping with a fork.
- Step 8
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place empanadas on parchment-lined or oiled baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Brush tops lightly with lard or butter and bake on top shelf of oven until golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm.
- Dough and filling may each be prepared a day or two in advance. The empanadas may be assembled several hours ahead of time and refrigerated, uncovered. Bring to room temperature before baking.
Private Notes
Comments
At the risk of being labeled a heretic, for not making scratch pastry, Goya makes a very good frozen empanada crust. Use them and empanadas are much less of a project and more of an anytime meal or snack.
This is a serious time commitment, but well-worth it if you split up the work for a freezer full of empanadas. 1) Make the dough AND filling the night before, and let rest overnight to make rolling and filling easier 2) If you want to put egg in all of them, you probably should boil 3 or 4 eggs 3) Roll out all balls and chill again before filling to avoid dough tears or misshapes 4) If you have leftover dough you can fill with cream cheese and fruit preserves 5) Double the baking time
Throughout South America they frequently add raisins to the filling.
Very tasty but needs more spice. Made exactly to recipe but added extra chicken stock to pan and boiled it down until juicy. This ensured meat was very tender. Agree to brush with egg and count on cooking time of 30mins.
New favorite recipe this year that we make with our black bear chorizo. I’ve tried multiple iterations of this recipe. We really like using Kalamata olives. I leave out the boiled egg, but brush dough with egg which browns up better than butter. Another great hack is to bake them in the air fryer which halved the time in the oven. Enjoy!
Home after a trip to Argentina, we were craving empanadas and gave this recipe a try. We followed the recipe, except using an egg wash instead of butter at the end. The dough rolling, filling and crimping were easier than I anticipated. Like other reviews, ours didn't brown after 15 min. We baked the 1st batch awhile at 375 and the crust was tough and clearly overbaked. The 2nd batch, we baked for 20 minutes at 400, then broiled for a few min. Much better!