Beef Empanadas Are The Perfect Excuse To Eat With Your Hands

Delish

Upgrade your dinner (or appetizer) game with this easy recipe for classic beef empanadas, paired with cilantro and sour cream for dipping.

Transcript

00:00 What's up y'all, it's Brooke in the Delish Kitchen studios getting ready to make the ultimate handheld snack that's bright,

00:06 cheesy beef empanadas. Empanadas come in a lot of different variations,

00:10 but our ultimate version has seasoned ground beef, plenty of melty cheese to make it absolutely perfect and gooey and melty and

00:17 delicious. It's my ideal late-night snack, and I'm gonna show you how to make them from scratch.

00:22 As promised, these empanadas are completely from scratch, which includes the dough.

00:29 Dough can be a little bit scary, but this one's super simple. There's only like five ingredients to it.

00:34 We're gonna start with some all-purpose flour, a little bit of salt and baking powder.

00:38 We're gonna whisk those together until the mixture is nice and homogeneous,

00:42 and then we're going to cut in some cubes of cold butter.

00:46 Just get those until they're about pea-sized. Pastry blenders are one of my favorite kitchen tools to use.

00:52 They're great for tasks like this when you're breaking down really cold butter into a lot of flour.

00:57 It just makes everything go a lot easier and smoother, and then you can get those

01:00 pea-sized chunks.

01:03 Once those are cut in, then we're going to incorporate an egg and a little bit of water.

01:07 Once those are in, we're gonna knead and knead and knead until a nice soft pliable dough forms.

01:14 So I'm gonna go ahead and turn this out onto a lightly floured cutting board.

01:17 Then we're gonna knead it for just a few minutes until it starts to get a little bit smoother and more cohesive.

01:23 I've got my empanada dough all nice and neat and cutely wrapped up in this plastic wrap.

01:28 I'm gonna let this rest in the refrigerator for an hour. In the meantime, I'm gonna make my filling. First things first,

01:34 I'm just gonna go ahead and get all the chopping out of the way early.

01:36 I'm gonna give these all a small dice so that when they're in the empanada,

01:40 they're not big and chunky and falling out of the filling.

01:43 I love that this recipe uses pickled jalapenos instead of regular fresh jalapenos.

01:48 I'm a little bit heat sensitive, so I find that pickled jalapenos have a little bit of a tamer heat that people like me appreciate.

01:55 Dough's in the refrigerator and resting, so it's time to get this filling going.

01:59 We've got a nice hot cast-iron skillet ready for us. Into the skillet,

02:04 we're going to add a little bit of olive oil, then our onions and garlic.

02:08 We're gonna let those soften just a little bit until they get nice and translucent.

02:12 Then we're gonna add the beef to the pan, break everything all up, mix it all together.

02:17 Once the beef is cooked, we're gonna go into the pan with a little bit of tomato paste.

02:21 Let that cook down just a little bit until it gets nice and caramelized and deep-bred.

02:26 Then we're gonna add our cumin, oregano, and paprika.

02:28 Last but not least, we're gonna add our chopped tomatoes and jalapenos to the mixture, stir everything all up, and

02:35 that's it. I really wish y'all could smell this right now.

02:39 It smells so good. All those spices that we put in there, and the jalapenos and the onions and the garlic,

02:46 everything's like mingling in my nose, and all this just really wants to be in that empanada dough.

02:51 So that's what we're gonna do next.

02:52 I'm gonna let this cool down just a little bit so it doesn't melt our dough and make it hard to work with, and

02:57 then we're gonna work on rolling our dough out. My dough's had the chance to rest for about an hour,

03:01 so I'm just gonna lightly flour this cutting board.

03:04 I'm gonna cut this big dough hunk in half, and then we're going to roll it out till it's about a quarter inch thick.

03:09 And then from that quarter inch thick slab, we'll be able to cut out all of our empanada round.

03:14 We've got our dough rounds all cut out,

03:16 so that means it's time to fill them up with that beef filling that we made.

03:19 We're gonna start by wetting the outside of each dough round with a little bit of water, and then into the center of the dough

03:25 round, we're gonna put about a tablespoon and a half to two tablespoons of that beef filling.

03:30 We're gonna top that with a little bit of cheddar cheese and a little bit of Monterey Jack cheese.

03:35 We're gonna pinch the dough closed with our fingers first,

03:38 then we're gonna follow up with a fork and pinch all around the edge of the dough until it makes a half moon shape,

03:45 and we have a nice crimped edge.

03:46 I've got my dough rounds all filled and crimped, and they look beautiful, and I'm so excited.

03:51 But before I put them in the oven, I'm gonna brush the outside with a little bit of egg wash.

03:55 That's just some egg that I mix with a little bit of water, so that the outside gets nice and glisteny and golden brown.

04:01 I'm gonna put them in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes.

04:05 These came out so golden brown and beautiful, like just look at how cute.

04:10 Ah, I can't get over it.

04:11 We baked these, but if you love a fried empanada, feel free to do that.

04:16 These look so golden brown and delicious. I need to try one right now.

04:21 The dough is top tier.

04:26 I know buying dough might seem like the easy way out, but you guys saw how much effort went into this.

04:31 It's a no-brainer, and it's absolutely so tender and flaky and buttery. It's perfect.

04:37 You have to try making it at home.

04:39 But let's talk about that filling though.

04:40 It's got cheese in it, so much gooey luscious cheese,

04:44 and it's got just the right amount of heat for someone like me who doesn't do spicy very well.

04:50 That pickled jalapeno is perfect.

04:52 The real best part about knowing how to make this dough is that you can make whatever kind of empanada you want.

04:58 All the fillings your heart desires. You can make a chicken empanada,

05:01 you can make a chorizo one, potato, a breakfast empanada, a dessert empanada.

05:05 The list is truly endless.

05:07 We went the traditional route of baking these, but you can absolutely deep fry them at about

05:11 350, 375 for a few minutes until they get golden brown like this, or you can even throw them in the air fryer.

05:17 If you want more late-night snack foods just like this one, keep it right here at Delish.com.

05:22 [Silence]

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