Simple Recipes for Every Day
Beef Empanadas
- Serves: 10
- Prep Time: 30 min
- Cook Time: 55 min
Ingredients
Empanada Dough
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, chilled, cut into ¼- inch cubes
- 2 eggs
- ⅓ cup ice water, plus more as needed
Beef Filling
- 1 medium russet potato, (8 ounces) peeled, diced into ⅓- inch cubes (about 1½ cups)
- ¾ pound 80/20 ground beef ground beef
- ½ medium yellow onion, grated
- 1 medium carrot, grated
- 1 celery rib, minced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper
- ½ cup frozen peas, thawed
- ¾ cup beef stock
Method
Make the empanada dough. Add the flour and salt to a food processor and pulse until combined, about 5 pulses. Add butter, 1 of the eggs and the ice water. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about 20 pulses. If the dough won’t come together add more ice water 1 tablespoon at a time and pulse until incorporated, you should only need 2-3 more tablespoons of water. Shape the dough into a ball. Tightly cover the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, up to 2 hours.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Fill a medium size saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Add the potato and boil until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Drain.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the beef, onions, celery and carrots and cook, breaking the meat up with a wooden spoon, until the beef is browned and the vegetables are softened, 8-10 minutes.
Stir in the potatoes, garlic, chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, salt, pepper, peas and beef stock. Cook, stirring, until most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 5 minutes.
Prepare the dough. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide it into 10 equal pieces—roughly 2.2- ounces each. On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece of dough very thinly into a circle roughly 7” wide. Add a heaping ⅓ cup of the beef mixture onto one side of each of the dough rounds.
In a small bowl, whisk the remaining egg. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg on the exposed edge of the dough, reserve remaining egg. Fold the dough in half over the filling. Using a fork, firmly press and seal the edges together. Alternatively you can make empanada pleats. Repeat this process with remaining dough and filling, arrange on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Preheat the oven to 375°F with a rack in the center position.
Stir 1 tablespoon of water into the bowl with the remaining egg. Lightly brush each empanada with egg wash. Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes.