Chicken Empanada

My favorite chicken empanada is the one from Red Ribbon. Yup, chicken empanada with extenders and all that 😛 I can always imagine eating that soft empanada crust with mashed chicken filling (sorry but I can’t seem to find chicken bits inside) or mashed potatoes with chicken seasoning 😛 Whatever, it’s still the best chicken empanada for me though.

Today, I decided to make my own chicken empanada as my way of being thankful that I’m no longer feeling under the weather. I was sick since Sunday evening and now that I’ve recovered, I’m back to business. By business I really meant cooking 😛

What I’ll show you aren’t the best looking empanadas because it’s my first time to make them and I have no experience whatsoever on crust-making. However, what I can guarantee you is that they really taste good.

Ingredients:

Crust

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
• 3 T brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted light butter
• 1/3 cup vegetable shortening
• 7 T iced water

In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together, i.e., flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix using a fork. Cut in the cold butter and shortening until the mixtures is like butter-covered breadcrumbs. Slowly add in the iced water as you mix by hand. Form the dough into a ball and place inside a plastic bag or Ziploc. Don’t forget to dust your plastic with loose flour. Store the dough inside the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Filling

• 1 T light canola oil
• 1 T unsalted light butter
• 1/2 medium onion, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium potato, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 1/2 cup green peas, thawed
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 T brown sugar
• salt to taste
• 450 grams chicken breast fillets, cut into cubes

In a pan, heat up oil and butter then saute the onions and garlic. Next add the chicken and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Drop in your potatoes and carrots and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Pour in your chicken broth and follow through by dunking in your green peas and raisins. Simmer for another 3 minutes. Add pepper and salt to taste. If you like your filling a little sweet, add in sugar. Cook for another 2 minutes and you’re done.

Strain the sauce from the filling as you set it aside to cool.

Assembling and cooking the empanadas

Preheat the oven to 400F or 200C.

Prepare a mixture of 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of water. We’ll use this to brush over the empanadas later.

Take out your dough and using a rolling pin, roll the dough into 3mm or 1/8 inch thick. Don’t make it too thin else the crust will break when baked. Using a cookie cutter or anything round that is at least 10cm or 4 inches in diameter, cut circles from the dough. This will be your crust.

Scoop 1 to 2 tablespoons of the filling and place at the center of the crust. Fold the crust so that the edges meet and seal using a fork.

Lay down on a greased baking sheet and brush the top of your empanadas with the egg/water wash.

With a knife, make 2 to 3 slits at the top to let the steam pass through while baking.

Bake for 20 minutes.

I’ll have a rematch with the empanadas soon. I really want to find out the best empanada crust recipe.

What I do know for now is that I have tasty empanadas to snack on tomorrow 🙂