Beef Empanadas Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to fry or bake empanadas? ›

Both cooking methods produce delicious empanadas. If you want a healthier merienda, bake them in the oven. If you're working with less time, frying them is the way to go. Try both and ask your loved ones to vote on their favorite.

An Easy Homemade Beef Empanada Recipe

Empanadas are crescent-shaped, savory pastries made of dough and filled with a variety of ingredients. Empanada fillings can include anything from ground or shredded beef, chicken, pork, cheese, or vegetables, seasoned vibrantly, then baked to perfection.

While pie dough is designed to be flaky, empanada dough is meant to be more tender. Pastry for empanadas has a higher flour-to-fat ratio, making it sturdy and perfect for wrapping around meaty fillings. Some recipes use lard or an additional egg as the fat source, but our recipe keeps it simple and easy with butter.

The Spanish recipe was made with bread dough, the Mexican recipe with corn masa dough. This is where Mexican empanada history takes over. Each region in Mexico has their own version of the empanada.

Just place them on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet.

In much the same way, putting fried food on a cooling rack means the excess oil will drip off, but there's enough air circulating underneath the food that the bottoms don't get soggy.

Easily prepare them with a delicious filling of GOYA® Black Beans, GOYA® Whole Kernel Golden Corn, spices, and the rich flavor of GOYA® Queso Blanco cheese, all wrapped in convenient GOYA® Empanada Dough-Puff Pastry for Baking. Bake them in the oven for just a few minutes, and they'll be ready to enjoy!

Prepare flavorful homemade empanadas easily with convenient GOYA® Tapas Criollas – Dough for Turnover Pastries, which are perfect for baking or frying.

When wondering about what to eat with empanadas, one of the answers is always black beans and rice. It's a classic that never disappoints! This creamy vegan recipe for the popular dish will take only 20 minutes of your time and is easy, inexpensive, and healthy.

Check our Mexican rice, Spanish rice, cilantro rice, yellow rice, salsa verde pinto beans, slow cooker black beans, refried beans, street corn salad (esquites from elote) and street corn skillet. Also, avocado salad and black bean and corn salad. We have fried plantains, too!

What Can You Substitute for Empanada Dough? If you're looking for a shortcut, store-bought pie dough can be used to make empanadas. You may need to roll the dough out slightly thinner—it will produce a flakier result than typical empanada dough and is better for baking than frying.

Is pizza dough the same as empanada dough? ›

Pizza dough and empanada dough are different for one significant reason: Pizza dough uses yeast to allow it to rise, whereas empanada dough does not. Empanadas don't require resting time or lots of kneading. In fact, the less you work the dough, the better, as it leaves the pastry tender and flaky.

As mentioned above many people will use their favorite pre-made pie dough to make empanadas. This is because the ingredients for most dough recipes are very similar. Most pie doughs use flour, butter, salt, water, and sometimes egg; an ingredient list almost identical to those needed for this recipe!

Argentina has become world-famous for their empanadas which are widely available in Buenos Aires and across the country as fast-food options and restaurant staples. As with many recipes, that of empanadas was shared through generations and carried to many other nations.

The Many Names of Empanadas

For instance, Americans call them meat pies, and Jamaicans call them beef patties. At the same time, Indians call them samosas, and people in Latin America or Spain call them pastelillos or pastelitos.

Oil is a saturated fat and is therefore, high in calories. The addition of oil in frying adds to the calorie count of the food. However, baking does not add any additional calories and fats to the foods you cook and is thus, always preferred over frying.

Because ovens heat air, and air has no calories, baking in an oven does not add additional calories or fat to the foods you cook. This is why baking is a smarter option when working on controlling calorie, cholesterol or fat intake, as you are left only with the calories and fat from the foods in the pan.

Generally, baking is the healthiest option, followed by grilling and then frying (deep frying. But it depends…. on what you're making, the recipe and the portion size. You can make a healthy baking dish into a very unhealthy one, very easily by adding too much fats or sugars or just by eating too large a portion size.

Empanadas usually are served hot and blistered from the deep fryer, but home cooks will be glad that these baked healthier handpies offer similar pleasures without a trip into a vat of bubbling oil. The simple dough, similar to pie crust, comes together in a jiffy in the food processor.