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