Mini Empanadillas Puerto Rican Beef Turnovers

These Puerto Rican Empanadillas are made with fried buttery pie dough blimp with seasoned ground beef, peppers and olives.

Many Puerto Rican recipes apply the classic Picadillo filling we're making today, like these Alcapurrias I'chiliad sure y'all'll dearest if you enjoy these Empanadillas.

This post may contain affiliate links; this means if you buy an item linked, I may receive a small committee at no extra cost to you. Click here to learn more near my disclosure policy.

Fifty-fifty with all of its beauty and splendor, my fondest memories about Puerto Rico all revolve around food.

Whether it was stopping at a roadside store to come across a coconut freshly plucked from a tree, chopped open with a machete, and handed over with a straw or visiting a local panaderia (bakery), information technology was e'er an unforgettable experience.

The bakeries were ordinarily full of amazingly decadent sweets, but I was always pulled to the savory section.

And that'due south where I discovered empanadillas.

Empanadillas are a lovely blend of buttery, flaky pie dough stuffed with the most delicious ground beefiness seasoned with traditional Puerto Rican spices, tomato, sofrito and olives. These savory hand pies are so lightly fried until gilt brown and well-baked around the edges.

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need to make these:

For the dough:

• Flour
• Lard or Crisco (y'all can utilize butter if y'all don't take either)
• H2o

OR your favorite premade pie dough!

For the filling (picadillo):

• Sofrito
• Tomato sauce
• 1 lb footing beef
• Pimento stuffed olives, sliced
• Sazon
• Adobo seasoning
• Cumin
• Oregano

Empanadas vs. empanadillas vs. pastelillos

If you're scratching your caput trying to figure out the difference between these iii… you're not alone.

I've heard this popular care for being chosen past the name empanadas, empanadillas and pastelillos.

Originally I idea the difference was a simple alter in cooking method (I thought empanadas were broiled and empanadillas were fried).

Now I'm pretty certain that they are all names for the same treat.

Depending on what area you lot grew upwardly or which neighborhood your family is from yous may take one yous grew upwardly with.

Making the filling (picadillo)

Picadillo is one of those Puerto Rican recipes I merely tin't get enough of. You know those recipes your mom made as a kid that y'all couldn't stop sneaking into the kitchen to grab a bite of? This is it for me.

The layers of flavor adult with sofrito, sazon, adobo seasoning accept the ground beef to a place where information technology really shines.

It'southward so adept, fifty-fifty as an adult I would totally eat a bowl of picadillo on it's own. No shame.

If yous don't have sofrito, you can substitute it for some minced onion, garlic and bell peppers.

One time the sofrito becomes fragrant in a pan over medium estrus, you tin add in the tomato sauce and footing beef. Continue to stir until the meat is cooked fully.

Many people add in diced potatoes at this bespeak, but I prefer to leave them out.

From there you add the chopped olives and all of the seasonings and your picadillo is ready to exist stuffed into the dough for our empanadillas and fried.

Making the dough

Making the dough for empanadillas from scratch is a lot easier than you might remember. It's essentially a pie dough, then I recommend using your favorite pie dough recipe if you lot have one!

I'one thousand using the trifecta of flour, lard and water ice water to make a super flaky and buttery dough.

I find information technology helpful to use water ice water to go along the lard nice and cold while we mix it with the flour. From there you can add together the water a fleck at a time, while kneading the dough until a consistently smooth dough is formed.

Embrace and arctic your dough for a scrap before rolling out and using a small bowl or cookie cutter to make circular discs.

These discs volition exist topped with filling, folded in one-half like hand pies and sealed with a fork.

Store bought vs. homemade dough

Let me start by saying I 100% support using shop bought dough for this recipe.

Obviously freshly fabricated pie dough is a special experience in itself and volition certainly add together some love to this recipe, but in a pinch I volition absolutely purchase a premade pie dough and cut out discs, or use this premade empanada dough if I can discover information technology at the store.

So whether y'all've can't find the time to make your dough from scratch or y'all really couldn't care less nigh how it happens, know that store bought volition consequence in every bit delicious empanadillas.

Happy cooking!

Salima

Print

Ingredients

For the empanadilla dough: (if not using storebought)

• 2 ½ cups flour

• ¾ cup lard or crisco (or common cold salted butter)

• ½ cup ice water

For the filling (picadillo):

• iv tbsp sofrito

• ½ cup tomato sauce

• one lb ground beef

• ½ loving cup pimento stuffed olives, sliced

• ii tsp sazon

• two tsp adobo seasoning

• 2 tsp cumin

• 2 tsp oregano

• i tsp salt (if there isn't salt in your adobo seasoning)

• ½ cup vegetable oil for frying

Instructions

1. (Skip to step iii if using store bought dough). Make the pie dough. Outset by pulsing the flour and lard together in a food processor until the lard forms pea sides pieces. Slowly pulse in the water, a few tablespoons at a fourth dimension until a brawl of dough is formed. Arctic for at to the lowest degree 2 hours.
2. Dust a clean surface with flour and ringlet dough out to about ¼ inch thickness and cut out circular discs using a large cookie cutter or small bowl.
3. Make the picadillo filling. First with your sofrito in a hot pan over medium heat. Once fragrant, add in the footing beef and simmer until beef is fully cooked. Add the tomato sauce and cook another 10 minutes.
4. Add in olives and seasoning and mix until evenly combined. Spoon picadillo over one-half of the dough discs, fold the empty half over top and compression closed with a fork.
5. Fry in oil over high rut on each side for 3-4 minutes or until golden dark-brown and crisp on the edges. Enjoy!

Keywords: Empanadillas

More Puerto Rican recipes:

• Puerto Rican Arroz con Pollo
• Puerto Rican Arroz con Gandules
• Steak Stuffed Avocados
• Air Fryer Plantain Fries
• Puerto Rican Flan

durkinyazzle1943.blogspot.com

Source: https://salimaskitchen.com/empanadillas-fried-puerto-rican-turnovers/

Share this post