Recipe from Héctor Vergara
Adapted by Florence Fabricant
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- 4(250)
- Notes
- Read community notes
To Chileans, empanadas mostly mean empanadas al horno, which are frequently baked in a wood-burning oven. The classic versions are filled with seasoned minced (not ground) meat and onions and garnished with hard-cooked egg, olives and raisins. They can be made either in the half-moon shape that they usually take throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, or in a distinctively Chilean squared-off form made by folding all but the straight side of the semicircular turnover to make a package that is often four inches across. The dough is made with lard. —Florence Fabricant
Featured in: For Chileans, Passion Translates to Empanadas
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Ingredients
Yield:8 to 10 large empanadas
- 1½tablespoons lard
- 1cup fine-chopped onion
- ½pound lean beef, minced
- Salt
- fresh black pepper
- ½teaspoon ground cumin
- ½teaspoon smoked paprika
- Tabasco or other hot sauce to taste
- Empanada dough (see recipe)
- 2hard-cooked eggs, sliced
- 12pitted cured black olives, sliced
- 30raisins
- 1large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Melt lard in a 10- to 12-inch skillet. Add onion and sauté on medium until it barely starts to color. Add beef. Cook until ingredients are lightly browned. Add salt and pepper to taste, cumin, paprika and hot sauce. Set aside. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Step
2
Roll dough as thin as possible. Cut 6-inch circles. Scraps can be re-rolled one time. Place some meat mixture on one half of each circle, leaving a ½-inch border around filling. Top with a slice of egg, some olive pieces and a few raisins. Brush egg on empty side of circle, fold dough over to make a half-circle and crimp edges. Traditional squared empanadas can be made by folding an inch or so of each of the pointed ends of the half-circle over to make straight sides, then folding up the rounded bottom to square off the empanada.
Step
3
Arrange empanadas on a baking sheet. Squared empanadas should be placed with folded side down. Bake 10 minutes. Turn empanadas over, bake 5 minutes longer, until lightly browned on both sides. Allow to cool briefly before serving.
Ratings
4
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Cooking Notes
Sheryl
As a student in Santiago over 30 years ago, a morning highlight was the hot, fragrant empanadas a woman would bring on a huge tray into the class area, selling them to an anxious group. These are tasty but next time I´ll add capers, more cumin, and maybe more onion. It is important to get the dough rolled out really thin.
Álvaro
Chilean here. The best empanadas have more meat and less onion. Some businesses usually add lots of onion and less meat to save in manufacture costs, however, people will notice that and usually won't buy again from them, even if it's cheaper. The problem is that you don't know until you start eating it.
JM
The dough was so dry that I couldn't roll it out. Don't know what I did wrong, but it took a lot of fiddling to get it into shape.
Tom
Big fan of this recipe, but agree with other commenters on the meat / onion ratio, that was something noticeable when visiting Chile a few years ago. All in all, though, this worked out pretty well. Ended up making 38 minis with the same amount of dough.
Natasha
MadeThis with butter instead of lard and it was perfect
Adebiyi Zainab
Hi everyone though I have just a learner and I am about to make but there's a question I want to ask is it compulsory to use lard and hot sauceThough am a learner so questions are to be asked but apart from that, in my came and cupcake, it not always crumb when through. So I want help
camelsamba
it is not compulsory to use lard - use your favorite oil. And it says hot sauce "to taste" which means if your taste is no hot sauce, leave it out.
selina
I wonder what would happen if one were to roll these out individually, rather than rolling out one really large& thin one.
Álvaro
Chilean here. The best empanadas have more meat and less onion. Some businesses usually add lots of onion and less meat to save in manufacture costs, however, people will notice that and usually won't buy again from them, even if it's cheaper. The problem is that you don't know until you start eating it.
Sheryl
As a student in Santiago over 30 years ago, a morning highlight was the hot, fragrant empanadas a woman would bring on a huge tray into the class area, selling them to an anxious group. These are tasty but next time I´ll add capers, more cumin, and maybe more onion. It is important to get the dough rolled out really thin.
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