How to Make Argentinian Empanadas – Easy Recipe

Empanadas are an Argentinian classic and are both easy to make and delicious! They can be made with various different fillings like chicken, tuna or ham and cheese – the most traditional though is with beef! Keep reading to find out how to make beef empanadas easily and from scratch!

Ingredients

For the pastry:

500g all purpose flour
120g lard
200ml water (lukewarm)
2 teaspoons salt

For the filling:

½kg minced meat (or steak of your choice)
1kg onions
Half a green pepper
Half a red pepper
3 spring onions
2 eggs
50g olives (pitted)
2 cloves of garlic
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
Chilli flakes
Paprika
Olive oil

This recipe should make roughly 24 empanadas!

Step 1: Making the pastry

If you live in Argentina, this part is easy as you can go out and buy the pastry (or “tapas”) from a supermarket. However, don’t worry if you don’t, it can be made fairly easily and without too much trouble!

Firstly, measure out 200ml of lukewarm water and add two teaspoons of salt. Set this aside and leave it to rest for a few minutes.
Next, weigh out 500g of all-purpose flour and 120g of lard. Add the flour to a large mixing bowl and gradually mix the lard in with the flour. The lard should be at room temperature in order to make mixing easier. To mix, use your fingers to ‘pinch’ the flour and lard together and continue until a dough forms.
Then, you should gradually add the salt water that you made earlier and mix it into the dough.
After you have mixed well, take the dough out of the bowl and knead it until it is well-smoothed out. You can add more flour if the dough sticks a lot or more water if the dough is too dry.
Once you’re satisfied, cover the dough with clingfilm and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
When 30 minutes have passed, uncover the dough and roll out flat. Cut out circles from the dough roughly 12cm in diameter. When you have cut as many circles out of the dough as possible, roll it out again and repeat until no dough is left. Set these aside for now, we’re now going to make the filling for our empanadas!

Step 2: Making the filling

Firstly, chop up the onions, peppers and garlic as finely as possible, and set them aside. The spring onions should also be chopped but first, the white part should be separated from the green. The white part is should be chopped first, again, as finely as possible. If you’re using steak instead of minced meat, cut up the steak into small pieces too.
Next add a little oil to a large pan or wok and set it at a medium/high heat.
Add the onions and minced meat to the pan.
Once the minced meat is beginning to look browned, add the peppers, garlic and the white part of the spring onions.
Add salt, pepper, paprika, oregano and chilli flakes. In terms of how much to add, I usually add a little to begin with and then try the mixture later on to see if any more is needed. The condiments can be added to suit your taste!
At this point, you should leave the mixture on a medium/low heat to continue to cook.
Meanwhile, boil two eggs until hard boiled. Once done, chop them up into small pieces. Now, you should also chop up the olives and the green part of the spring onions (as small as possible!)
Once the mixture looks cooked properly and you’re happy with the condiments you’ve added, take the pan off the heat and leave for a couple of minutes to cool a little.
Now add the olives, eggs and spring onions and mix well into the mixture!
Leave the mixture to cool properly for a while, as this will make part 3 easier!

Step 3: Create your empanadas!

At this point, we’re ready to add the filling to the pastry to create our empanadas! If you’re new to making empanadas (which I’m guessing you are!), this part will prove to be the trickiest!

Preheat the oven to about 200ºC and coat one or more baking trays with oil.
Take a tablespoon and scoop out some of the empanada filling from the pan and add it to the centre of one of the “tapas” you made earlier
Fold the pastry into a semi-circle shape, taking care not to let any of the filling fall out.
Now for the tricky bit! To seal the empanada, push the sides together and crimp together. The easiest way to demonstrate this is with a video: https://youtu.be/zHByEMavG7U?si=R75OqgaLGy4cB1wj. This is the traditional way to seal beef empanadas, if you struggle though, it can be done by using a fork to crimp the ends of the empanada together!
Repeat until you run out of pastry or empanada mixture and add the empanadas to a baking tray.
Add the finished empanadas to the oven and cook at about 200ºC until golden brown. Usually for about 25-35 minutes!
Take out of the oven and allow to cool before eating.

Step 4: Enjoy your empanadas!

Hopefully you’ve been able to follow the steps successfully and you’ve made some delicious Argentinian empanadas! The first time you try this recipe it may seem a little complicated, but once you get the hand of folding the empanadas it will be easy!

Let us know how you get on in the comments below, we would love to hear your feedback!