Empanadas de Carne

The truth is, there’s no formal recipe for empanadas. Depending on budget and available ingredients, things can change: you can skip the bell pepper, use beef tallow instead of pork lard, omit the olives, add more boiled eggs, etc. The recipe below is the one with the most consensus (in my family). Please note that none of the quantities are exact, and you can adjust them per your taste.

Ingredients

Dough

You can always buy the disks, but if you prefer to make the dough, here are the ingredients. I don’t know the exact proportions for the amount of beef in this recipe, but you can always refrigerate any remaining dough.

8 cups of flour
2 cups of boiling water
1 cup of oil
Salt

Filling

2 lbs of ground beef (85%)
2 lbs of sweet onions, finely diced
2 green onion stalks, finely diced
1 small red bell pepper, finely diced
3/4 cup of pork lard (approx)
Concentrated beef stock (like 1/8 cup)
1 Roma tomato, crushed, skin peeled
Salt
Pepper
Paprika (around 2 tablespoons)
Chili powder
Cummin (1/4 teaspoon)
Nutmeg (1/4 teaspoon)
1/2 cup of green olives, chopped (depending on size, there should be like half an olive per empanada)
3 boiled eggs, diced

Procedure

Make the dough and set it aside. Any remaining dough can be stored in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
Melt the lard in a big pot. Sauté the finely chopped onions until translucent (at least 15’).
Add the concentrated stock and the crushed, peeled tomato.
Add the meat and spices. Stir with a wooden spoon to mix the ingredients well and adjust the seasoning.
Let it cool and then refrigerate the filling until it solidifies, at least 2 hours. This is the secret to juicy empanadas.
If you made the dough, this is the time to roll it and cut it into disks. If you bought the dough, make sure it’s chilled, but not frozen, for filling.
Stir the mixture to evenly distribute the solidified fat. Add the chopped green olives and boiled eggs.
Place a portion of the filling in the center of each dough disc and add a pitted olive. Lightly moisten the edges and close the empanada. Flatten the edges with a fork or use a repulgue (a series of small folds of the edge over itself, forming a seam at the end). Make sure it is tightly sealed.
To Bake, preheat the oven to a high temperature. Place the empanadas on a nonstick baking sheet lightly coated with cooking spray, brush with egg, and cook until golden brown.

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