Empanadas

By Food & Wine
Updated August 17, 2017
From classic flaky beef empanadas to open-faced crab empanadas, here are our favorite empanada recipes.
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Tuna and Green Olive Empanadas

Credit: © JAVIER SALAS
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This recipe makes more filling than is needed for the empanadas. Use the leftover to top crostini or toss with pasta.

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Empanada Gallega with Tuna


Credit: Christopher Peter Testani
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This large empanada pie hails from Galicia. It’s filled with a delectable and savory mix of tuna, peppers, olives, tomatoes and paprika.

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Flaky Beef Empanadas

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Santiago Garat makes these flaky beef empanadas the traditional way--by hand-chopping the beef for the filling. He cooks the meat in lard, so it's extra succulent.

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Open-Faced Crab Empanadas

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Jose Andres says: "I love America! Without a doubt, one of my favorite American ingredients is blue crabs, a true delicacy! And a great value, I think." This recipe is his twist on the traditional Basque txangurro (crab simmered with tomato), crossed with a Galician empanada (a savory pie). "Part of my efforts to build a bridge between America and Spain," he explains.

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Mini Panamanian Beef Empanadas

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At Panamonte Inn & Spa, chef Charlie Collins teaches students how to make perfectly flaky empanada dough. For fillings, he uses local ingredients like beef jerk (dried, preseasoned meat) and culantro (a long-leafed herb with a pungent flavor); ground beef and cilantro are fine substitutes.

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Spinach-and-Green-Pea Empanadas

Credit: Fredrika Stjärne
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"In Argentina, we eat so much beef. When I talked to [Mauricio] Couly about making empanadas, I said, 'It would be great to fill them with something that is not meat,'" Piero Incisa della Rocchetta recalls. Mauricio Couly uses a mix of spinach, fava beans, green beans and a good amount of mint. He makes his own paprika-spiced empanada dough; store-bought empanada wrappers (available in the freezer section of many supermarkets and specialty food stores) work well, too.

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Yucca Empanadas

Credit: DAVID NICOLAS
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"We try to make a different menu every day, often using the same ingredients," says Pedro Miguel Schiaffino about the challenges of creating recipes for a cruise ship. Yucca, one of the most ubiquitous root vegetables in the Amazon, appears in many of his dishes. Here he turns pure yucca into a dough for fried empanadas, a typical street food in Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian rain forest.

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Beef-and-Onion Empanadas

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These traditional Argentine empanadas are filled with a mixture of ground beef, smoked paprika, green olives and cumin, then baked until golden.

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Baked Sweet Potato and Tempeh Empanadas

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Tempeh has a long way to go before it becomes as popular as other soy products, but its wonderfully firm texture and versatility make it an excellent protein source. Here, it's a stand-in for ground meat in a vegan baked empanada.

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