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Chilean Empanadas



We love food from South America, and have had the privilege of traveling a lot of these countries, however Chile is still one that we have not been to and hope to see one day.
Until then we enjoy a little Chilean restaurant in our downtown. Our favorites are cheese empanadas which are deep fried or these beef ones which are baked.
Like all recipes they have an original origin and changed throughout family preferences.
I got the recipe a long time ago when I bought a cookbook that Avon was selling called "The Avon International COOKBOOK" collected from their Representatives around the world. (It is on page 25 is you have it.) Submitted by Patricia Sanchez Correa Santiago, Chile. These sturdy, meat filled turnovers are common to the South American diet.
Filling-
  • 1/2 lb. boneless beef round steak, cut into 1/4" cubes
  • instead I used 1 lb of lean ground beef
  • 1 cups chopped onion
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 2 teaspoons flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/8-1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (depending on personal taste)
  • 3 tablespoon chopped raisin (optional)
  • 1/3 cup sliced pimento stuffed green olives
  • 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
  1. In a skillet cook the beef and onion in oil til meat is done and onions are tender.
  2. Stir in the flour, red pepper and salt.
  3. Cover and cool, when cooled add olives eggs and raisin.
Pastry-
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 cup hot milk
  • 3/4 cup melted lard
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  1. In a bowl combine the flour, salt, with the hot milk and melted lard.
  2. Mix until well combined.
  3. Work dough with hands until well mixed.
  4. Divide dough into 8 equal portions.
  5. On a lightly floured surface roll each portion in to a 6" circle.
  6. Divide meat mixture evenly among all the circles.
  7. Fold over the dough and crimp edge or use the fork to seal.
  8. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake at 400 for 20 to 25 minutes or til golden.
  9. Makes 8 servings.
Just a personal note, I have noticed that it is best not to more than double the recipe for the pastry, other wise it does not work well. Actually I have the best results with working one recipe at a time. I recently made 64 of these to freeze for lunches. It is a nice change from sandwiches. Or serve along a nice bowl of soup and salad and you have a great supper.

10 comments:

  1. Oh Char...these look good. My son had to make a Spanish dish for his Spanish class in grade 11. My sister, who lived in Bolivia for many years, emailed us a very similar recipe....for Empanadas! And he made them all himself. So...there you go all you readers...these are not only good but not difficult to make. Yummy!!!!

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  2. 64! Whoa! I'm impressed Charlotte. They really look good.

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  3. When you make them for freezing, do you bake and cool them and then freeze or do you bake them from frozen or do you thaw them out first? Any freezer instructions would be greatly appreciated! Just found this blog this past week and and loving all the recipes I'm seeing here.

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  4. There is a very similar German recipe called Bierocks, with a filling of ground beef, onions, and shredded cabbage that I make frequently. It's virtually the exact same recipe, except for the addition of the cabbage in the filling. These are SO good! I freeze them after baking, when they are cooled down, and then we microwave them just like Hot Pockets, only they are MUCH tastier! I would imagine that you could do these with different meat fillings, such as chicken breast, too. --a mennonite girl that can cook in KC

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  5. I bake them and then freeze them.
    when i want them i just reheat in the oven at about 375 for 10 minutes or so. (i have never paid attention, when i can smell them they are ready).... the other option is to take one and microwave like suggested with frozen hot pockets or pizza pockets.

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  6. oh these sound really good. I like the suggestion in the comments about adding some cabbage too.

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  7. I haven't found any non hydrogenated lard in my area, have you ever tried it with butter?

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  8. i am sure that butter would be fine. i personally have not tried this particular recipe with it, but have done other pastries with it.
    i know that oil works well. i have used that.

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  9. I was born in Argentina and lived there 9 years... I love empanadas and I make it pretty much the same as the recipe... I don't like raisins in it so I put some brown sugar instead...I also add italian seasonings... you can totally stuff it with just about anyuthing... I have done BBQ pork, ham and cheese, cooked onion with cheese and yellow mustard, and I have even made dessert ones... chocolate chips with peanut butter... and I have made some with apple pie filling... hope everyone enjoys their empanadas!

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  10. Another thing I have done is taken the meat mixture put it in a 9X13 plass dish, mix up some corn bread and pour it over the meat mixture... bake it up and enjoy... I don't normally sweeten the meat when I put corn bread on top because the corn bread gives it the sweetnes.

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