Curry Chicken Empanadas
Curry Chicken Empanadas
Today chef Enzo Ferrari is in the house. The task is to show us how to make empanadas. The empanada crew (that’s us), minus one, is ready and excited to make curry chicken empanadas! 🙂
To set the mood, we got chef Enzo’s favorite music in the background, Brazilian jazz, and one of the chef’s and empanada crew’s favorite Argentinian wines to make the process go smoother.
The crew was in charge to make the filling. Since we like curry, Etienne, the in-house chef suggested we make a curry chicken filling and so we did. We ended up with a little extra dough, so we also created some apple empanadas that are very simple to make as a dessert.
For the apple empanadas we used:
3 large green apples peeled & diced in 1/4inch squares.
1 lemon juiced
½ tsp. of cinnamon
2 tsp. of sugar
In a bowl, we mixed all the ingredients together. When we got the empanada dough ready to fill, we sprinkled our cinnamon & sugar mix on the dough and then placed the filling inside.
While having fun cooking, sipping wine and laughing, we created fabulous empanadas. Chef Enzo and the empanada crew decided to turn this into an annual event to take place around Thanksgiving, hence, making this the 1st Annual Empanada Kickoff.
Empanada is a stuffed bread or pastry made by folding the dough around the stuffing. Popular in South America, empanadas can have a variety of fillings sweet or savory.
See the curry chicken empanada recipe below.
- For Filling
- 2 Tbsp. of olive oil
- 3 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into ¼ inch pieces
- 3 Cloves of garlic (minced)
- ½Large onion or 1 small onion (minced)
- 3 Tbsp. Curry
- ½ Cup of water
- 1 Small potato cut in ¼ inch cubes
- Sea salt
- Fresh ground pepper
- A pinch of cayenne (optional)
- Ingredients for dough
- 5 cups flour plus extra for dusting
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 tsp. curry
- 11/4 cup of milk
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 egg slightly beaten
- Filling
- Heat 1Tbsp. of oil over medium heat. Sauté chicken, brown evenly.
- Remove chicken from the pan and set aside.
- Dissolve curry into the ½ cup of water.
- Add the 2nd Tbsp. of oil into the pan, sauté onions and garlic until golden.
- Add chicken back into the pan with garlic and onions, breaking into even smaller pieces.
- Pour in curry mixture, stirring to coat the chicken.
- Add salt and pepper to taste, simmer until chicken is tender. Taste and re-season if necessary. If you want, add the cayenne now.
- Remove from heat. If you need the chicken to be smaller, mush some of the bigger pieces and mix with the rest.
- Set aside to cool or place in the fridge, until ready to stuff the empanadas.
- Dough
- Put all ingredients in the mixer with a dough hook. Use slow speed to stir dough. Increase speed slightly and work dough until it reaches the right consistency. You can also mix by hand in a large bowl if you want.
- When the dough reaches the right consistency and it does not appear sticky, grab a handful.
- Dust a surface with flour.
- Roll out the handful of dough to about ⅛ of an inch.
- Use the bottom of the mold to cut 6 inch round circles.
- Place the circle inside the mold.
- Add 1Tbsp. of curry chicken filling and close the mold.
- Release empanada from mold, sealing edges with a fork if necessary.
- Lightly grease a baking tray and place the empanadas in it.
- When the tray is full, lightly beat an egg and whitewash the empanadas.
- Have a sip of wine and repeat until all your dough is finished. 😉
- Place them in a preheated oven of 400 F for about 30-40 minutes, or until empanadas have a golden brown color.
- This recipe makes about 40 empanadas.
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