Empanadas

Empanadas

While strictly not a Spanish dish, Empanadas are a great tapas dish. Hailing from South America, they are a small pasty, often filled with spicy fillings.

Empanadas are a perfect snack to cook on the Egg and take advantage of the Eggs ability to bake.  They alsoways disappear in minutes when we cook them.

Here I do two different fillings, a chicken and chorizo mix and a roasted corn and cheese mix. Both are lovely.  We also have a recipe for Spicy Chicken Empanadas.

If you don’t want to make your own dough, then you can substitute with a pack of pre-made shortcrust pastry, this works equally as well.

Method

For the dough

1. Mix the flour, 1 of the eggs and the salted butter together in a food processor with 3tbsp of cold water.
2. The dough should form a ball, we’re looking for a soft dough. Add more water if required.
3. Wrap the dough in cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. When ready, roll out the dough on a floured surface until it’s about 3mm thick (I normally do this in 2 halves).
5. Use a 12cm pastry cutter to cut round pieces to make the Empanadas from.

For the veggie mix

1. Set up your Egg for direct grilling with the stainless grid and toast the corn on the cob in a pan until the kernels start to blacken.
2. Cool the corn a little before cutting the kernels from the cob.
3. Chop the spring onions into small pieces.
4. Coarsely grate the cheddar.
5. Finely chop the chilli.
6. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl ready to be used as a filling.

For the Chicken and Chorizo filling

1. Cook the chicken thighs on your Egg over a direct heat in a pag. Once cooked, the internal temperature of the chicken should be 74°C, cool then dice into small pieces.
2. Chop the chorizo into small chunks.
3. Dice your onion.
4. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl ready to be used as a filling.

Preparing your Empanadas

1. Set up your Egg for indirect grilling with the convEGGtor, stainless steel grid and baking stone.
2. Place a dessert spoon of your preferred topping into the centre of one of your pastry circles. Don’t overdo the amount of filling as you won’t be able to close the Empanada.
3. Using a pastry brush or a finger wet the pastry around half of the circle.
4. Fold over the pastry casing onto the wet area, this will help the Empanada seal itself.
5. Use a fork to lightly crimp the edge of the Empanada.
6. Use the second egg from the dough recipe as an egg wash on your prepped Empanadas.
7. Optionally, sprinkle the Empanadas with sesame seeds.
8. I use a baking tray with a circle of baking parchment to transfer the Empanadas to the Egg,
9. Bake the Empanadas for about 13-15 minutes on the baking stone within your Egg at about 200°C or until golden brown.
10. Take off the Egg and place on a wire rack to cool a little.