You don’t have to have Alpha Gal to crave these chicken and vegetable filled pastry pockets! They take a little time and effort, but you will wow everyone you serve these too and they make great leftovers if you can keep manage to save any. This recipe calls for deep frying the empanadas, but they can be baked as well.
Chicken Empanadas
Ingredients:
Directions:
Roll out the pastry dough as you would a pie crust, use flour to prevent sticking to the rolling pin. Cut dough into disks using a small bowl or something with a diameter of around 3-4 inches, I have a dumpling press for cutting and filling these, but you can do it by hand. Put filling in dough, brush the edge of the dough with egg, seal the dough by closing press or folding the dough over and pressing a fork against the edges crimping it.
Deep fry in 360F oil, I use peanut oil. They are done when golden brown. Alternate cooking method would be to bake them.
Shredded chicken:
Boneless skinless chicken thighs
Ground cumin
Garlic salt
Onion powder
Sprinkle seasonings on both sides of the chicken thighs. In a medium hot pan, sear both sides of chicken, just a couple minutes on each side. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and let the chicken braise in its own juices for 45 minutes until tender enough to shred with two forks. This chicken is great for tacos, burritos, sandwiches, etc.
Pastry dough:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 TBS duck fat (can use shortening, butter, or another fat)
1/2 cup ice water
Put dry ingredients in food processor, pulse to mix, add fat and begin to mix. Slowly add ice cold water until a dough is formed, you may need more or less water, I needed a little over 1/2 cup. Wrap in plastic wrap, refrigerate about an hour.
Filling:
1 medium onion diced (about 1/2 cup)
1 cup shredded carrots
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 cups shredded chicken
1 tsp ground cumin
Over medium heat, sauté onions and carrots for a few minutes until onions begin to become translucent, add garlic and cumin, sauté a minute or two, add peas sauté another minute or two. Sprinkle about a tsp of flour over the filling to thicken the liquid and mix. Remove from heat and cool.