Giant Beef Empanadas

These Beef Empanadas have a flavorful and savory filling inside a tenderly flaky crust. What’s even better is that this recipe is an easy one and y’all know those are my favorites.

Now here is our recipe for delicious Beef Empanadas.  A flavorful and savory filling inside a tenderly flaky crust. What’s even better is that this recipe is an easy one and y’all know those are my favorites. Life is complicated enough without bringing all that mess into our kitchens!

 You’ll need: Pie Crusts (You can make your own or use store brand roll out crusts), Cheddar Cheese, Salt, Diced Tomatoes, Pepper, Onion, Chili Powder, Cumin, and Ground Beef. 

Brown your beef and onion in a large skillet over medium high heat, breaking it up really well as you do. 

Like this. 

Add your tomatoes and seasonings and stir together. Return to heat. 

 Simmer uncovered stirring occasionally for 20-25 minutes until mixture thickens and most of tomato juice is absorbed.

Karen says it is important to place your pie crusts exactly where you want them because once you put the filling in there will be no moving without tearing. So I hung each over a bit on a large cookie sheet. That way I can just flip the top over and be done.

Place one unrolled pie crust at one end of greased cookie sheet. (If baking both giant empanadas on same cookie sheet think ahead about placement. Once beef is added you cannot move empanada).

Place half of beef mixture on half of pastry leaving one inch border around edges. 

Note: This is way too much filling. You can read about why below. 🙂 You should use about 2/3 of what you see here. If you have extra you can freeze it and have Empanadas for another day…

Sprinkle with about ½ of cheese (careful not to over fill with either beef or cheese) Carefully pull remaining dough over, covering meat and cheese meeting the edge of bottom crusts.Spoon your filling into each one.

And now more about the blow out…

Karen says not to overstuff your pie crust or you’ll have a blow out. These photographs are excellent examples of me overstuffing. I did have a blow out. Don’t overstuff. You need about 2/3 the amount of filling shown here.

If you do have a blow out you can patch it with more pie dough or cook it as is, it will be fine and still taste wonderful.

It drives me crazy when folks tell me something didn’t turn out perfectly and they threw it away. Seriously. I actually gasp in horror whenever I read one of those comments. Threw it away? Even my goofs get eaten. To this day I have never had a meal so bad that we couldn’t manage to eat it and call it supper.

Okay so you fold your beautiful pies over and then fold the edges up and press them to seal a bit. You can use a fork or just your fingers. Then, beat an egg and brush that over it, too.

Wanna see my blow out?

I patched it up with a little dough and smoothed it over a bit. A little meat and such popped out when I was cooking it but you know what?

It still ate just fine!

The world did not end.

No one felt the least bit horrified at the supper table when they saw it. They smiled and said it looked good and ate it up.

And if anyone had of thrown it away or acted horrified at my house…. well lets just say they know better because they were raised to know better :).

 Bake these at 400 for 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve with your choice of toppings. After one bite of these, I can see why it is one of her husband’s favorite recipes. My husband said “WOW! This is amazing!”

Giant Beef Empanadas

Giant, delicious Beef Empanadas featuring a flavorful and savory filling inside a tenderly flaky crust. What's even better is that this recipe is so easy!

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Prep Time: 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Course: Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: beef, empanadas

Servings: 4

Calories: 240kcal

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 cup onion chopped
• 1 cup green pepper chopped
• 1 can 14.5oz Diced Tomatoes, undrained
• 1 Tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese
• 2 refrigerated ready made pie crusts Karen uses Pillsbury
• 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 Tablespoon water Optional

Instructions

• Cook beef, onions & green pepper in skillet until meat is no longer pink; drain.
• Return beef mixture to skillet and stir in tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, salt, & pepper.
• Simmer uncovered stirring occasionally for 20-25 minutes until mixture thickens and most of tomato juice is absorbed.
• Place one unrolled pie crust at one end of greased cookie sheet. (If baking both giant empanadas on same cookie sheet think ahead about placement. Once beef is added you can not move empanada) Place half of beef mixture on half of pastry (like half moon shape ‘D’ ) leaving one inch border around edges. Sprinkle with about ½ of cheese (careful not to over fill with either beef or cheese)
• Carefully pull remaining dough over, covering meat and cheese meeting the edge of bottom crusts. Crimp edges with fork to seal all around.
• Brush top with yolk mixture. (You should have a half moon shape) Repeat above with remaining pastry.
• Bake at 400 for 20 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.
• Serve with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, sour cream and guacamole.

Notes

Notes: I rub a little water with my fingers around border of pastry. This will help the dough seal together, then crimp with fork.  I caution about planning ahead on the positioning of dough on pan…you can’t move it once filled! Also don’t overfill or pastry will break.  Pull dough slowly to try and slightly stretch it as you go over. To help with this you can roll dough a little bigger with rolling pin prior to placement.

Nutrition

Calories: 240kcal

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“Good people bring out the good in other people.” 

~Unknown

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