Giant Beef Empanadas
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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!”
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
Nutrition
“Good people bring out the good in other people.”
~Unknown
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These look absolutely delicious. We love bell peppers cooked with our ground beef when making Tex-Mex foods. Wonder if you could use puff pastry with these. Might be worth a try. Thanks for sharing.
Your upbringing and mine are very similar but they would be; we’re both Southern women brought up by women, and men, who knew the dangers of hunger. Around here, there aren’t that many leftovers, unless I plan it thataway to share with my dogs. Although my husband has passed, I still can, freeze, dry and put up food; it’s difficult making for one now but I believe these will freeze nicely…time will tell.
mmm, looks really yummy and will have to try it…..i saw yr pampered chef tool in the hb meat, is’t it wonderful?? love mine and will be getting some SAMs pans…mine dont look too bad but i do use a bit of elbow grease to keep them shiny.
Hi Miz Christy! Can you tell me when your third, newest cookbook will be ready to be purchased? I am anxiously awaiting procuring it!!!! Thanks so much.
Take care,
Nancee
Christy-I love your recipes and detailed instructions! This was so delicious…it’s our new Mexican night recipe!
I am so glad you like it!!!
Hi Christy! My motto has always been “this is the way it’s supposed to be”! My other motto is “if you leave my kitchen hungry, it’s your own fault! Works for me.
Those are great sayings! I always say,” If you want to plan,shop, stand in line to pay for, prepare, and clean up after, you can have anything you want!” I’m using yours now,too!
I made these over the weekend and they were GREAT!! Karen, thanks so much for the recipe, and your tips in the comments (leaving the pie crusts at room temp for 5 to 10 minutes before filling them, and allowing the beef to cool off a bit before filling the crusts).
Christy, once again, I really need to thank you for your photos and your excellent instructions. The photos were particularly helpful with this recipe, as far as laying out the pie crust on the pan. And I really appreciate your tips about being careful where you place them because you can’t move them once filled, and also not to overfill them.
I used my large round pizza pan, which worked out great because the lip is so thin. I was able to place them on the pan with about a third hanging off the pan, then filled the crusts, and flipped the other part over to cover it. By the way, I used store brand pie crusts and had no issues except for some minor cracking on one of them when I rolled it out. But, I just used a drop of water to kind of smush it back together. Also, my crusts weren’t frozen so I think that might help. With the egg wash, they came out nice and brown and crispy.
These empanadas were so darn delicious! I will be making these again, and often. Thank you!!
Hi Samantha!!! I am so glad you enjoyed the empanadas!! Thank you so much for sharing some of your tips that made it easier, hopefully they will go on to help someone else!!!
Hi, Christy. I made this again for dinner tonight because we just LOVE these empanadas!! It’s become another favorite. LOL, I don’t think I have enough time to make all the recipes of yours that I love… But I’m sure trying!! 🙂
You are so sweet Samantha!! I am so glad you are enjoying the recipes!!
WOW!!!!! Super informative. I find it itntreseing that an anesthesiologist is the speaking on this. He knows the body and the effects drugs have on our bodies. But he has taken that to another level, by changing the way we think about our bodies and what we were told to think. I love his honesty about going slow otherwise you will want to go back to your old eating ways. Good Look!!!!!! Thank you 4 spreading the word!