My First Baked Chicken Empanada Attempt

Hello, friends in Hive!
How are you all lately?

Tell me, are you like me? When emotions hit—whether I’m sad, happy, or just feeling a bit lonely—I immediately turn to food. Seriously, food is my constant companion! And since I need that comfort quickly, easy, homemade meals are the things I crave most. So, come hang out with me today as we make one of my all-time comfort foods: the baked chicken empanada.

An empanada is a baked or fried turnover consisting of a pastry and filling, popular in Spain, Latin America, and the Philippines. In the Philippines, the most common type of empanada you can buy is deep-fried, but since we avoid deep-fried food in my household, I will try making baked. I'm skeptical at first because I worried about being disappointed, or what if the dough wasn't flaky like how I wanted it to be. It's my first time making empanada because before, whenever I craved for some, it was easier to order than to make one. Did the recipe I made live up to my expectation? Let's find out!

For this recipe, here are all the ingredients I used:

Dough:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp white sugar

120 grams cold Magnolia Gold Butter

1 cup cold water

Filling:

500 grams chicken breast (boiled and shredded)

30 grams oyster sauce

50 grams Mamasita's All-Purpose Marinade

12 grams Lee Kum Kee Hoisin Sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup of water

1/2 tbsp of cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbsp of water

1 large beaten egg for the egg wash

Instructions:

• Prepare the dough first by combining all-purpose flour, salt, sugar, and butter. Mix the cold butter into the flour mixture by hand until you create what looks more like a sandy, cornmeal mixture. This procedure is very important to achieve a flaky dough.

• Add the cold water to the mixture until it all incorporates. This recipe does not require kneading. Just incorporate all the dough ingredients together until you create one ball of dough.

• Cover the dough in cling wrap and set it aside in the chiller while we prepare the chicken filling.

• In a pan, mix the oyster sauce, all-purpose marinade, hoisin sauce, and salt, pepper, and water, then let it simmer.

• Once simmering, add the shredded chicken breast, and continue cooking until the sauce is almost absorbed by the meat.

• Add the cornstarch slurry and simmer for a few more minutes.

• To assemble the empanada, divide the dough to your desired size (I was able to make 23 medium empanadas from this recipe).

• In a flat surface, flatten the dough using a rolling pin. I used an empanada molder, but you can also make it without one by flattening the dough using a circular mold, or anything with a circular tip such as a bowl.

• In a circular, flattened dough, put 1-2 tbsp of filling and fold it together. To seal, you can use a tip of the fork or just simply pinch the ends together to secure the filling inside.

• Arrange the empanadas in the baking tray or air fryer lined with parchment paper.

• In a preheated oven or in an air fryer, bake the empanadas for 12 minutes, then remove from the oven.

• Brush the empanadas with the egg wash, put the empanada back in the oven, and continue cooking for 5 minutes.

• Remove from the oven and let it cool.

• Serve and enjoy!

The hardest part of making this recipe is the waiting part for it to cool down, and the aroma of freshly baked empanadas all over the house isn't helping at all, as we know that trying to hold off food fresh from the oven is a real danger. lol

The end result of this recipe: the dough was light and flaky just how I wanted it. It's not as crunchy compared to the deep-fried ones, but it was good, and the filling was surprisingly savory, given how simple the process of making it was.

I didn't bake all the empanadas I made. I put the rest in a sealed container, then I put it in the freezer. It turned out to be the best idea for a quick and easy snack ready in 15 minutes in the air fryer.

❤️❤️❤️

_{All photos are my own, unless stated otherwise.
The lead image was edited using Canva.}