Chicken Empanadas

Happy Sunday Everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend…
When it comes to cooking chicken, I like to experiment with different kinds of dishes.
This time around, I made chicken empanadas and the result was delicious. Preparing the perfectly crisp empanada dough and a flavorful filling at home is not only easy, but also a great way to experiment with seasonings and spices of your choice. Adding herbs such as Thyme/Oregano to the dough will reward you with a flavorful empanada. You can also make the filling ahead of time and store in the refrigerator for 1-2 days and assemble them just before baking and frying. It is really that easy. If you don’t want to fry the empanadas, you can bake them at 375 F for 15-20 minutes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Make sure you brush the empanadas with egg wash before baking.
The filling recipe you’ll find below is highly-customizable. You can substitute chicken with any other meat of your choice. You can also use any herbs and any kind of olives (I used Kalamata Olives). The list of ingredients may look exhausting but you may already have most of the listed ingredients in your pantry. Once, you’ve made these empanadas, you would never want to buy them at the grocery store again.

Ingredients
For the dough:
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoons Sugar
Pinch salt
3 Tablespoon Cold Butter, cut into small cubes
1 egg
1/2 cup chicken stock/ water
1 Teaspoon Dried Thyme or any herb of your choice (optional)
For the filling:
1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
3/4 Pound Ground Chicken
3 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon Tomato Paste
1 Teaspoon Ground Cumin
1/2 Teaspoon Chili Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
1 teaspoon Sea Salt or to taste
1 Medium Onion, finely chopped
1 Teaspoon Capers
1 Tablespoon Kalamata Olives, finely chopped
3-4 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil, for frying

Process
Dough:

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, thyme/ herbs, salt and cold butter cubes in a large bowl, until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and then whisk in the stock. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and knead to form a dough. Cover and set the dough aside for half hour.

Filling:

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, add minced garlic and onions and saute for 3-4 minutes until the onions become soft and translucent.
2. Add the ground chicken, salt, chili powder, ground cumin and oregano and cook for additional 5-6 minutes.
3. Finally add the tomato paste, olives and capers and cook on high for 5 minutes until all the moisture has evaporated. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
4. Let the filling come to room temperature.
5. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out 5 inch rounds,using a cookie cutter.
6. Add a tablespoon of filling to each empanada and fold the dough over in half to enclose the filling. Use a fork to press and seal the edges closed.
7. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan on Medium – High heat. Shallow fry the empanadas until golden brown, 3-4 minutes on each side.

Enjoy!