Argentinian Empanadas

Name: Argentinian Empanadas
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 1 h 25 min
Yield: 12 servings
Cuisine: Argentinian
Ingredients: For the Dough (masa para empanadas):; 500g all-purpose flour; 1 tsp fine salt; 1 tsp sugar; 120g cold lard or unsalted butter, diced small; 1 large egg; Approximately 160–180ml cold water; 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp milk (for egg wash); For the Beef Filling (relleno):; 500g ground beef (min. 15% fat — lean beef makes dry empanadas); 2 tbsp lard or neutral oil; 2 medium white onions, finely diced; 3 spring onions (green onions), thinly sliced; 1 red bell pepper, finely diced; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1.5 tsp ground cumin; 1.5 tsp sweet paprika (pimentón dulce); 1/2 tsp hot paprika or chili flakes; 1/2 tsp ground black pepper; 1/2 tsp dried oregano; 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste; 3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and roughly chopped; 100g green olives, pitted and roughly chopped; 2 tbsp raisins (optional — traditional in northern provinces); 1 tbsp white wine or beef stock (if filling seems dry)

Golden, flaky pastry shells crimped into half-moons and baked until deeply bronzed — each one stuffed with a fragrant mixture of ground beef, hard-boiled egg, green onion, cumin, and sweet paprika. Argentina's most beloved portable food, with each province guarding its own filling variation as fiercely as a state secret.

⏱60 min prep 🔥25 min cook ⏰85 min total 🍽12 servings 📊medium

The Cultural Story

The empanada arrived in Argentina via Spain, which had adopted it from the Moors of North Africa during the centuries of Andalusian rule. The word derives from the Spanish "empanar" — to wrap in bread — and the concept of encasing filling in a flour dough casing appears across nearly every culture that has ever made bread. But Argentina claimed the empanada as its own and transformed it over three hundred years into something specific to the Río de la Plata: the beef empanada, built around the country's most abundant and celebrated ingredient, seasoned with the spice vocabulary of the colonial Andes, and baked or fried to a standard that Argentinians hold with genuine patriotic feeling. Every Argentine province has its canonical empanada style, and Argentinians will defend their regional version with the conviction that all others are inferior. Salta, in the northwest, makes small, juicy empanadas with diced (not ground) beef, potato, and a generous hand with cumin. Tucumán fries theirs in deep lard, resulting in a blistered, crisp shell. Mendoza, the wine country, adds plump raisins to the beef filling, a medieval Arab inheritance via Spain. Buenos Aires makes larger, milder empanadas suited to a cosmopolitan city. Catamarca adds sugar to the dough for a slightly sweet crust. Each region signals its filling to the buyer through the repulgue — the crimp pattern along the sealed edge — so that you know what you are getting before the first bite. The Argentine empanada is inescapably social food. Empanada-making is a family event: dividing the dough, rolling the discs, assembling the filling, the choreography of crimping hundreds of edges while standing around a kitchen table. They are served at asados (barbecues), at birthday parties, at political rallies, at every gathering where people need to eat standing up. They travel without complaint, improve in a paper bag on a car seat, and are perhaps the most perfectly designed food for a country that values both the outdoors and its beef.

Ingredients

For the Dough (masa para empanadas):
500g all-purpose flour
1 tsp fine salt
1 tsp sugar
120g cold lard or unsalted butter, diced small
1 large egg
Approximately 160–180ml cold water
1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp milk (for egg wash)
For the Beef Filling (relleno):
500g ground beef (min. 15% fat — lean beef makes dry empanadas)
2 tbsp lard or neutral oil
2 medium white onions, finely diced
3 spring onions (green onions), thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 tsp ground cumin
1.5 tsp sweet paprika (pimentón dulce)
1/2 tsp hot paprika or chili flakes
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and roughly chopped
100g green olives, pitted and roughly chopped
2 tbsp raisins (optional — traditional in northern provinces)
1 tbsp white wine or beef stock (if filling seems dry)

Instructions

1Make the filling first (must be completely cool before filling the dough): Heat lard or oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add white onion and bell pepper. Cook, stirring, for 10–12 minutes until completely soft and starting to caramelize.
2Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Add ground beef, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon. Cook until no longer pink, about 6 minutes.
3Add cumin, sweet paprika, hot paprika, black pepper, oregano, and salt. Stir well to coat the meat. Taste the seasoning — Argentine empanadas are well-seasoned; be generous with the cumin and paprika. Add a splash of wine or stock if the mixture seems dry. Cook 2 more minutes.
4Remove from heat. Stir in spring onions. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Only when the filling is fully cool should you add the chopped hard-boiled egg and olives (heat scrambles the egg and turns the olives bitter). Stir them in gently. The filling should hold together when pressed.
5Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and sugar. Add cold lard or butter. Using your fingertips, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs with pea-sized pieces of fat throughout.
6Beat the egg with 160ml cold water. Pour over the flour mixture and stir with a fork until the dough just comes together. Turn out and knead gently for 1–2 minutes until smooth. Do not overwork. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate 20 minutes.
7Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F). Line two baking sheets with parchment.
8Roll and fill: On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to about 3mm thickness. Cut rounds using a 12–14cm cutter (a wide-mouthed bowl works well). Re-roll scraps once.
9Place a disc in your palm. Add 2–3 tbsp of cold filling to the center, slightly off-center toward you. Keep the outer 1.5cm clear of filling. Fold the disc in half over the filling, aligning the edges. Press the edges firmly to seal, then crimp: starting at one end, fold a small section of the edge over itself to create a rope-like border (the repulgue). Work along the entire sealed edge. Alternatively, press firmly with a fork — it seals reliably even if it lacks elegance.
10Place on prepared baking sheets. Brush generously with egg wash. Bake 20–25 minutes until deeply golden brown. Rotate the tray halfway through for even colour.
11Rest for 5 minutes before eating — the filling is extremely hot immediately from the oven. Serve with chimichurri, salsa criolla (diced tomato and onion with vinegar), or just as they are. Empanadas are best eaten warm, but are excellent at room temperature.

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