Beef Empanadas

When I traveled to Puerto Rico I ate an excessive amount of empanadas and swore I'd learn how to make them once I got home. These empanadas are inspired by Puerto Rican beef empanadillas. They are absolutely delicious and great for meal prepping. I usually double the recipe and freeze half of the empanadas so I can take them out for dinners/lunches on my lazy days. For this recipe I just use the Goya empanada wrappers but you could also make your own dough and that recipe is also below.

Ingredients:

• 2 -3 pounds ground beef

• 2 medium potatoes

• ½ cup Goya Sofrito (red)

• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce

• 1 packet Goya Sazon con Azafran

• 1 glass jar Goya Spanish olives

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 1 tsp black pepper

• ½ tsp Aleppo pepper/red pepper flakes

• 1 tsp paprika

• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

• ½ tsp chili powder

• Olive oil

• Goya empanada wrappers

Directions:

1. First preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Next coat the bottom of a large pan with olive oil and heat, then add in the ground beef, cook completely and use the spatula to chop the meat into small pieces.

3. While the meat cooks, fork and microwave the potatoes for 6-8 minutes. Then finely chop the potatoes and add them into the pan with the beef.

4. Then add the tomato sauce, sofrito, and spices into the pan.

5. Cover and cook on low heat for 15 minutes.

6. Meanwhile finely chop the spanish olives, after the 15 minutes, mix them into the beef.

7. Cover once again, and allow to cook for 5 minutes.

8. Now that the filling is complete, grab the goya empanada wrappers. Dust the surface you'll be working on with flour, then use a rolling pin to just slightly roll the wrapper out a bit larger. Next place the filling on one half of the wrapper, fold over the opposite side and use a fork to close the edges. Then set the empanada to a flour dusted surface or on a greased baking sheet. And repeat till you're out of filling.

9. Now you can either bake or fry the empanadas, I usually bake, once they're all completed place the empanadas into the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

10. To fry them, get a deep pot and fill it about 2 inches with oil (canola/avocado), heat the oil (8-10 minutes), then add the empanadas into the oil 1 to 2 at a time and cook on each side for 2-3 minutes (until golden). Then remove from the oil, and place on a drying rack or paper towels to drain excess oil. Make sure the heat isn't too high to ensure the oil doesn't burn.

11. Next serve with sourcream, guacamole and cilantro and enjoy!

Empanada dough:

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups all purpose flour

• 1 egg

• ¼ cup water

• 1 stick butter

• 1 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Add the flour, cold butter (cut into small cubes/pieces), egg, water and salt into a bowl and use a fork to mix until it resembles coarse crumbs (can also add into a food processor)

2. Next dust your work surface with flour, pour out mixture and form into a ball with your hands.

3. Then wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

4. When ready to make empanadas, dust the work surface with flour, roll out the dough with a rolling pin as thin as possible.

5. Then use a bowl to make imprints in the dough and use a knife to cut out the circles.

6. Continue rolling out and cutting out circles until all of the dough is used up.