Avoid These Common Mistakes When Making Empanadas

Stuffed, versatile, hand-held, comforting — what's not to love about empanadas? The traditional Latin American pastry (similar in appearance to a calzone, but a totally different dish) features a wheat or corn-based pastry dough folded in a crescent moon shape around sweet or savory fillings. As a snack or the main event, empanadas are popular around the globe as a delicious and endlessly customizable dish that can be made with almost whatever ingredients you have in your fridge.

No matter how you make yours, the number one tip for empanada mastery is resisting the urge to overfill them, says Jose Horrach, the executive chef at Chica & The Don, a New York City restaurant and winner of Condé Nast's "best new restaurant NYC" 2024 award. Horrach, who offers Latin-American-inspired fare, told Chowhound the trick to restaurant-worthy empanadas is all about the technique of filling them — and crucially remembering that less is more. "You have to think of empanadas like you're filling a ravioli. No matter how sealed the edges are, if there is too much filling, it will burst almost every time," warned Horrach.

As anyone who's ever tried their hand at ravioli, pirogies, or homemade spring rolls can attest to, keeping delicate, breakage-prone pastry dough intact can be a struggle. Heed Horrach's advice and reign yourself in. You may need to use far less filling than you think you need, but have faith that as the empanadas cook and the inners expand, you'll be glad. 

Another expert tip for keeping your empanadas intact is caring for your dough before you begin the stuffing process. If you're trying to make magic happen with either overly dry or soggy dough, or pastry that's either too thick or too thin, the task of keeping empanadas from leaking or bursting will be difficult if not impossible. 

Save yourself the frustration of trying to patch or mend uncooperative dough and get your dough right beforehand. This means letting it defrost naturally if you're using frozen dough, according to Jose Horrach. Resist the temptation to speed up the thawing process, and "don't submerge it in water or anything of the sort," said Horrach. "This causes the dough to get very wet inside the packaging, thus making it very difficult to handle." 

Once your empanadas are stuffed with just enough filling — be it savory or sweet — be sure to seal the edges together and firmly crimp down on them with the prongs of a fork. Then, it's time to bake or fry them to golden perfection. Like with any baking or culinary venture, mastery comes from repetition and time — so if you wind up with a busted empanada or two in the process on your first go-around, don't fret. Just enjoy eating the fruits of your experiment, and remember that with practice comes delicious, flaky perfection.