When you study food, drink, and culture you see patterns, where foods have a common theme. The pattern I found was with pastys and empanadas. Pastys are a Welsh meat pie similar to a pot pie. Empanadas are of Spanish, Carribean, and Mexican origin (most likely Spanish).

I grew up in Michigan, pastys were a staple growing up. This may be an east side and northern part of the state thing, because on the west side you don’t see nearly as many shops advertising them. But I digress…

The video for this was rather large so to make it easier for viewing I broke it down into two parts. The recipe I used for the shoot was also cut in half. The recipe I offer below is a full portion.

Chicken Empanada

Recipe:
Dough:
4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 Tablespoons butter chilled and cut into 1tablespoon pieces
1 egg
roughly 1/2 cup ice cold water

Filling:
1 lb chicken breast (marinated over night in lime juice or beer, oregano and cilantro )
1 can black beans (or 2 cups cooked dry black beans)
1/2 can whole kernal corn
1 clove garlic
2 medium onion (small dice)
1 can diced tomato
1 ancho chili (softened and chopped)
3 chili de arbol(softened and chopped)
1/2 cup red wine (or beer I used rum rebellion)

Method:
Dough:
Cut the butter into the flour till it starts to form small pea sized pieces. Mix in the egg. And finally slowly add water mixing each addition till the whole mass comes together and can form into a ball. Cut in half, cover and then refrigerate for at least 45 minutes

Filling:
I prefer to pre cook the chicken so I can pull it but you can start now by cooking the chicken a bit of oil till cooked through. Remove the chicken from the pan and add the onion, peppers, and garlic. Cook these till the onion starts becoming translucent.
Add the tomato and the wine and boil down till most of the liquid has been absorbed. Finally add the beans, corn, and pulled or cut chicken and heat through.

To finish, roll out the dough like you would pie crust. Place filling on bottom crust and then cover with top crust. Seal the edges by brushing the edge of the bottom crust with egg wash and then tamping down with the tines of a fork. Brush the top crust with egg wash then make a couple slices so that steam can escape.

Cook at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.

Side note: You can make these pretty packages into smaller portions before you cook them too. Basically they can personalized for each person you will be feeding if you want to do something like that. But that’s all just part of the fun of cooking.

And while you do all that, I will find a pint…

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