Chicken empanadas are made with delicious homemade dough and stuffed with an irresistible filling of shredded chicken, garlic, red onion, and cilantro. These hand held empanadas are perfect as appetizers or snacks at any occasion!
Fried Chicken Empanadas Recipe
I’m a firm believer that fried empanadas are the superior empanadas! Some recipes are baked, but there’s just something about the joys of biting into a freshly fried empanada that can’t be beat.
Often, empanada fillings can be dried out and bland, depending on where you’re buying them. You don’t have to worry about that with this easy recipe – the filling used to stuffed these bad boys is seasoned to perfection and loaded with flavorful ingredients!
If you love a good recipe that requires eating with your hands, you’ll love Southwest Chicken Eggrolls and Easy Chicken Lettuce Wraps!
Why You’ll Love this Chicken Empanada Recipe:
- Perfect appetizers: These make the perfect appetizers for so many reasons. Primarily because they’re what I call a “grab and go” finger food. Make a batch for game day or a pool party!
- Fried: When you fry an empanada, the dough becomes crunchy and browned on the outside, while the inside is still soft and slightly chewy.
- Flavorful: These chicken empanadas are the total opposite of bland. Made with seasonings like smoked paprika and cumin, you won’t miss out on any flavor with every bite!
How to make Chicken Empanadas
Be sure to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!
- Sauté the onion, garlic, cilantro, and spices.
- Combine the chicken, corn, ranch dressing, onion mix, salt and pepper.
- Prepare the empanada dough.
- Fill and fold the empanadas.
- Heat the frying oil.
- Fry the empanadas until they’re golden brown.
- Drain the excess oil on a paper towel.
What should I serve with chicken empanadas?
To compliment the ranch that the empanada filling is made with, I like serving them with a small bowl of ranch for dipping!
To heat things up, you can also make spicy ranch by stirring in some hot sauce.
Can I make them ahead?
I don’t recommend frying these empanadas until you’re ready to serve them. However, you can still prepare them ahead of time by creating the dough, then filling and folding the empanadas!
The uncooked empanadas will stay fresh in the refrigerator for about 24 hours. Just make sure they’re in an airtight container so the dough doesn’t dry out!
Can I freeze these empanadas?
To freeze the empanadas once they’ve been fried, first place them in an airtight container. They’ll stay fresh in the freezer for up to 3 months.
When you’re ready to enjoy them again, place them in the oven at 350°F and let them heat up for about 20 minutes. All ovens are different, so check on the frozen empanadas periodically as they reheat!
Recipe Tips and Notes
- The best way to make sure your oil is hot enough is to do a “bubble test.” Carefully place something in the oil, like a piece of corn. If the oil immediately bubbles around it, it’s hot enough to fry the empanadas.
- Don’t make the empanada dough too thin! It should be about 1/4 inch thick. If it’s too thin, the empanadas will most likely fall apart in the hot oil.
- If you want to make these spicy, you can easily accomplish that by adding a chopped jalapeño or a tablespoon of cayenne powder!
These easy chicken empanadas are the ultimate party finger food. Whip up a batch for your next celebration! Be ready though, because everyone will be asking you for this recipe.
More Mexican Chicken recipes we love
- Easy Chicken Enchiladas
- Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos
- Chicken Fajitas
- Chicken Enchilada Skillet
- Mexican Chicken Sheet Pan Nachos
If you’ve made this recipe, please be sure to let us know by leaving a star rating or a comment below. Enjoy!
Fried Chicken Empanadas Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon red onion minced
- 1 garlic clove peeled and minced
- 1 teaspoon fresh cilantro chopped
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ pound shredded chicken
- 2 tablespoons corn
- 2 tablespoons ranch dressing
- Sea salt and black pepper to taste
- Oil to fry
- For the Empanadas dough
- 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Sea salt
- ½ cup plus 1 ½ tablespoons luke warm water
- 2 ½ tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Heat a non-stick skillet on low-medium heat with oil. Saute onion, garlic, cilantro and spices until fragrant. Remove from heat.
- In a medium bowl, add chicken, corn, ranch dressing, salt and pepper with onion mix. Combine all together and set aside.
- Prepare Empanadas dough. In a mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, salt, water and butter. Mix with your hands until a dough forms. Knead for 5 minutes. Transfer dough on a floured surface, flour the pin roll too. Roll dough to ¼ inch thick and use a 3.14 inch cookie cutter to cut out the rounds. Re roll scraps to make more rounds until no more dough is left.
- Put ¾ – 1 tablespoon filling in the center and lightly moisture the edge with water. Fold with your fingers and use a fork to crimp edges together. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
- Heat oil in a large deep pan to fry empanadas. Fry until golden brown, place on kitchen paper to remove excess of oil.
- Serve immediately. Enjoy.
Liberty Wilczewski says
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