Friday, January 01, 2010

Happy New Year and a Recipe for Filipino-Style Chicken Empanadas


I haven’t done much cooking in the last few weeks. It has been a mad rush to get ready for the holidays, fly home to San Diego and fly back. I made these empanadas a few weeks ago but neglected to post about them.

This is my favorite recipe for chicken empanadas. I came up with the recipe after tasting the chicken empanadas from the Filipino bakery in San Diego. I haven’t made them in a while. They are a pain to make and they do require a great deal of patience. I was feeling especially patient on this particular occasion.

Filling:
1 pound chicken breast
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 large potato, finely diced
1 carrot, shredded
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup peas
salt
pepper

Pastry:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
ice water

Egg Wash:
1 egg
2 tablespoons water

1. Place chicken in small saucepan, cover with water and poach until cooked.
2. Combine flour, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times to until the dough resembles coarse cornmeal. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with ice water. Stir to combine. Add just enough water to hold dough together. Form into two disks, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
3. Remove chicken from the poaching broth. Reserve broth. Finely dice the chicken breast and transfer to a bowl.
4. Heat a large sauté pan and add oil. When oil is hot, sauté garlic and onions until translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients and sauté a few more minutes. Add about a half cup of reserved poaching broth to mixture and cook until liquid is evaporated.


5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
6. Remove the dough from refrigerator and roll to about ¼ thick. Cut dough into circles. I have a handy empanada cutter/filler kit somewhere at my parent’s house.
7. Fill each circle with filling, fold over and press edges firmly with tines of a fork to seal.


8. Brush each empanada with egg wash and bake in preheated oven until golden.

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