Easy as Pie Chicken Empanada Recipe

5 from 1 vote

This Easy as Pie Chicken Empanada Recipe is just that! From the masa corn dough, chicken tinga filling, to the creamy chipotle dip! Oh, so yummy!

Prep Time15

Cook Time20

Total Time35

Course: Appetizer, Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Servings:

Calories: 348kcal

2 chicken breasts or already made rotisserie chicken, cut off breasts (shredded)
3 plum tomatoes chopped
2 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
1 small or ½ large white onion chopped
2 chipotle peppers in adobe sauce seeds removed or left in if you want your chicken mixture to be spicy then chop peppers
¼ cup fresh cilantro chopped
1 teaspoon powdered chicken broth
¼ teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

In a bowl mix 2 cups of the Maseca corn dough with 1 ½ cups water and mix well with your hands. The dough will start to form. Form 2 or 3 inch balls with your hands, you will yield about 10- 12 balls. Set aside on a platter and cover with a moist paper towel to prevent balls from drying out while you prepare your chicken mixture.

In a frying pan over medium heat, add the 2 tablespoons of oil and onion. Cook for about 5 min or until onions are translucent. Add tomatoes and garlic, cook for a minute.
Add chicken, chipotle peppers, cumin, chicken powder and cilantro. Mix well together and add salt and pepper to taste. Cook all together for about 5 minutes.
Note: If mixture is dry, you can add a few tablespoons of water to moisten. Turn stove off and set pan aside, let chicken cool off. Chicken must be cool before putting in empanada dough or your dough may fall apart.

While chicken is cooling off, make your sauce for your empanadas. Add all sauce ingredients to a blender or chopper. Add the plain yogurt, mexican crema or sour cream with chipotle peppers, lime juice and salt to taste. Blend well. Set aside.
Note: You can also leave the seeds in peppers for extra heat.

Now to form the empanadas. With scissors, cut open a ziploc bag on both sides to make one long piece or you can cut to form 2 separate pieces. Now get a pie bowl or heavy skillet.
Using the ziploc bag, add one of the masa balls in between ziploc bag. Place the skillet or pie bowl on top and gently press down to form a disc. Now add about 2-3 tablespoons of chicken mixture to one side of empanada dough and using the ziploc bag flip side of empanada over to cover side with mixture.
Seal the sides of empanada with fingers to form a seal.
Remove empanada from ziploc and set aside on a platter. Repeat steps with all the masa balls.

Heat skillet over medium heat with 1-2 cups of oil. Gently add empanada to oil when oil is hot. Cook for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.
Drain empanadas on paper towels.
Serve with dipping chipotle sauce. Add sauce to each bite of yumminess. Enjoy!