Today is National Empanada Day and the Empanada Intifada, a guerilla gourmet food truck serving SlapYourThigh delicious, life-reaffirming, health-promoting, local, seasonal, damn-near-treasonously good empanadas from New Orleans has shared their recipe for Chicken Adobo Empanadas in honor of this occasion.
Chicken Adobo Empanadas
Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 120 minutes | Yield: 10 empanadas
INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs boneless dark meat chicken
1 tbsp peppercorns,
roughly ground or chopped
6 cloves minced garlic
1/2 c soy sauce
3/4 c rice vinegar
1 medium potato
1/2 c water
1/2 c rice
1 tomato
1 egg
1 package of frozen empanada dough discs (available at Latin groceries and usually come in packages of 10 discs)
DIRECTIONS:
Filling
Combine chicken, peppercorns, garlic, soy sauce, and rice vinegar in large pot. Bring to boil, and then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, covered, for 1
hour, stirring occasionally.
In separate pots, boil potato and partially cook rice (1/2 cup water to 1/2 cup rice). Chop boiled potato into small pieces. Add both rice and potato to chicken,
and continue cooking until they soak up excess liquid.
Separate egg white from yolk. In a small pan, fry egg white in a teaspoon of oil, then chop coarsely and set aside. Save yolk for later.
Chop tomato.
When liquid in the filling is nearly fully absorbed, add egg white and tomato to filling.
Allow to cool in a refrigerator at least one hour.
Dough
Allow dough discos to thaw. Discos should be just below room temperature before wrapping empanadas.
Add 1/3 cup of filling to the center of each disc, fold dough in half over filling, and then either crimp edges with fork or use the repulque technique to seal (several excellent repulque
videos are available on YouTube).
Once empanada is wrapped, brush the top of each empanada with the egg yolk saved earlier.
Bake at 375° F in a greased pan for approximately 25 to 35 minutes or until the empanadas are golden brown.
