Coriander and lime chicken empanadas

March 10, 2016 (Last Updated: February 25, 2019)
Coriander and lime chicken empanadas

Delicious light pastry packed with flavour.

Recipe by Ingrid Casson & Leila Saffarian
Photography by Dylan Swart

Coriander and lime chicken empanadas

Ingredients

  • Pastry

  • 360g (3 cups) cake flour
  • a pinch of salt
  • 10ml (2 tsp) sugar
  • 15ml (1 tbsp) baking powder
  • 120g (½ cup) lard or shortening
  • 1 egg
  • 180ml (¾ cup) chicken stock
  • Chicken filling

  • 3 roasted chicken breasts, shredded
  • a small handful of fresh coriander, chopped
  • 1 small red chilli, chopped
  • Maldon Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 5ml (1 tsp) ground coriander
  • 2,5ml (½ tsp) dried red chilli flakes (optional)
  • juice of 1 lime
  • oil, for frying
  • fresh lime wedges, to serve

Instructions

1

For the pastry, mix all of the dry ingredients together. Cut into the lard with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

2

Whisk the egg and mix into the chicken stock. Add the egg and stock to the flour mixture and knead until a dough forms. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3

For the filling, combine the shredded chicken, fresh coriander, fresh chilli, seasoning, ground coriander, dried chilli and lime juice. Mix well and set aside.

4

Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough to 1cm thick. Cut into 10cmdiameter rounds for small empanadas, 12cm for medium or 15cm for large. Place 15ml (1 tbsp) of filling in the centre of the dough round for small empanadas, 30ml (2 tbsp) for medium and 45ml (3 tbsp) for large.

5

Fold the dough over to make a filled half-circle and use a fork to press the edges together.

6

Fry in hot oil until golden brown, about 6 – 7 minutes. Drain on paper towel and serve with plenty of fresh lime.

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