Cheesy Chicken Empanadas Recipe
Amazing and easy dinner for any night of the week! Use leftovers or rotisserie chicken to make it even easier. Try this Simple Cheesy Chicken Empanadas recipe.
Can I just say that I am so excited about this weeks meal deal!? Not only is it a quick and easy meal, you can make it ahead and freeze them. Plus, what a great little appetizer for a party or a great dish to take to a party! Oh, I am just giddy with excitement. It is the simple things in life that make me happy…it doesn’t take much (obviously!) :)I have said a gazillion times, recipes come out of necessity at my house. This one was out of the necessity to have a recipe to share with you, and about 1 hour on the clock to come up with something. I made chicken for dinner with Lawry’s Baja Chipotle marinade. I swear by that stuff! I love…love…love it! I always make extra! So, I diced it up and came up with these little bad boys.
Feel free to take this one and make it your own. Use beef instead of chicken, add jalapenos, chilis, peppers, onions…whatever floats your boat. I kept them simple this time, but I plan on getting more creative with them next time.
So, here are my quick and easy Cheesy Chicken Empanadas!
Cheesy Chicken Empanadas
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked chicken chopped
- 1 8 oz. package shredded Cheddar cheese (you could use any type you like)
- 4 ounces softened cream cheese
- 1 Tbsp. Cumin
- 1 tsp. Garlic salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 1 15 oz. Package refrigerated pie crusts
- 1 egg & water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Line a Baking Sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl combine the chicken, cheeses, and spices.
- Unroll 1 piecrust onto a lightly floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll it into a 15 inch circle..Or close to.
- Cut into rounds, using a 3 inch cookie cutter or bowl. Re-roll dough as needed. Repeat with the remaining pie crust. Making as many circles as possible.
- In a small bowl whisk together egg and 1-2 TBSP water. Arrange 1 dough circle on a clean flat surface. Lightly brush the edges with the egg wash.
- Place 1 heaping TSP of chicken in the center of the round. Fold the dough over the filling, pressing the edges with a fork to seal. Place on baking sheet.
- Repeat with the remaining circles and chicken mixture.Freezer TIP: At this point you can freeze these and keep them for up to 1 month. Just place the baking sheet in the freezer until frozen solid. Then place in a freezer bag or container until needed. Label them clearly with baking instructions.
- Lightly Brush the tops of the empanadas with the egg wash.
- Bake in oven at 400 degrees F for 15 Minutes or until golden brown. Serve with rice or by themselves...YUM!
Don’t forget to check out other great Dinner & Appetizer ideas!
Yum! Thanks for posting this! I had bought some refrigerated pie crusts because they were super cheap and I had no idea what I was gong to do with them. =)
oh gosh those look good I need to stop and get milk today looks like I will be getting cream cheese also and these will be on the menu tonight!
Refried Beans and some chips with salsa or cheese dip and you got a yummy dinner!
I need you to come to my house for dinner tonight! Thanks for linking up!
these sound really yummy! I am going to try these this weekend! Thanks!
Walmart always has boneless skinless chicken breast near me for $1.79 a pound which makes this even cheaper for me!
OH that is a great price! I wish mine had them that low! 🙂
So I made these last night and they were a big hit! I made a bunch, I used 2 pie crusts. Needless to say I will be having this for lunch also:)
Will add this one to the “to make again list”
Loos like a great recipes can’t wait to try it this week.
These were scrumdidlyptous!!!! I just made these tonight!!! Definitely YUMMO!! I will be making these again.. (I am going to have to try some shredded beef in these!!)
I didn’t have pie crusts, but I did use some croissant rolls and these turned out great! Thanks!
Meichelle,
So glad to know it worked with crescent rolls. I have some in the fridge I hoped to use in place of pie crust.
So when you freeze them, do you defrost them before you bake them, or just put them right in the oven? delish!
It is just like baking a frozen pie. You can do it either way but it would be easier just to put them in frozen.
If you don’t want to take the time to roll out the pie crust and then cut it, Goya makes “discos”. You can find them in the frozen section in either plain (white flour), or corn meal (they are yellow). They come 10 in a pack and are around $1 -$1.50. You could also fill these with apple pie filling (or any pie filling) and give it a confection sugar & water icing on top. For the vegetarians fill it with whatever left over veggies you have. I know the Jamacian’s have a variety called Jamacian beef patties & Turkish people call them poof borek.
You could also try using filo dough (although sometimes hard to work with) and wrapping them up like an envelope. Put a couple of layers down on a cookie sheet & brush with butter, put filling in and put more layers (probably about 4 layers at a time) and more butter and then more filling and ending with the filo dough and butter. Bake it in the oven @ 350 until golden brown. remove and cool a bit and cut into squares. Just make sure that whatever filling you use it is cooked prior to layering or stuffing 🙂 My family LOVES these!!!!!
You could also use the filo 1 sheet at a time and layer in feta cheese & spinach, roll them up & cut to length you like, and then deep fry them. 🙂 or for a dessert put in some chocolate or nutella and when they come out dip in melted chocolate chocolate & serve with ice cream ….. the possibilities ARE endless 🙂
These look super delish!!! What a fabulous idea. My kids will wonder what coupon I used to buy these gems and will die when I tell them they’re homemade.
What do you think about using the new Philly cooking creme instead of cream cheese and spices? It seems like it might work.
Made these for dinner and they came out delish!!! I added some sauteed onions to the chicken mix which made it even more delicious! Thanks for a great easy recipe!
just made these, omitted the chicken and added some sauteed jalepeno and red peppers. look bad (cheese oozed on many), but taste very good. made a homemade crisco crust.
I had a lot of stuff in my fridge that I needed to use up(2 different bags of shredded cheese, a leftover pie crust from the holidays, turkey and chicken lunch meat) and this recipe was so perfect for that!
They are so yummy!