Chicken Pot Pie Empanadas are my new favourite thing! Don’t get me wrong, I love the classic Chicken Pot Pie but this version goes a step further and is in a convenient, hand held Empanada style.
I love a good ratio of flaky crust to filling and that always seemed a problem with the bigger versions. That is also why this little recipe was born. It gave me more pastry and a good amount of filling. Talking about filling, I was eating this straight out of the pot by the spoonful.
These do take a little extra work but they are easier to feed a crowd, and pack nicely in the lunches the next day. They are also fantastic as a quick snack when dinner is running late. To be honest, we had some friends over helping with the garage project “The Boy” was working on and these fed the army. They also let me know it went down really good with a cold beer.
Also, this recipe is easy convertible to the Classic Chicken Pot Pie we all grew up with. Use 1 batch of the Rich and Flakey Pie Crust Pastry divided into 2/3 and 1/3, roll out your dough, line a pie plate with 2/3 of the Crust, add your filling and place the 1/3 rolled out pastry on top and seal the edges. Tada!
Chicken Pot Pie Empanadas
Ingredients
- 2 medium carrots peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 large white fleshed potato peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1/3 cup salted butter 80 grams
- 2 ribs celery cut into 1/4-inch cubes
- 1 medium onion diced into 1/4-inch cubes
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk or half & half
- 2 cups precooked chicken diced into 1/4-inch cubes
- 1/2 can peas drained
- 1 Tablespoon poultry seasoning optional
- salt and white pepper to taste
- 1 recipe Rich and Flaky Pie Crust Pastry
- 1 large egg beaten, for egg wash
Instructions
Mise en place
- Chop all your vegetables, chicken, and drain peas – set aside
Preparing the Filling
- In a medium saucepan, boil carrots and potatoes with 2 teaspoons of salt, until fork tender. Drain and set aside
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside
- In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat
- Sauté celery and onions until translucent (add a little salt to speed up the process)
- Add flour and gently stir for 1 minute
- Gradually add in broth then the milk, continuously stirring until mixture is nice and thick
- Gently stir in chicken, carrots, potatoes and peas. Check for seasoning, adding more salt and white pepper if needed, then remove from heat
- Allow mixture to cool before stuffing empanadas. Now is a good time to take your pastry out of the fridge as it needs 30 minutes to warm up and the chicken mixture needs about 30 minutes to cool down.
Stuffing the Empanadas
- Working with half of the dough, roll out to an even thickness of 1/4-inch on a lightly floured surface
- Cut out 4-inch circles. Smush up the leftover dough, gently rework to combine, roll out again and cut more circles. Repeat process until all the dough is used, handling as little as possible
- Spoon about 1 heaping Tablespoon of the cooled chicken mixture into the middle of each circle
- Dip your finger into the egg wash bowl and wet the edges of the circle LIGHTLY
- Fold over to create a half moon shape, keeping the filling in the middle
- Using a fork, crimp the edges to seal well (which will keep the goodness inside while cooking.) Transfer completed pieces onto the baking sheet, evenly spaced out so they do not touch
- Brush a light coating of the egg wash mixture on the tops of the finished empanadas
- Bake for 30 minutes on the middle rack of the oven or until pastry is beautifully golden. Let cool at least 5 minutes before consuming as the mixture in the middle will be HOT !
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