The Tortilla Hack That Makes Homemade Empanadas A Breeze

Empanadas are utterly delicious, but not exactly a quick dish to make. Most homemade empanada recipes call for a few hours of your time since you have to make the dough and let it rest before you can actually start forming each empanada. That is unless you're willing to use a shortcut. This shortcut will save you a ton of time and energy, yet still give you homemade empanadas — all you need is a pack of tortillas.

Here's what you do: Start by making the filling as you normally would. When the filling is ready, scoop it onto a tortilla — it should be a pretty generous helping, but not so big that there isn't extra room on the tortilla. Melt some butter and use a pastry brush to line the border of the tortilla, then fold the tortilla in half. Use a fork to crimp the round edge — after all, an empanada isn't complete without the crimped edge. Brush more butter along the top of the folded tortilla. Finally, pop in the air fryer and cook for 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Of course, with this hack, the empanadas aren't going to taste exactly the same as they would if you made them from scratch, but they'll come quite close. You certainly don't need to replace your favorite from-scratch empanada recipe, but you can use this tortilla hack for when you get a craving but don't have hours to spare.

The great detail about the tortilla hack is that you don't have to change anything else about the empanada — namely, the filling. You can take any empanada recipe that you love and adapt it to the easier tortilla version. If you need inspiration, you can start with Tasting Table's recipe for chicken empanadas with green chile — this recipe makes the empanadas from scratch, so disregard the instructions for the dough and focus solely on the filling. Or, you could steal the filling from our ground beef street tacos and use them for empanadas instead. There's also the classic Spanish empanada variation that features canned tuna as the filling. You can simply choose a type of ground beef — beef, turkey, chicken, or even a plant-based version — and combine that with a few of your favorite veggies, chopped, as well as plenty of seasoning, for the perfect filling.

On the other hand, you don't have to stick to savory fillings when it comes to empanadas — how about making dessert empanadas? For example, we have a recipe for guava and cream cheese empanadas that make for a delicious sweet version of the dish. Or, you could pair a chocolate spread with strawberries (or your favorite fruit) or use a premade pie filling. Feel free to sprinkle powdered sugar over the dessert empanadas when they're fresh out of the air fryer for a bit of extra sweetness.