Do You Need To Cook The Filling Before Stuffing Empanadas?

Empanadas aren't terribly complicated to make. They are, however, quite time-consuming to craft. Between prepping the filling to folding each pocket of pastry into half-moons and then baking or frying until golden, empanadas are indeed a labor of love. So, in an effort to streamline the process, you might be wondering whether empanada filling really needs to be cooked. To help shed on whether this step is necessary, we turned to empanada expert, Lorena Cantarovici, for some guidance.

As the owner of Maria Empanada, Cantarovici knows a thing or two about making delicious empanadas. While she's a firm believer that the dough can make or break a recipe, so can the filling, which is why she recommends against cutting corners. "As a general rule of thumb," she shares, "all fillings should be cooked prior to filling your empanadas."

Cooking empanada filling serves a few purposes. First and foremost, it ensures that the pastry won't be overcooked while the filling remains undercooked. In a recipe like baked beef and sweet potato empanadas, cooking is crucial for crunchy vegetables to soften and for the meat to cook fully. Additionally, cooking also helps raw ingredients release moisture that can cause the dough to turn soggy. In fact, cooking empanada filling creates deeper gustatory complexity as ingredients have an opportunity to brown, caramelize, and develop nuanced flavors.

"There are exceptions for certain recipes," Lorena Cantarovici adds. Rare as they may be, no-cook empanada fillings do exist. Rather than rely on ingredients that have the potential to cook more rapidly (such as seafood), we recommend using ingredients that are safe to eat raw like shredded cheese, olives, or hummus. Otherwise, ingredients that have been previously cooked like tinned tuna, jarred peppers, or deli meat can also make ideal fillings. But, the no-cook options don't end there.

Sweet empanadas rarely require fillings to be cooked, such is the case with these guava and cream cheese empanadas. The reason being that many dessert-style recipes (once again) incorporate ready-to-use ingredients like jam, chocolate, caramel, or even nut butters into their filling. That said, empanadas that call for fresh fruit, which is high in moisture, should still be cooked prior to being tucked into pastry so as to avoid compromised textures.

While not all empanada fillings need to be cooked beforehand, most recipes benefit from cooked fillings. Whether you opt to follow Cantarovici's advice to always cook filling or work with a filling that includes pre-cooked ingredients, know that you're that much closer to yielding the perfect empanada!