Air fryer beef empanadas
Flaky golden hand pies filled with paprika-spiced beef and peppers, made easy with store-bought pie crust and the air fryer.
- 75 min total
- 45 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $2.38 a serving
- 670 calories
- Good the next day
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 12 oz 85/15 ground beef
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- ½ red bell pepper, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 stalks green onions, sliced
- 2 refrigerated pie crusts
- 1 large egg, beaten, divided
From your pantry
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
Each serving has about 670 calories, 23 g protein, 51 g carbs and 42 g fat, and costs about $2.38 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No red bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No green onions? Chives work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Cook the beef, onion and pepper in a large over medium-high 8 minutes, breaking up the beef, until no pink is left. Spoon off the fat.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium-high heatTimer: 8 min
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Stir in the garlic, cumin, paprika, oregano, salt and pepper flakes for 1 minute, then the green onions. Spread it on a plate and let it cool 15 minutes.
Medium heatTimer: 15 min
Dolly’s tip: Warm filling melts the butter in the crust and it tears. Cool filling is the secret to neat empanadas.Unroll the pie crusts and cut out 5-inch circles using a small bowl as a guide.
Press the scraps together, roll them flat, and cut more. You should get 8.
Spoon about 3 tablespoons of filling onto one half of each circle, leaving a ½-inch border.
Brush the border with a little beaten egg, fold the dough over, and press the edges shut with a fork.
Dolly’s tip: Press firmly all the way around. Any gap bursts open in the heat.Heat the air fryer to 350°F. Brush the tops with the rest of the egg.
Air fry 4 at a time, 10 to 12 minutes, until deep and flaky.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Timer: 11 min
Let them cool 5 minutes before biting in.
Timer: 5 min
Dolly’s tip: To freeze, freeze them unbaked on a tray, then bag them. Air fry from frozen for 14 to 16 minutes.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
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