Puerto Rican empanadas filled with ground beef, potatoes, cheese, and plenty of seasoning! Every bite of these beef empanadas is bursting with flavor. Perfect for lunch, dinner, a snack, or even packing into a lunchbox! 🥟
Best Beef Empanada Recipe
We love Puerto Rican recipes, and this dish has to be our favorite. Using homemade dough or Goya empanada shells, you can make the most delicious meal! Puerto Rican empanadillas de carne are similar to Cuban pastelitos de carne and Mexican empanadas de carne. Pastelitos, empanadillas, and empanadas are all little hand pies filled with different kinds of ingredients from savory to sweet. Another one of my all-time favorite beef recipes is my birria tacos! I love making them along with these empanadas for special celebrations!
Beef Empanada Recipe Ingredients
Empanada Dough
all-purpose flour butter egg beatenwatersalt
- or you can use Goya Discos
Empanada Filling
ground beefpotato parboiled, peeled, and diced smallGoya Sofrito tomato sauceGoya Sazón Spanish olives roughly choppedwatersaltMonterey Jack cheese shredded
How to Make Empanadas
How to Make Empanada Dough
If you’re using refrigerated pie dough or Goya discos, you can skip these steps. Otherwise, follow this recipe to make your own delicious, flaky, and buttery homemade empanada dough! Sazón literally means “seasoning” in Spanish. It generally consists of salt and pepper, garlic or garlic powder, coriander, and cumin, as a base. Then, with seasonings like Sazón con Azafran, additional ingredients are added to that seasoning base. To simplify making your pastelillos de carne, you can use Goya discos instead of making your own empanada dough. Goya discos are sold in the frozen food section at the grocery store and are flat dough discs that are perfect for making empanadas.
How to Parboil Potatoes
Step one of making the filling for homemade beef empanadas is to parboil the potatoes. Parboiled refers to potatoes that have been boiled to cook partially, but not all of the ways through. Cooking the potatoes part of the way ahead of time softens them perfectly to use in your empanada filling.
Beef Empanada Filling
TIP—While you’re making the filling, preheat your oven to 350°F. That way, it will be ready to bake the empanadas!
Rolling the Empanada Dough
If you’re using Goya discos, skip this step. If you’re using premade pie dough or your own homemade empanada dough, follow these steps to roll out the dough:
How to Bake Empanadas
Once you have your filling and dough ready, it’s time to bake your pastelillos de carne! Follow these instructions to add the filling to the empanada dough:
Fried Beef Empanadas
Yes. Traditionally, pastelillos are fried. We just enjoy the baked version as it’s a little healthier! Follow all of the steps to cook and assemble the empanada filling and dough. Seal them tightly, then fry them in a deep pan using neutral cooking oil. Fill the skillet with enough oil to cover the empanadas. Fry them so the skillet isn’t overcrowded, frying in batches if necessary. They should come out crispy and golden brown. The best oils for frying are vegetable oil, canola oil, peanut oil, or any neutral oil.
How to Freeze Empanadas
You can freeze Puerto Rican beef empanadas very easily. Place them next to each other on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Be careful not to let them touch or they will freeze together! Place the baking sheet in the freezer for about 1 hour. When completely frozen, you can remove the pastelillos de carne from the sheet and transfer them to freezer bags or a freezer-safe container. Make sure to label the bags or containers with the freezing date.
How to Reheat Empanadas
Bake Puerto Rican pastelillos straight out of the freezer, adding 5 minutes to the cooking time. Yes, it is that easy! No need to thaw them beforehand.
Spanish Beef Recipes
Birria Tacos made with this amazing Beef Birria RecipeCarne Asada TacosGrilled Porterhouse Steak with Chimichurri SauceGrilled Picanha SteakCarne PicadaPapas Rellenas
Ground Beef Recipes
Philly Cheesesteak Sliders RecipeEasy Keto Hamburger CasseroleComforting Instant Pot Hamburger Soup
Try more of our most Popular Best Beef Recipes! Especially our Beef Chuck Roast and our Dutch Oven Pot Roast. They are guaranteed to become favorites!
📋 Recipe
Photos by Christine Rooney.
