Your insider’s guide to wine, travel and culture in Argentina. Read all about the wine regions, wines and winemakers of Argentina in the ultimate Argentina Wine Guide.
The ultimate empanada recipe is different for every chef in South America – every region has its own twist on the infamous pocket of stuffed pastry. We share our ultimate recipe for empanadas from Mendoza, but there are many regional variations that are worth exploring too!
In Chile, the empanadas come large, fried and are often stuffed with seafood. Along the coast, you’ll find empanadas de jaiba (crab), empanadas de camaron (shrimp), empanadas de ostiones (scallop), and empanadas de mariscos (mixed seafood). These often come stuffed with soft, buttery cheese as well. While, further inland in Chile, you’ll more likely find the ubiquitous empanadas de pino (meat empanadas), which are usually square pockets filled with minced beef, and sometimes egg, black olive, spices and herbs.
An Argentine empanada is generally small, baked and filled with beef (and gets spicier in the north!) Empanadas Salteñas, from Salta, usually include lots of aji pepper and cooked potato with their beef; while in Mendoza it is the inclusion of onion that makes it notably different. Perhaps the most famously different beef empanadas are the empanadas of Cordoba which are slightly sweet – stuffed with not only beef but also raisins, carrot and a dusting of sugar. In Catamarca, goat empanadas are more common, made of chivo or cabrito, and Patagonian empanadas are often of lamb or seafood. In Buenos Aires, you get a big mix of empanadas with humita (corn), jamon y queso (ham and cheese) and chicken empandas very popular, alongside the classic beef empanadas.
Uruguayan empanadas come both fried and baked and can either be quite similar to the Argentine empanada, or (further east in the country) they are closer to the Brazilian empanada (or pastel or pastéis). Brazilian pastéis are commonly made of cheese; chicken; or beef. But my favourite is the rarer Pastel de Carne de Sol made with dried meat.
There’s a whole world of empanadas to discover, but last week I visited Alpasión in Mendoza’s Uco Valley to get Chilean-born, Argentine-bred chef Héctor Ordenes’ take on the perfect empanada recipe and a guide on how to make empanadas. Recipe below!
