Cuban empanadas — half-moon pastries filled with spiced ground beef (picadillo), sealed and fried until golden. The filling is the same picadillo used in Cuban sandwiches and arroz imperial.
Cuban empanadas reflect Spanish colonial influence (empanadas originated in Galicia), but the filling — picadillo with olives, raisins, and cumin — is distinctly Cuban. The dough is typically wheat-flour-based (unlike the corn-based empanadas of South America). Fried, not baked.
A golden, crescent-shaped pastry, crisp and shattering. The filling is savory ground beef with bursts of salty olive and sweet raisin. Eaten by hand, dipped in hot sauce or lime.
The dough uses lard or shortening (not butter) for a crisp, blistered fry. The filling must be pre-cooked and cooled (raw meat won't cook through during the brief frying). The seal must be tight — a leak means oil seeps in and filling seeps out.
Variations
Some use chicken or shredded pork; the dough varies (some add egg); served with lime or mojo.
On the Palate
Where Empanadas Cubanas sits in the Cuban flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
5 steps · 1 hour active + 30 min waiting
- 115 min
Make filling: brown ground beef with onion, garlic, bell pepper; add tomato sauce, cumin, oregano, olives, raisins; cook 10 min; cool.
Watch outCook the filling down and let it cool fully before wrapping — a warm or wet filling steams the dough and blows the seal open in the oil.
- 230 min
Make dough: flour + lard + egg + water; knead; rest 30 min.
- 315 min
Roll thin; cut circles; place filling on one half; fold and crimp.
Watch outPress the crimp tight with no air trapped inside — a loose seal lets oil seep in and filling leak out mid-fry.
- 45 min
Heat oil to 175°C; fry empanadas 3-4 min until golden.
Watch outHold the oil around one-seventy-five degrees so the crust blisters crisp — too cool and the pastry drinks oil and turns greasy.
- 51 min
Drain; serve with lime wedges.
