Super Bowl Food: Green Chili Empanadas

For the second of my three posts this week on "Super Bowl" food, I'll be sharing a dish representing the Denver Broncos' home state of Colorado.  In the first post of the series, I shared Colorado green chili, which is a popular meal in Broncos country.

That recipe makes calls for two and a half pounds of pork shoulder, so you're bound to have some leftovers.  With regards to the chili world, leftovers aren't a bad thing-- you can stuff them into burritos or just heat up and throw on some rice-- but with the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, you need something economical and tasty to serve your guests.  These green chili empanadas are perfect for that.

Not only are the ingredients for my green chili recipe inexpensive, the only thing left to do is make a little bread, which is dirt cheap.

Try adding a tiny bit extra cheese and cilantro into the empanada

While you can go ahead and form empanadas of any size and varying shapes, I suggest using a 3 inch ring cutter (or a clean empty can of beans) to create bite-size morsels.  Another thing you can elect to do (which is much easier when making small empanadas like these) is fry them.  Lord have mercy, that would be delicious, but I'm going to tell you how to cook them in the oven, not necessarily because it's healthier, but much easier for preparing large quantities for company.

Show your Broncos pride or just common sense, and treat yourself and maybe, just maybe, some lucky guests this Sunday (or Saturday... anyone else confused?).

Video coming soon...

Ingredients:

Colorado green chili

Empanada Dough (makes enough for 20-24 small empanadas)

10 oz bread flour or AP flour (I prefer bread, because after all, we're making bread)
1 1/4 t salt  (6.5 g)
1 1/2 t yeast* (5 g) 
6 oz milk
1 teaspoon honey
1 T oil
extra flour for working with dough

Need metric?

1.  Mix salt into flour.  In a separate bowl or measuring cup, warm 6 oz (by weight) milk on stovetop or microwave.  Ideally, milk should be around 110 degrees.  

2.  In this step, we're doing what's called making a sponge: Add honey to warm milk and whisk to dissolve.  Continuing to whisk, add the oil, yeast, and about 1/2 C (doesn't have to be exact) of flour/salt mixture and stir until it looks like a smooth batter.  Cover and let rest until mixture is frothy and bubbling.  This means the yeast are awake and takes about 10 or fifteen minutes.

3.  Make a well in flour bowl and pour frothy yeast sponge in.  Stir the wet and dry together until you have a shaggy dough.

4.  Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead dough until dough is elastic and no longer tacky.  Roll into a ball.  Poke it with your fingers.  If the dough should rebound quickly, you've kneaded it enough.

5.  Cover ball of dough with damp paper towel and place in an area of the house that isn't too drafty or in the way.  The dough rises fastest in hotter temperatures, so if you're in a rush, you can set your oven to 400°F for 30 seconds, turn it off, and put the bread in there to rise.  Alternatively, if you need to leave the house for 6 hours for some reason, tightly wrap the ball in cellophane and place it in the coldest part of your fridge.

6.  Allow dough to double in size.  If you poke the dough and it rebounds, it needs to rise longer.  Punch down dough into a square or rectangular shape and place on a lightly floured surface to portion into equal sized pieces.  I recommend 4 pieces for novices and people with small work areas.

7.  Shape the dough pieces into balls again.  Place the dough balls you aren't working with under a slightly dampened towel while you work with your first piece.

8.  Roll dough out with a rolling pin to about a quarter inch of thickness.  Cut out your circles.  If using a three inch mold, like I suggest for appetizer sized empanadas, you should be able to get at least five, maybe seven circles out of each quarter piece.

9.  Place the circles you cut out and are not working with under a towel.  With a rolling pin, roll out your 3 inch disk very thin.  The picture on the left is a picture shows you how much larger it should get.


10.  Brush the disk lightly with some water and add your filling to the middle.  Be sure to not overfill.  Fold one half of the dough over the other and press down around the edges to seal the dough together.  Cut to a uniform shape, and crimp with a fork.

11.  Allow empanadas to rise another 30 minutes under a towel, or wrap with cellophane on a baking tray to store in the fridge for up to 2 days.  As the empanadas sit in the fridge, the dough will become more flavorful and complex, while the filling will set and become less runny.
 
12.  Brush with melted butter or spray with oil to promote browning before placing empanadas in a preheated 400°F oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown and dough is cooked through.  Move empanadas to a cooling rack, and brush once more with melted butter when you pull from oven.  Top with a little extra salt and garnish with cilantro.  

This work bydoyouevencookbro.blogspot.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.