The Store-Bought Hack For The Easiest Empanadas Ever

Empanadas, those little flavor-packed hand pies, are truly a labor of love. With origins stretching back hundreds of years, these Spanish-inspired delicacies were adopted as a staple in many Spanish and Latin American kitchens. Although nearly every culture has a version of a hand pie (such as the Cornish pastry or the spanakopita), the empanada remains a time-honored tradition. In the traditional practice of making empanadas, a chef will make the pastry dough from scratch. This process not only adds more ingredients to the grocery list but also extends preparation time. For a faster (and equally delicious) empanada-making process, try using a can of refrigerated biscuits.

Swapping a homemade crust for a premade one doesn't have to come at the sacrifice of flavor. Pillsbury (creator of the buttery, refrigerated crescent rolls and pre-packaged cinnamon rolls) sells a fairly impressive pack of cornbread biscuits. The refrigerated biscuits still capture the essence and authenticity of a classic empanada while offering convenience and ease, leaving you more time to enjoy and less time to scrape chunks of dough from under your nails.

To prepare the biscuits for baking, separate the dough and use a rolling pin to flatten. Since most hand pies, including empanadas, come in that well-known crescent shape, use a serrated knife to slice the biscuit rounds in half. Once the biscuit dough is flattened and separated, you're free to spoon in the filling at the center of the half-moon shape. Fold the dough over the filling, seal it with the edges of a fork, and place the unbaked empanadas on ungreased cookie sheets.

With homemade dough, empanadas typically bake for about 30 minutes, but the premade biscuit dough only requires about 15 to 20 minutes. The crumbly, soft nature of the biscuit dough produces empanadas with a golden-brown, savory crust that can compliment the often savory filling. Savory fillings aren't the only way to make empanadas, as Taco Bell's Caramel Apple Empanada consistently proves, but whether you're using chicken and beans or strawberries and cream in the empanada, store-bought biscuit dough is up to the job.