Chicken and spinach empanadas
Small individually stuffed chicken and spinach pastries. Originating from Galicia in Spain, it's a delicious way to make use of any leftover roast chicken.
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 250g/9oz plain flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 50ml/2fl oz olive oil
- 50ml/2fl oz white wine or fino sherry
For the filling
- 300g/10½oz frozen whole-leaf spinach, defrosted and chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for brushing
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- ½ green pepper, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 large tomato, chopped
- 250g/9oz cooked chicken, chopped into small pieces
- 1 lemon, zest and juice only
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- handful flatleaf parsley, finely chopped
- 3 large sprigs mint, leaves picked and finely chopped
- 25g/1oz capers
Method
To make the pastry, put the flour and baking powder in a bowl and add a generous pinch of salt. Drizzle in the olive oil and white wine or sherry and mix briefly.
Add just enough water to bind it all together, 2–3 tablespoons at most. You should end up with a firm, pliable dough. Knead until smooth, then cover and leave to rest for half an hour in the fridge.
To make the filling, squeeze any liquid out of the spinach and roughly chop. Leave in a sieve to drain.
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan or sauté pan over a medium heat. Add the red onion and green pepper and gently fry for several minutes until the onion is translucent. Add all the remaining ingredients, including the spinach and cook for a few minutes until well combined and lightly cooked. Leave to cool.
To assemble the pastries, divide the dough into 8 even pieces and knead each piece into a ball. Roll out each ball into a disc around 16cm/6in diameter. Put an eighth of the filling on one half of each disc. Wet the edges then fold over and crimp together – you should find the dough very forgiving – it will stretch well.
Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7. Arrange the pastries on a large baking tray and brush with olive oil. Bake in the oven for 20–25 minutes, until golden-brown and the filling is piping hot. Serve warm or cold.
Recipe Tips
When rolling out the dough, you can use an upturned bowl as a guide to help you cut out neat circles. Neat circles make it easier to crimp the dough when shaping the empanadas.