Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Buttery and full of all the best breakfast flavors.
Texture: The empanada dough is buttery, crunchy on the outside, and soft on the inside.
Ease: The dough has to be chilled ahead of time and the filling takes about 30 minutes to make, before assembling and baking. SO worth the effort, promise. And I’ve reheated these in the oven (400° for about 8-10 minutes) after being refrigerated overnight with great results.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: You might never want to eat anything else for breakfast ever again.
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Waking up in the morning has never been more exciting than when I have easy Breakfast Empanadas to look forward to.
My easy Pancake Recipe, simple Homemade Waffles Recipe, and delicious French Toast Recipe all make for perfect breakfast or brunch options – but sometimes, I’m craving something a little more savory.
These baked Breakfast Empanadas are perfect for satisfying that savory breakfast craving.
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Filled with a mixture of chorizo, potato, and scrambled egg and encased in the best (and easiest!) pastry ever, they taste like breakfast burritos had a glow-up.
These Breakfast Empanadas don’t have to be a strictly breakfast treat! They also make for a fun and unusual snack, so feel free to bust them out for your Super Bowl party or game night.
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Breakfast Empanadas
What are Breakfast Empanadas?
Breakfast Empanadas are just like regular Empanadas, but filled with delicious breakfast ingredients. It’s like a breakfast burrito but instead of tortillas, the filling is encased in buttery, flaky 5-minute pastry.
How to Customize the Filling
Feel free to omit or change anything in the filling. Use different veggies, try breakfast sausage instead of chorizo, or change up the spices – it’s totally customizable!
What to Serve with Breakfast Empanadas:
- Green or red salsa
- Pico de gallo
- Freshly sliced avocado
- Home Fries
- Fresh orange juice
How to Make Breakfast Empanadas Ahead of Time
- These truly make the best handheld grab-and-go breakfast!
- The empanada dough can be wrapped in plastic and stored in the fridge for one day before using.
- The filling can also be cooked and stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a day.
- The assembled unbaked empanadas can also be covered in plastic and stored in the fridge for up to 2 days, no need to change the baking time.
- To store longer, see the freezing instructions in the FAQs below.
Breakfast Empanada FAQs
How Long to Bake Empanadas?
I baked mine for 20 minutes, until golden brown. If you make empanadas that are smaller or bigger than the size created in the recipe, make sure to adjust the baking time accordingly.
Can I Air Fry Breakfast Empanadas?
We haven’t tried that, but some readers have tried and reported success with this. You may need to experiment a little with bake times and temperatures, as this will vary based on your air fryer.
How to Store Breakfast Empanadas?
Refrigerate leftovers either wrapped in plastic or stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat in a 400°F oven until the crust has re-crisped and the filling is warmed through, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Can You Freeze Breakfast Empanadas?
You can freeze unbaked or baked breakfast empanadas. Here’s how:
Fully baked empanadas can also be frozen, though they lose a bit of their flaky texture. To prevent freezer burn, wrap them individually in plastic wrap before placing in a freezer bag or airtight container. To reheat, unwrap as many empanadas as you want and warm in a 300°F oven or toaster oven for about 10 minutes, or until heated through.
Freeze the sheet of unbaked empanadas until solid, then transfer into a freezer bag. Frozen empanadas will keep for up to three months and can be baked straight from the freezer. Add a few extra minutes to the cooking time.
More Recipes You’ll Love:
Breakfast Empanadas
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 cup water
- 1 1/2 sticks (170 grams) unsalted butter
- 2 3/4 cups (349 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- Pinch of paprika
For the filling:
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1/2 pound chorizo, casings removed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 small potato, peeled and diced
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1/2 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
- 1/2 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, diced
- 5 large eggs, beaten
- 1/2 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
For the egg wash:
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons water
Instructions
For the dough:
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the water and butter, heating until butter has fully melted. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and paprika and make a well in the center. Pour a little of the warm butter mixture in and mix with your fingertips to make a wet paste. Pour in remaining liquid, and work the dough with your hands until you get a wet, oily dough. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
For the filling:
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chorizo and cook, stirring to break up any large pieces, until done, about 10 minutes. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon into a large bowl and set aside.
- While chorizo is cooking, measure out seasoning blend in a small bowl and set aside. You will use half of the blend for the veggie mixture and reserve the other half to add to the scrambled egg mixture.
- Once chorizo has been removed from pan, continuing at medium heat, add potatoes, onion, and bell peppers. Cook, stirring often, until potatoes and peppers are soft and onions are translucent, about 15 minutes. Lastly, add garlic and half of the seasoning blend. Remove vegetable mixture to bowl with chorizo.
- In the same skillet over medium-low heat, scramble eggs along with shredded cheese and remaining half of the seasoning mixture. Leave the scrambled eggs a little more wet than you normally would as they will cook a bit in the oven. Remove from heat.
To assemble:
- Tear off golf-ball sized pieces of the chilled dough and roll into balls. On a lightly floured work surface, use a rolling pin to roll out the balls into 1/4-inch thick, 5-inch diameter circles. Once your dough has been rolled out, place 2 heaping tablespoons of filling in the center of each dough circle, beginning with 1 tablespoon of scrambled eggs on the bottom, and topping with 1 tablespoon of chorizo/veggie mixture. Fold dough over to create a half-moon shape and press edges firmly to seal. Crimp edges with the back of a fork.
- Place empanadas onto the prepared baking sheet. Lightly beat together the egg and water. Brush the empanadas gently with the egg wash.
- Bake empanadas until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Serve warm.
- Refrigerate leftovers either wrapped in plastic or stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. You can also freeze cooked empanadas wrapped in plastic in a resealable freezer bag or airtight container for up to 3 months. To reheat, unwrap as many empanadas as you want and warm through in a 300°F oven or toaster oven for about 10 minutes.
This post was originally published in 2012 and has been updated with new photos and recipe improvements. Photos by Joanie Simon.
Can one OVERWORK the dough? Mine weren’t as flaky as I thought they would be.
I’m sorry to hear that! Though this dough style is not supposed to yield a crust quite as flaky as a traditional pastry crust that uses cold butter. I will say, it’s hard to overwork this particular dough!
This recipe is stellar! I made it with soy chorizo because that’s what my family likes and they were amazing! Thank you for sharing this.
Can I freeze these before I bake them? Look delicious!
Hi Sheri! You sure can – check out instructions for this in the pink tip box, just above the recipe 🙂 Enjoy!
Yum! Made for a breakfast meeting at work. Everyone loved.
is the pastry supposed to be very liquidy? It came out more like runny pancake batter and was very sticky. we had to add quite a bit more flour to even get it to form a ball.
Hi Damon! This pastry should be dough-like, pliable and easily rolled out. Did you possibly mis-measure an ingredient? How do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure ingredients (particularly flour) and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. Check out Tessa’s article here, where she talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time. I hope this helps, Damon, and I hope you were able to enjoy these empanadas! Happy baking!
I have rotisserie chicken leftover and thought I would make Empanadas with it. Would I make the filling the same way except substitute chicken for the Chorizo?
Thanks,
Patsy Roman
Hi Patsy! Yes, that’s correct – just swap out the meats! That should be delicious 🙂 Let us know how it goes!
If I make these ahead of time and store them in the fridge, do I do the egg wash right before baking or do I do that before I store them in the fridge? I want to do this as I stored the baked leftovers in the freezer and reheated them and I was disappointed in the loss of flakiness in the dough as was listed in the comments. So I want to maintain the flakiness, so which is the best time to do the egg wash?
Thank you so much for your help! By the way, this is an AWESOME recipe and the dough was SUPER EASY!!!
Hi Kelly! It shouldn’t make a huge difference either way, but I would recommend egg washing right before baking for best results. I’m so happy to hear that you loved these empanadas!! 🙂 Happy baking!