Chorizo Empanadas with Avocado Cream - Handle the Heat
Filed Under: Lunch | Main Dish | Pastry | Savory | Spanish

Chorizo Empanadas with Avocado Cream

By Tessa Arias
  |  
July 21st, 2011
4 from 2 votes
4 from 2 votes

Chorizo Empanadas with Avocado Cream are loaded with spicy Mexican flavors enclosed in a buttery pastry crust, perfect for lunch, appetizer, or dinner!

Yield: 20 empanadas

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook: 30 minutes

Tessa's Recipe Rundown...

Taste: Buttery, spicy, tangy. Texture: Oh that crust. It's simply wonderful. Along with chunks of chorizo, potatoes, and creamy avocado it's heavenly. Appearance: I have yet to see an empanada that didn't look scrumptious. Ease: The dough recipe is ridiculously easy. I made the dough and filling a day ahead of time so that all I would have to do is assemble. Pros: So freaking delicious. And the empanadas keep well in the fridge and taste just as good reheated in the oven. Cons: None. Except maybe not the healthiest food ever. Would I make this again? Yes.

Oh empanadas. You little portable parcels of buttery goodness. Just typing this post up is making me sad that there are no more of you little pastries left. The last time I made empanadas I used beef & cheese as a filling. I really didn’t think it could get much better than that. But oh, it can. Switch out the beefy cheesy filling for a spicy sausage one and add a side of creamy, tangy sauce to offset the flavors and WHAM. Even better.

Making empanadas can be quite laborious (but so worth it). If you’re low on time, make the dough and filling up to 2 days ahead of time. That way on serving day all you have to do is assemble, bake, and throw together the avocado cream. Easy as (savory) pie.

4 from 2 votes

How to make
Chorizo Empanadas with Avocado Cream

Yield: 20 empanadas
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Chorizo Empanadas with Avocado Cream are loaded with spicy Mexican flavors enclosed in a buttery pastry crust, perfect for lunch, appetizer, or dinner!

Ingredients

Dough

  • 1 cup water
  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • pinch paprika

Filling

  • 1 pound Mexican chorizo, casings removed
  • 1 medium yellow onion, minced
  • 2-3 medium Yukon gold potatoes (or other waxy potatoes), peeled, finely diced, and boiled

Avocado cream

  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 cup half and half
  • 1/2 lemon, juiced
  • 1 jalapeno, seeded and roughly chopped
  • 2 avocados
  • kosher salt

Directions

For the dough:

  1. Heat water and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until butter has melted. Let cool slightly. Mix flour, salt, and paprika in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Pour melted butter mixture into flour mixture and mix with your hands until you get a wet, oily dough. Shape dough into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

For the filling:

  1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add chorizo, breaking apart into small pieces, then add onion. Saute until chorizo is cooked through. Turn off heat, add diced and boiled potatoes, and let cool completely.

To assemble:

  1. While the filling is cooling, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a large baking sheet with non-stick spray or line with parchment. Tear off pieces of dough to roll about 20 golf-sized balls. Using a rolling pin, roll out dough balls on a lightly floured surface into 5″ circles. Place 2-3 tablespoons of cooled filling into the center of each dough circle. Fold dough over filling to make a half-moon shape and press edges firmly to seal. Crimp with the back of a fork. Place empanadas on baking sheet and bake until golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Let cool.

For avocado cream:

  1. While the empanadas cool, place sour cream, half and half, lemon juice, and jalapeno in the bowl of a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Peel, pit, and dice the avocado and add to blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Season with salt. If not serving immediately, wrap tightly with plastic wrap, pressing plastic onto the surface of avocado cream to prevent browning.

Recipe Notes

Adapted from here and here
Course : Main Course
Cuisine : Mexican

Tessa Arias
Author: Tessa Arias

I share trusted baking recipes your friends will LOVE alongside insights into the science of sweets. I'm a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. I love to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. I live in Phoenix, Arizona (hence the blog name!)

Tessa Arias

About Tessa...

I share trusted baking recipes your friends will LOVE alongside insights into the science of sweets. I'm a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. I love to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. I live in Phoenix, Arizona (hence the blog name!)

Find Tessa on  

Leave a Comment & Rating

Add a Review or Question

*Please select a rating to complete your comment.

Recipe Rating




  1. #
    Kelsea — November 29, 2020 at 7:33 am

    I’m not sure how it will turn out, but I went through the recipe for the dough as instructed and the dough was waaaay too wet. It did not at all match the consistency as shown in the video posted in “how to make empanadas” recipe. I kept adding flour until it stopped sticking to the sides of the bowl and the spoon, probably ended up being close to 3.5 cups total. Hoping it will still work out!

  2. #
    Kim — February 2, 2020 at 4:57 am

    These are so yummy and easy to make. My family loves them. Your con is absolutely correct, we never have any left over.

  3. #
    Jean — January 5, 2019 at 5:30 pm

    If you can’t eat avacados, what would be a good thing to serve with these?

  4. #
    Lindsay — August 17, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    Had a hankering for something latino–looks scrumptious! I'm making them tonight 🙂

  5. #
    Caroline — August 9, 2011 at 1:09 pm

    I made them and they were absolutely delicious! Great recipe! 🙂 http://chocolateandcarrots.com/2011/07/sweet-pota

  6. #
    JenSchall — July 25, 2011 at 2:54 am

    Oh, these look incredible. Yum!

  7. #
    Melisa — July 23, 2011 at 11:40 pm

    I'm shure you know empanadas are from Argentina and Chile… please, NEVER combine them with advocados. If you like, I could send you our traditional recipe (well, what “I” consider traditional). By the way, I'm from Argentina, living in C

  8. #
    [email protected] — July 22, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    There is a well known empanada place ins Morristown NJ. It is just a little hole in the wall but it sells fantastic empanadas and only empanadas. I had the fortune of eating from there a few months ago and making my own has been on my list of things to do for quite some time. Thanks for this recipe, I am going to be making them as soon as this heat lets up.

  9. #
    Teresa — July 22, 2011 at 3:28 am

    wow, looks delish. i've never seen a pastry dough with melted butter before–only frozen or very cold. interesting method! i must try it out!

  10. #
    Maris — July 21, 2011 at 10:11 pm

    You never cease to amaze me!

  11. #
    Sasha — July 21, 2011 at 7:44 pm

    Ive never had an empanada but i ADORE pastry in every form, and cornish pasties are one of my all time favourite things, so im pretty much bound to love these 🙂 chorizo lover here also so basically…this post is amazing!

  12. #
    Sonia Rumzi — July 21, 2011 at 5:09 pm

    These look amazing! Let's see what they do on Stumble!

  13. #
    [email protected] — July 21, 2011 at 4:00 pm

    my friend made me empanadas for my bday last year and i fell in love. we did NOT have avocado cream though so i need to fix that this time around! 🙂

  14. #
    Miss — July 21, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    No wonder they are all gone! Yum-o-licious! Especially with that avocado cream!

  15. #
    Nelly Rodriguez — July 21, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    Oh…my…god…These look sooo good! And that avocado dipping cream? WOW.

  16. #
    Danielle — July 21, 2011 at 1:50 pm

    These sound divine. I've always been a little scared of empanadas for some reason but they seem simple enough. That avocado cream sounds good enough to eat by itself…by the spoonful!

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Pingback:Foodie Friday {4} | GlamGirlGlow

  2. Pingback:My Favorite Recipes (so far) : Just Food

  3. Pingback:A volunteer chef’s experience : Just Food

Join the Handle the Heat Community

Cookie Customization Chart
Do you want a more delicious life?
Instead of digging through cookbooks and magazines and searching the internet for amazing recipes, subscribe to Handle the Heat to receive new recipe posts delivered straight to your email inbox. You’ll get all the latest recipes, videos, kitchen tips and tricks AND my *free* Cookie Customization Guide (because I am the Cookie Queen)!
As Seen On....
NPR People Time Glamour Readers Digest The Huffington Post BuzzFeed