Another week and another chance to make the best out of our quarantine situation. Have you surprised yourself with the meals you’ve mead over the last week? who knew we could be so resourceful?. I am trying to cook bigger meals and have enough left overs to either freeze for later or give them a make over. Example A “Green Chicken Empanadas”. This required zero cooking since I used left over rotisserie chicken, left over beans and even frozen pie crust! Look at me, using all my left overs and avoiding food waste.
I made this filling because like I said, I wanted to use my left overs but you can easily customize this recipe. Left over fajitas and sour cream? barbecue pull pork and cheddar? left over salmon and potatoes? Oh, the possibilities!
Just look at these beauties as they just came out of the oven.
Find recipe below!
Ingredients
- 2 frozen store bought pie crust
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 to 2 cups left over rotisserie chicken
- 1 7oz can diced green chiles
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
- 1 cup refried black beans (or any kind you want)
- 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 Degrees
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Heat up a medium size skillet and add the olive oil. Cook the onions and garlic until soft.
- Add the green chiles, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook for a couple of minutes.
- Transfer the green chile mixture to a blender and blend until smooth. If you like a chunky sauce, don’t bother with a blender.
- Return salsa to the skillet and add the shredder chicken and cilantro. Let it cook for a couple of minutes and remove from the heat.
- For the beans. They don’t have to be hot or even freshly cooked. I used cold left overs and they worked just fine. You can also use canned beans.
- Unroll the pie crust and cut each crust in two, (I rolled out each piece of cut crust to make 4 circles but I was just being extra. You don’t have to do it) this will make 4 empanadas.
- Place them on the prepared baking sheet.
- Start building the empanadas. Add some refried beans to the center of the pie crust leaving about 1/2″ clean edge from the top and bottom ends, next the chicken, and finish topping with the shredded cheese. Repeat for the rest of the empanadas.
- In a small bowl whisk the egg plus 1 teaspoon of water, brush the edge of the empanada, fold over, and using a fork press the edges all around sealing the empanadas. Pierce the top with a fork to let the steam scape while they’re cooking.
- Brush the top of the empanada with the remaining egg wash.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown.
- Enjoy!
