El Sanjuanino ★ 4.3
Recoleta empanada institution since 1976. Order a dozen mixed (salteña, tucumana, cuyana) and take them away to the cemetery park for a working-lunch budget.
Try: Empanadas salteñas and tucumanas
History
Empanadas arrived with Spanish colonisation in the 1500s and rooted regionally: Salteños fold a juicy beef-and-potato version with cumin; Tucumanos use cuchillo-cut beef and matambre fat; Porteños bake an oven-baked Buenos Aires-style with raisins and olives. El Sanjuanino in Recoleta has shaped them since 1976.
Common allergens: Gluten
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 16 empanada discs (10cm), or homemade dough
- 500g beef chuck, hand-cut into 1cm dice
- 1 large white onion, finely diced
- 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
- 100g green olives, pitted and chopped
- 2 tablespoons raisins (optional, porteño style)
- 2 tablespoons paprika
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 60g beef fat or butter
- Salt and pepper
- 1 egg, beaten, for egg wash
Method
- Melt the fat in a large pan over medium heat. Cook the onion and pepper until soft, 8 minutes. Season with salt.
- Add the diced beef. Cook over high heat just until browned, 4 minutes. Stir in paprika, cumin and pepper flakes. Take off the heat.
- Let the filling cool to room temperature (warm filling weakens the dough). Stir in the chopped eggs, olives and raisins.
- Place 2 tablespoons of filling in the centre of each disc. Brush the edges with water. Fold the disc over, press to seal, then crimp the edge with a repulgue (twist-and-tuck) seam.
- Brush with beaten egg. Bake at 200C (400F) for 18-22 minutes until deeply golden.
- Serve hot, ideally with a slice of lime and a glass of Malbec.
Tip from the editors. Hand-dice the beef. Ground beef is faster but tastes like a different food.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Where to eat empanadas (porteñas, salteñas, tucumanas)
Empanadas (porteñas, salteñas, tucumanas) in Buenos Aires
La Cocina ★ 4.2
Pueyrredon empanada counter famous for tucumana-style and the picante (spicy minced beef and potato). Winter Tuesdays and Thursdays bring locro at the bar.
Try: Tucumana empanadas
El Hornero Tucumano ★ 4.0
Balvanera empanada counter doing the Tucuman canon at lunch-budget prices. Stand-up service, half-dozen empanadas plus a humita at working-lunch cost.
Try: Tucumana empanadas, humitas
Feria de Mataderos ★ 4.4
Sunday folk-and-food fair on the historic livestock-yard plazas. Provincial empanadas, locro pots, whole-lamb al asador and gaucho displays; Apr-Dec season.
More cities are in research. Want empanadas (porteñas, salteñas, tucumanas) covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.