I’m making a liar of myself today (not liking to cook) what with this being my 3rd cooking related post for today. Eep.
Anywho…another recipe from my new air fryer recipe book was for mini chorizo empanadas.
So, I bought a tube of chorizo (it ended up a “hot” tube but that was fine…and I don’t like spicy!) and I heated it on the stove with some chopped red pepper and shallots. Then, the recipe also called for parsley, but I didn’t have that, so I put in some basil from my garden.
Here it is before the small amount of added basil:
Then, I took a cup and cut out mini circles from Pillsbury prepared pie crust. I was able to get 8 circles from each pie crust. I used 2 pie crusts, so I got 16 circles. Then, I used a spoon and scooped chorizo onto each pie circle. After that, I pushed the sides down enclosing the cooled down chorizo and scalloped the edges. I sprayed the air fryer tray and here they are ready to go in. (I am showing one empanada before it’s closed up.)
So, my air fryer said to do 400 degrees for 10-12 min. I noticed that was either too hot or too many minutes. After about 5 min on my first batch, I took the tray out and flipped the empanadas. This step, I noticed, is very important.
If you notice, the top row is what they look like before flipped at half way point.
My second batch I flipped at about 4 min but then took out completely after about 2 min. My guess is that is because the air fryer was already pretty warm from having been used, whereas the first batch I did closer to 4-5 min after flipping.
My takeaway? Well, this concept worked very well. However, due to the small size of these, they were very crusty. If I make again, I will make larger sized empanadas so there is more filler. Also, my family and I did not care for the taste of the chorizo enough to make it this way again. But, we are willing to try this with a different filling.
