Baked Beef Empanadas

Good solid recipe but I'm sorry, it's unfair to call them Empanadas. Most Latin Americans I know can't even afford sirloin when it's available, much less find won ton wrappers. My husband is Latin American and I've NEVER seen an Empanada in his country made with sirloin or a won ton wrapper..Mostly shredded chicken, shredded pork, shredded beef, cheese, even spinach. And, in a lot of Latin American countries won-ton wrappes are NOT easy to find. In fairness to this great street food, call it something else. Empanadas can be baked, also, not fried.

I like this technique of using wonton skins. Quite clever and very easy. I have tried other fillings as well: teriyaki beef from the take out place, chopped up rotisserie chicken with other spices and cajun spiced sausage chopped up. Pretty neat.

I've been making this recipe for years. They are time consuming to make, but I often make them as appetizers to bring to parties and get rave reviews from everyone. They are a bit bland if served alone, however the magazine originally specified serving them with the Roasted Yellow Pepper Sauce from the same article. The pairing is very tasty and that is how I always serve them.

First note to make - you MUST sprinkle with rock salt after baking and serve with sour cream or some sort of dipping sauce - too bland on its own. Secondly - My house smells worse that if I made french onion soup - it must be the all spice - so warning to everyone - throw your trash away immediately and run the dishwasher and STILL burn a candle. Thirdly - this is very labor intensive so plan on spending at least 30+ min just filling the won tons. But end result - covered in chopped cilantro like the recipe says & rock salt with a dipping sauce - it's worth the ride.

Good - fairly tasty and pretty easy-to-make. Used extra beef and onion instead of the potato -worked quite well. The wonton wrappers worked quite well and stayed together throughout the entire process. Good as an appetizer, as they are not terribly filling.

These are not for the impatient cook! Made these today, had plenty of time, but maybe I expected too much out of them- even with added spices, I didn't think they were very flavorful. They're not bad, though- we dipped them in sour cream. Next time, I'm going to just go ahead and use empanada dough, and a more exciting filling.