Empanadas & Mexican Twice Baked Potatoes

Football season is upon us and you all know what that means… food, lots of food! Theres of course the staples; salsa, guacamole, wings & nachos… not that I don’t love those things but lets get creative here for a minute. I think i’ve mentioned a whole bunch of times that I LOVE Mexican food, right?!?! Well, I now also have a new found love for chorizo thanks to the Cooking Competition we did in my kitchen. If you haven’t checked out the video yet, do! Its hysterical! So back to the chorizo, it packs amazing flavor and I came up with a simple filling and two ways to use it… perfect for those Football Sundays!

I’ve got to warn you, the empanadas are a little time consuming to assemble but they are SO good!!!! The pie crust is so light and flaky, then topped off with a cilantro sour cream, heavenly!!
The twice baked potatoes are super quick so lets just say it all equals out.

 

Empanadas & Mexican Twice Baked Potatoes

1 lb chorizo, casing removed
1 cup cooked white rice
1/2 small onion
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/2 cup black beans (canned, rinsed and drained)
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
4 russet potatoes (cooked in microwave)
1 package rolled pie crusts (2 crusts)
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1 egg
olive oil
cilantro sour cream (see below)

Oven at 375.

In a sauté pan, over medium heat,  add 1 Tbsp olive oil and the chorizo that has been removed from the casing and onion. Break up the meat using a potato masher. Cook until it is at least mostly cooked through.

To a large bowl add the chorizo and onion (oil too), the cooked rice, corn and black beans.

In the same sauté pan, over low heat, add the butter. Once melted whisk in the flour. When that is combined whisk in the milk. Stir in 1/4 cup of the shredded cheese and remove from the heat. It will be very thick, we are looking just to help bind the filling a little bit. Add the cheese mixture to the bowl.
There you have it, our filling is done and ready to go!

Unroll the pie crusts onto a lightly floured surface. Using a large circle cookie cutter (i only had this flower shaped one which worked fine) cut out as many as you can get. You can knead the remaining dough together, roll it out to get as many as you can before running out of dough, I got a total of 12 rounds.

In a small bowl lightly beat the egg and 1 tsp of water and voila, egg wash.

Place approx a Tbsp of the filling on one side of the round. Brush the edge of one side of the round then fold over to make a crescent shape and press the edges together with your finger to seal the empanada. Repeat with remaining rounds and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Once all the empanadas are made on the baking sheet, go ahead and brush the tops of each with the egg wash. Using a fork, gently poke the the top to allow steam to escape. Bake for approx 15–20 minutes or until golden brown.

I served the empanadas with a simple salad of corn, black beans, avocado, tomato, cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Now for the Mexican style twice baked potatoes. Once they are cool enough to handle, cut of a small portion of the top, just enough to get to the pulp of it to scoop it out. I made overflowing potatoes, you can certainly simply cut them in half to use both halves to stuff.

Using a spoon, gently scoop out the pulp of the potato, leaving just enough along the potato skin to keep its structure. Add the pulp to a small bowl, add in the vegetable broth and mash. Add the potato to the bowl with the remaining chorizo filling. Stir in the remaining 1/4 cup of cheddar.

Fill the potato skins back up with the filling and bake for 15 mins.

Cilantro Sour Cream

1 cup sour cream
2 garlic cloves
lots of cilantro (to your taste)
salt and pepper

Add the sour cream, garlic and cilantro into a small blender or food processor and pulse until well combined. Season with salt and pepper.