Gaby Melian is the Bon Appétit test kitchen assistant, and after we begged her for weeks, she shared her family's Argentinian empanadas recipe with us.
My mom made these empanadas the same way my grandmother made them, and my recipe is a version of that. My mom, Adriana, passed away last January, so let’s say it’s her recipe—she would like that. She’d also insist that the chicken ones have to have green peppers and tomato paste; otherwise, they’re not chicken empanadas.
The beef empanadas are traditional porteñas, which means they're from Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, and they always have ground beef, raisins, and green olives. When someone tells me they don’t like raisins, I say, well, pick them out! So they’re a little sweet, some people even sprinkle them with sugar before baking. Whereas in the north of Argentina, there’s an influence from Bolivian empanadas, so those are spicier and the meat is cut, not ground. In the south, some people add nuts and/or hard-boiled eggs. There are so many recipes. I don’t like them with hard-boiled eggs, it makes the empanada a little dry. And you already have meat, why do you need eggs?! So we skipped that in these recipes.
