Pork Empanadas (Pastelillos)

These Puerto Rican style ground pork empanadas (pastelillos) are the type of empanadas I grew up eating. These empanadas are a flaky pastries filled with ground pork. The ground pork is perfectly seasoned with sofrito, spices, and a little bit of latin style tomato sauce. I then add in a little bit of white melting cheese, place a few spoonfuls in store-bought empanada dough, close them up and fry it up.

Ground Pork Empanadas

My family is from Puerto Rico and we make so many of our traditional food throughout the year. My mom and aunts have taught me so many of my family recipes and I love making them for my own family. One of my favorite recipes from a young age was my family’s pastelillos recipe. Pastelillos are what many Puerto Ricans call empanadas, so I will use the words interchangeably in this recipe post. We typically stuff our pastelillos with ground beef, but I prefer ground pork so I made the recipe below.

While empanadas can have many different types of filling, there is something so satisfying about the richness of pork. I used ground pork for these empanadas which is easy to find in stores and easy to prepare. I season these with my homemade sofrito, which I always have on hand. If you cannot find some of the same ingredients to make homemade sofrito, I include instructions on how to make it with limited ingredients. Then, I added it to some empanada discs with melty cheese and fry them up really fast.

Easy Pork Empanadas

I feel like so many cultures have their own version of meat filled dough. Dumpling, samosa, gyoza, pierogi, mantu, patties, hand pies, wontons, lumpia, etc. I often think about all the times over the centuries that family members sat around the table talking and making these recipes. All of them are time consuming, all of them are small, and all of them take many hands to make.

My family has many recipes like this. One of these is our ground pork empanadas (pastelillos) recipe. One shortcut that I like to take when making them is buying premade empanada dough, called “discs” at the grocery store. They can be found at pretty much every grocery store I go to. Two brands that are pretty popular are Goya or La Fe. Even though the discs are usually pretty flat, sometimes the edges dry out and crack. My mom always told me to use a small rolling pin to gently soften the edges to make them easier to close.

Watch my video for Ground Pork Empanadas (pastelillos)

Here is my video. You can also find my video on my instagram page.

Pork Empanadas

Empanadas, or pastelillos, are flaky hand pies stuffed with a filling. You can fill them with savory fillings like meat, vegetables, or cheese. And you can fill them with something sweet like fruit. Hand pies are a great description for empanadas and pastelillos because they are so portable and convenient to eat.

How to Make Ground Pork Empanadas

These pork empanadas are a delicious recipe to make for your family or for a crowd.

INGREDIENTS  

• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 tbsp sofrito homemade seasoning blend
• 1 tsp Goya Adobo
• 1/8 tsp oregano
• 1/8 tsp seasoning salt
• 3 tbsp Goya Tomato Sauce (picante) Latin style tomato sauce, not Italian.
• 1 cup Shredded Chihuahua Cheese can also use Monterrey jack cheese
• 10 Empanada Discs found in freezer section in grocery store
• vegetable oil enough to fill up the bottom of the pan 2″

INSTRUCTIONS 

• Add 1/2 tbsp olive oil to a pan to heat up
• Add the sofrito and cook it for about 3 minutes until fragrant
• Add your ground pork and mix it around. Also add in your adobo and seasoning salt.
• Once your meat is almost fully cooked, add in the tomato sauce and mix well. Let it finish cooking. You should cook your ground pork until a meat thermometer reads 160 F. Let ground pork cool slightly before you assemble your empanadas.
• Shred your cheese if it is not already shredded.
• Lay out a thawed empanada disc on a cutting board. Using a small rolling pin, roll out the disc slightly, paying attention to the hard edges. 
• Add 1-2 tbsp of meat into the bottom center of one of the discs. Top with a little cheese, and fold over the empanada disc. Pinch the sides closed and then use a fork to press down and seal the edges. Flip it over and seal the edges from the other side. Repeat with the rest.
• Add oil to a large pan on Medium heat. Fry until golden brown on both sides.

NOTES

my sofrito is linked here, or you can search for it using the search bar.