Picadillo is a traditional dish made in many Latin American countries. Picadillo is typically made with ground meat that’s seasoned with spices, tomatoes, and other ingredients depending by region. It is often served with rice or used as a filling in dishes such as tacos, savory pastries or croquettes. It’s a great dish to make and one that you can pair with absolutely anything. I love making a large amount and using the leftovers in other recipes. Like this one.

I had leftover Picadillo in the fridge that I made with ground chicken the night before and wanted something a bit different. I also had a few overly ripe sweet plantains that were also on the brink of spoiling so my creative juices began to cook up ideas and I decided on empanadas. And let me tell you, both ingredients made for bomb empanadas. What’s even better? These were cooked in my air fryer! No oil and no added fats! You can’t beat that!

I used my PowerXL Air Fryer! It’s one of my best purchases yet. It’s such a great cooking gadget. I love fried foods and this bad boy satisfies all of my fatty food cravings without frying. I also love that it comes with different attachments and racks that make for easy cooking. I can throw in a bunch of things at once and don’t have to worry about cooking in batches compared to air fryers that come with a drawer.

It’s all around a great gadget to keep in your arsenal if you enjoy easy, healthy, and sometimes fried foods.

For the Picadillo:

1 lb of Ground Chicken (Ground red meat and turkey work here as well)
2 tbspns of homemade Sazon
3 garlic cloves, mashed or finely chopped
A quarter of a red pepper, finely chopped
A quarter of an onion, finely chopped
1 tbspn of tomato paste
1 tsp of oregano
Salt to taste
1/2 cup of water
1 tbspn of oil, for cooking

For the Empanadas

1 package of Puff Pastry Empanadas Discs or Puff Pastry Sheets
Cooked Picadillo
2 Sweet plantains, diced into 1 inch chunks and fried until golden
2 eggs, beatend

Directions:

First we season the ground meat. In a large bowl, add your ground meat. Then, season with sazon, garlic, red pepper, onion, tomato paste, oregano, and salt. Mix until all ingredients are combined. If using ground chicken or turkey, be very careful not to over mix.

Time to cook the Picadillo! Next, add oil to a pan under medium heat. Then, add in the seasoned ground meat to the pan making sure to use your cooking spoon or spatula to break down the meat. Cover and cook for about 12 minutes. Then, add water and combine. Cook on medium for another 12-15 minutes or until the liquid has cooked out of the meat.

Now we add the fried sweet plantains into the cooked Picadillo mixture. Mix to combine. This is the mixture we will use to fill our empanada dough.

Now we fill the empanada dough. Remove all of your discs from the packaging and add a tablespoon full of the filling to each disc. To seal the empanada, fold your dough over to create a pocket. You can either seal by pressing a fork along the edge of the dough or by crimping the dough between your finger tips.

Once your empanada dough is filled and sealed, each empanada gets an egg wash and then goes into the air fryer.

Transfer your sealed empanadas to your airfryer tray or drawer. Then, dip a cooking brush into your beaten eggs (egg wash) and brush each empanada with the egg wash. This will ensure that we get a nice crispy and golden empanada while they bake in the air fryer.

My airfryer includes 3 trays which make loading and baking a lot easier.

Bake in your air fryer at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Depending on your air fryer, you may have to turn the empanadas over to cook them on the other side a bit more. I own the Power XL Air Fryer and I tend to flip my empanadas over to cook for 5 more minutes on the other side to get a nice golden color. But again, pay attention to your air fryer and it’s cooking settings.

Notes:

I used a package of Puff Pastry empanada discs that I found at my local supermarket but feel free to use puff pastry sheets instead. If using sheets instead of discs, cut even squares out of the sheets and fold-over to create a small triangle after filling.