Serving size: Serves 10 or more
Cuisine type: Spanish
Cooking time: More than 2 hours
Course: Finger food, Side dish
Favourite flavours: Spicy

Chicken, raisin and pine nut empanadas

INGREDIENTS

1 litre (4 cups) water
1 chicken breast fillet (200g)
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 small brown onion (80g), chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ can (205g) crushed tomatoes
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon dried chilli flakes
2 tablespoons raisins, chopped coarsely
2 tablespoons pine nuts, roasted
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 egg

Pastry
1 2/3 cups (250g) plain flour
150g cold butter, chopped
1 egg
1 tablespoon cold water

METHOD

Bring the water to the boil in medium saucepan; add chicken, return to the boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, about 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Cool chicken in poaching liquid 10 minutes. Remove chicken from pan; discard poaching liquid. Shred chicken finely.

Heat oil in medium frying pan; cook onion and garlic, stirring, until onion softens. Add undrained tomato, bay leaf and chilli; cook, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes or until mixture thickens.

Add chicken, raisins, nuts and cinnamon to tomato mixture; stir until heated through. Stir in parsley. Cool mixture, covered, in the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, make pastry.

Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced.

Roll one pastry half between sheets of baking paper until 2mm thick; using 10cm-round cutter, cut 10 rounds from pastry.

Place 1 level tablespoon of chicken mixture in centre of each round; fold round in half to enclose filling, pinching edges to seal. Press around edges of empanadas with a fork. Repeat with remaining pastry half and chicken mixture to make a total of 20 empanadas, re-rolling pastry scraps as required.

Place empanadas on baking-paper-lined oven trays; brush with egg. Bake 20 minutes or until browned lightly.

Pastry
Process flour and butter until crumbly. Add egg and the water; process until mixture comes together. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. Divide in half, enclose in plastic wrap; refrigerate 30 minutes.