Yum! This Thanksgiving leftover recipe for turkey, ham, or sides makes delicious empanadas (hand pies) in minutes with any pie crust.
Simply fill, fold the empanadas, and bake. You can also freeze these in airtight containers, and then bake for fast weeknight dinner meals or lunches!
A great way to enjoy Thanksgiving leftovers, I added some cute cut out leaves. Fill or decorate your empanadas any way you like, mix and match your leftovers and they will be delicious!
Almost all cultures and countries around the world have some version of a pastry or dough with sweet or savory fillings. Some of these you will know as dumplings, pierogis, samosas, turnovers, British or Cornish pasties, Brazilian pastel, Cuban pastelitos, bolanis, pastechis, and empanadillas.
Empanadas are usually made with savory fillings, but sweet ones are also great for dessert or to accompany that afternoon coffee or tea. They can be served alone or with dipping sauces. Argentinean chimichurri sauce is one of the most popular empanada dipping sauces.
- Thanksgiving Leftover filling ideas:
- turkey or ham - cut into 1 " pieces
- dressing
- Mashed Potatoes
- sweet potatoes
- cranberry sauce
- roasted veggies
- gravy
- 2 pie crusts
- melted butter
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On a floured board, roll out pie dough thinner than average crust.
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Cut dough into circles: use other side of empanada cutter or upside down bowl to cut dough into circles the same size as your empanada maker.
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Pie crusts will make 6 empanadas.
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Place 2-3 tablespoons of filling on one side of the pie dough. If they are overfilled, the press won't close and seal.
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Close the empanada maker, and seal the edges. Or, fold dough in half with filling, and press the edges closed with a tips of a fork.
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Place empanadas on a parchment lined baking sheet.
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Brush with melted butter.
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Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes pie crust until edges are golden brown and baked.
Now that Thanksgiving is almost over, here comes Christmas!
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season, full of family, friends, and food!
All the Best,
Lisa
XO
With Christmas around the corner, make this adorable peppermint candy plate for Santa’s Cookies!
Santa will love these cookies, this recipe for Santa’s Chocolate Chip Peppermint Cookies is very popular!
My family and I do several turkey dinners each year, not just on holidays. I ran across this recipe recently and it is just a unique leftover idea! It is usch a simple idea and it was honestly better than our original turkey dinner! My family loved these and we will be making them again and having fun with the different combos.