Easy Air Fryer Beef Empanadas Recipe

Looking for a new dish to serve on Taco Tuesday or Cinco de Mayo? This Easy Air Fryer Beef Empanadas recipe is one of our family’s absolute favorite dinner recipes!

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Easy Air Fryer Beef Empanadas Recipe

I’ll never forget biting into my first authentic beef empanada. We were stationed in San Antonio and I recall it took me by surprise – the delicious spices that flavored the meat, the subtlety of the flaky crust, the onions within the cheesy seasoned beef, and the light tomatoey base. It had me going gaga! 😍

Somehow after all these years and doing Taco Tuesday religiously week after week, how is it possible that I’d never attempted to make homemade empanadas myself before? I knew that had to end, especially after having some at a local Mexican restaurant recently.. it brought me right back to that joy I felt when I’d first tried them. Knew that I absolutely had to recreate this in some way, and so I did! These homemade empanadas use flaky crescent roll dough and are prepared in the air fryer to make them crispy yet soft and flaky! 😍

Where Can I Find The Actual Recipe Card?

If you’d rather skip all of my cooking tips, important information for this recipe, and similar recipe ideas – and get straight to the easy Air Fryer Beef Empanadas recipe, just scroll down to the bottom, where you’ll find a printable recipe card.

Can You Prepare These Homemade Air Fryer Empanadas in Advance?

Absolutely! In fact, while eating them while fresh is always preferred, I found the flavors gelled and developed a bit more when I reheated them for leftovers the next day! If you do need to make these ahead of time, do not fear about having to reheat them to serve when you’re ready, especially when reheating using the Air Fryer! These came out wonderfully flaky and crispy using that method!

Equipment Needed to Make Easy Air Fryer Beef Empanadas

To make these tasty Air Fryer Beef Empanadas, you will need the following kitchen tools:

Ingredients Needed to Make Easy Beef Empanadas

You will need the following ingredients:

Keep in mind, all of the ingredient amounts you’ll need are in the printable recipe card below.

How to Make Easy Beef Empanadas

Brown your ground beef in a large frying pan over medium-high heat, utilizing a Mix ‘n Chop to mince the meat really finely as it cooks.

Add your taco seasoning to the pan plus the water required (as instructed on the packaging).

Using a rubber spatula, continue to sauté the taco seasoned ground beef as directed as per the taco seasoning’s instructions.

While sautéing, dice up your onion using a sharp knife on a small cutting board.

To get it as finely chopped as possible, you may opt to utilize a blender or food processor as I did. I wanted my onion diced as finely as possible and you can’t always achieve that by hand, you know?

Add to the seasoned beef your finely minced onions and stir gently, folding the onions into the meat well.

Add to this meat onion mixture some finely minced garlic.

Sauté well until the onions get soft and lucid.

After the onions are noticeably soft and clear, add to the pan your preferred salsa and tomato paste; stir and mix well.

As you continue to stir, add in your smoked paprika.

Once everything has been added to the meat mixture, you may turn it to stay warm, low, or turn off in preparation for the next step – assembly!

How to Assemble Easy Air Fryer Beef Empanadas

Take your crescent roll dough out two at a time (still attached) and using a rolling pin on a large cutting board, roll out the dough pressing the sections together to make it one unit instead of two.

Once pressed together to make a seamless rectangle, lift to prevent sticking to the cutting board.

Replace the dough rectangles back onto the cutting board and cut in half using your sharp knife.

Place about a teaspoon-to-tablespoon size of meat mixture in the center of the smaller rectangles, and top with some shredded Mexican cheese.

Try not to overfill them too full with meat and cheese or they won’t close too well.

Take one side of your dough and fold it over top in half. Begin with one side and start curling the dough inward, rolling it between your fingers tightly and upwards towards the meat/cheese pocket.

Use a fork to crimp the rolled edges like a pie crust to seal it closed.

Place parchment paper onto your Air Fryer’s basket and spray lightly with cooking spray. Add your uncooked empanadas to the parchment paper and line them up nicely, gently spraying a little cooking spray over top them. They don’t spread much at all so you can pack them nice and tight to prepare as many at once as possible to minimize cooking time!

Bake them at 350 for about 12-15 minutes, flipping halfway. Test for doneness and add a couple more minutes if needed!

Let cool 1-2 minutes or so before serving!

Can You Use Pie Crusts Instead?

Absolutely! When using pie crusts, you can choose whether or not to cut out rectangles or use circles instead? You can also reuse the cut away dough, re-rolling it out to be cut out again!

Other Taco-Inspired Recipes to Try!

If you’re feeling particularly tac-inspired after seeing this recipe, then look no further, friend! We’re pretty taco-addicted around here too (with more tasty recipes on the way)! Check out our tried and true Tex-Mex faves that are huge hits with the kiddos!

Get the Printable Recipe for Easy Air Fryer Beef Empanadas

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• Brown your ground beef in a large frying pan over medium-high heat, utilizing a Mix ‘n Chop to mince the meat really finely as it cooks.
• Add your taco seasoning to the pan plus the water required (as instructed on the packaging).
• Using a rubber spatula, continue to sauté the taco seasoned ground beef as directed as per the taco seasoning’s instructions.
• While sautéing, dice up your onion using a sharp knife on a small cutting board.
• To get it as finely chopped as possible, you may opt to utilize a blender or food processor as I did. I wanted my onion diced as finely as possible and you can’t always achieve that by hand, you know?

• Add to the seasoned beef your finely minced onions and stir gently, folding the onions into the meat well.

• Add to this meat onion mixture some finely minced garlic.

• Sauté well until the onions get soft and lucid.

• After the onions are noticeably soft and clear, add to the pan your preferred salsa and tomato paste; stir and mix well.
• As you continue to stir, add in your smoked paprika.

• Once everything has been added to the meat mixture, you may turn it to stay warm, low, or turn off in preparation for the next step – assembly!

• Take your crescent roll dough out two at a time (still attached) and using a rolling pin on a large cutting board, roll out the dough pressing the sections together to make it one unit instead of two.

• Once pressed together to make a seamless rectangle, lift to prevent sticking to the cutting board.

• Replace the dough rectangles back onto the cutting board and cut in half using your sharp knife.
• Place about a teaspoon-to-tablespoon size of meat mixture in the center of the smaller rectangles, and top with some shredded Mexican cheese.

• Try not to overfill them too full with meat and cheese or they won’t close too well.

• Take one side of your dough and fold it over top in half. Begin with one side and start curling the dough inward, rolling it between your fingers tightly and upwards towards the meat/cheese pocket.

• Use a fork to crimp the rolled edges like a pie crust to seal it closed.

• Place parchment paper onto your Air Fryer’s basket and spray lightly with cooking spray. Add your uncooked empanadas to the parchment paper and line them up nicely, gently spraying a little cooking spray over top them. They don’t spread much at all so you can pack them nice and tight to prepare as many at once as possible to minimize cooking time!

• Bake them at 350 for about 12-15 minutes, flipping halfway. Test for doneness and add a couple more minutes if needed!

• Let cool 1-2 minutes or so before serving!

• Serve
  with your favorite Tex-Mex side dishes and sauces/dips! Enjoy!