Empanada de pollo across Latin America
Latin America · Empanada de pollo
An empanada de pollo is a filled turnover of dough folded over a seasoned chicken filling and baked or fried, found in some form across nearly all of Latin America. Dough, filling, size, and cooking method vary sharply by country, from wheat-flour baked empanadas in Argentina to fried corn-dough versions in Colombia.
By the chickenpie.net test kitchen · Published 20 July 2026
Where it comes from
The empanada arrived in the Americas with Spanish colonization. Its Iberian ancestor is well documented: Galicia in northwest Spain has a centuries-old tradition of large empanadas, and the word derives from empanar, to enclose in bread. In the Americas the format splintered into national and regional styles as it met local doughs, especially corn, and local seasonings.
Chicken took its place alongside beef early on as a standard filling, though how early is not well documented for most regions. What is clear is that by the twentieth century empanadas de pollo were everyday fare across the continent: sold at bakeries and street stalls, made at home for gatherings, and folded into national snack cultures from Mexico to Chile.
Regional identity runs deep. Argentines argue province by province about dough, fat, and crimping. Colombia and Venezuela favor fried corn-masa empanadas. Chile bakes large wheat empanadas. In the Caribbean, related pastries go by names like empanadilla and pastelillo. Each place treats its own version as the reference point.
How it is traditionally made
In the baked wheat tradition, typified by Argentina, the dough is a soft, pliable wheat pastry made with lard or butter, rolled into rounds called tapas. The chicken filling is usually a moist braise of shredded or chopped chicken with onion and bell pepper, seasoned commonly with cumin and paprika, and often studded with olives, raisins, or hard-boiled egg depending on region. The rounds are filled, folded, and sealed with a braided crimp called repulgue, then baked until golden.
In the fried corn tradition, common in Colombia and Venezuela, the shell is a masa of precooked corn flour, filled with stewed chicken and potato or rice, then deep-fried to a crisp, golden crust. These are typically smaller and eaten with ají or other table sauces.
Everywhere, empanadas are portioned for the hand. They appear as street food, party food made by the dozen, and bakery staples, with the crimp pattern often signaling the filling inside. Baked versions travel well and keep for hours, which helped make the empanada standard picnic, lunchbox, and celebration food across the continent.
What surprises a British or American cook
There is no pie dish and no gravy. The chicken is a fully cooked, well-seasoned, relatively dry filling sealed inside individual pastries, and in much of the continent the dough is corn rather than wheat and the cooking is frying rather than baking. Seasonings lean to cumin, paprika, olives, and chiles instead of cream and herbs.