Chipotle Roasted Chicken Empanadas

This little project started as a need for an appetizer to take to a friend's dinner party. I had very little on hand and did not want to make another trip to the grocery store. I had just purchased, the day before, a whole chicken that I planned on roasting anyway, and as I contemplated a good finger food appetizer I stumbled across an empanada dough recipe that I thought would be perfect as a wrap for my chipotle chicken mixture. While the process sounds like a lot of work, it really isn't. Just make the dough while the chicken is cooking and once the chicken cools, cut it up, cut the dough, stuff it and bake!

Chipotle Roasted Chicken

(adapted from Bon Appetit magazine)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

4 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chilies in adobo

1 5 1/2- to 6-pound roasting chicken, rinsed, patted dry; neck, heart, and gizzard removed

2 large onions, each cut into wedges

12 garlic cloves, peeled

1 cup (or more) low-salt chicken broth

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Using fork, mix butter, all chopped herbs, and chipotle chiles, in small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place chicken, breast side up, in large roasting pan. Salt and pepper the inside cavity of the chicken. Spread all but 1 tablespoon seasoned butter over breast meat and thigh meat under skin. Rub any butter remaining on fingers over outside of chicken. Place all herb sprigs in cavity.

Place onion wedges in large bowl. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon seasoned butter in small saucepan over low heat; pour over onion wedges and toss to coat. Arrange onions around chicken. Sprinkle onions and chicken with salt and pepper.

On the lower third rack, roast chicken and onions 30 minutes. Scatter garlic cloves around chicken; add 1/4 cup broth to roasting pan. Continue to roast chicken until instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 170°F, basting occasionally with pan juices and adding more broth by 1/4 cupfuls as needed to maintain juices in roasting pan, about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Remove roasting pan from oven. Tilt chicken, draining juices from cavity into pan. Transfer chicken, onions, and garlic to platter. Tent with foil to keep warm. Add 1/4 cup broth and wine to pan. Place over 2 burners and bring juices to boil, scraping up browned bits. Discard fat from top of juices.

For the empanada mixture: Remove all meat from the chicken and chop. Chop the cooked onions, garlic, and all pan juices and browned bits and add to the chopped meat. It should all be chopped into a chicken salad consistency.

Empanada Dough:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 stick of unsalted butter, frozen, cubed
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
4-5 T milk
1 egg, lightly whisked

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a food processor pulse the flour with the cold butter until you get a crumbly mixture. Transfer to a bowl. Add the egg and milk and knead in to form a sort of dough. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and bring together into a ball. Pat into a circle of 1 inch thickness, wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

To assemble the Empanadas:

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out rounds of the size you want (I used a biscuit cutter and then flattened each into an oval). Place about a teaspoon of the filling a bit off center and spread to the edges leaving a 1/4 inch border. Brush the border with an egg mixture of eggs with a little water. Fold the dough over the filling and press the edges to seal. Use a fork to make groove marks on the edges and to seal it. Place the empanadas on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.