Easy buffalo chicken empanadas with a spicy chicken empanada filling! The crispy fried shell makes these extra addicting!

Buffalo Chicken Empanadas

I admit I’ve been obsessed with buffalo flavored foods recently, but the spicy flavor is so addicting! It never gets old and I hope you like it too since I have several more “buffalo” recipes I want to share!

First up, these buffalo chicken empanadas. These tasty hand pies are currently at the top of my list thanks to the generous chicken filling and crispy fried shell.

Plus, they are really simple to make yet packed with so much flavor.

These are going to be a hit at your next party, as part of your game day eats, or an inspiring way to use up leftover chicken.

Let’s walk through the recipe really quick and you’ll be on your way to flavor town.

Chicken

The chicken should be already cooked and shredded for this recipe. I love to make a large batch of chicken in my Instant Pot and use it for various recipes throughout the week.

You can use chicken breasts or thighs. I prefer the flavor and juiciness of thighs.

If your chicken is not already seasoned, sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder before adding to the filling mixture. You can also use adobo seasoning or seasoning salt.

One of the tricks to good cooking is to season each component of your dish so you achieve maximum flavor.

Hot sauce

Frank’s Red Hot is my preferred brand, but the taste is up to you. Different hot sauces will lend different flavors so experiment away.

I use 2 tablespoons per 1 cup of chicken. If that’s too spicy for you (or the kids), you can dilute it with butter.

So 1 tablespoon hot sauce + 1 tablespoon melted butter per 1 cup of chicken.

Blue cheese

I love the sharpness blue cheese crumbles add to these empanadas.

I realize not everyone likes the flavor, so feel free to leave it out, or make some with and some without.

Empanada discs/shells/wrappers

These can be found in the frozen section of many grocery stores. It doesn’t take long, but make sure these are thawed ahead of time.

You can also follow my recipe for homemade empanada dough. Make a double batch while you’re at and freeze some discs for later use!

This particular recipe is for fried empanadas. If you want baked empanadas, there are discs you can buy that are labeled for baking or you can use pie crust.

Assembly and cooking

After combining the spicy chicken filling, place a couple tablespoons in the center of an empanada disc and fold in half.

Make sure you seal the edges well by crimping with a fork. Sometimes I crimp on both sides just to be sure there won’t be any leaks.

Next, you’ll want to add enough oil in a frying pan to come halfway up the sides of the empanadas so they cook evenly. You can also deep fry them.

They only take a few minutes to cook, so prepare a cookie sheet with paper towels to drain them after removing from the oil.

For serving, buffalo chicken empanadas are great dipped in extra hot sauce, blue cheese or ranch dressing.

For the pictures I drizzled some with our sauces because I’m extra like that and we ate them right away. Delicioso!