It was actually a few weeks ago that I made these, but I remember I had some leftover chicken breasts and decided to try to make pulled chicken empanadas. I looked up the recipe for empanadas in The Joy of Cooking, and used that for the dough. Here's the recipe: process 3 cups a.p. flour, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, and 1 tsp. salt. Cut in 10 tbs. cold butter, cubed, and 1/2 cup shortening, cubed (or cut in small pieces) until mixture resembles coarse crumb. Transfer to a large bowl and drizzle with 11 to 13 tbs. ice water. Mix gently until dampened to gather into a ball. Shape into a disk and refrigerate wrapped tightly in plastic for at least one hour.

    This recipe was for beef picadillo, so I looked up pulled chicken, but there was only a recipe for pulled pork, so I improvised, starting with the switch from using a 4 pound hunk of pork butt to a couple of boneless chicken breasts (about a pound). Basically, this recipe called for coating the meat with the Southern Dry Rub for Barbecue listed earlier in the book (cumin, brown sugar, paprika, chili powder, ground red pepper, mace, salt and cracked black pepper) and then browning the meat in a pan, then covering it and placing it in the oven 'til tender. Then shred the meat with a fork, and mix with barbecue sauce (I used Annie's brand). I then rolled out the dough, cut into circles about 6", and put a few tablespoons of chicken in the center, folded it over and crimped with a fork. Brushed the tops with egg wash and baked in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.

     As you can probably imagine with all that butter and shortening, these were some damn flaky empanadas. And mighty tasty, we thought. We like the empanadas at the local empanada store in our neighborhood, but I always think the dough's a bit dry and that they skimp a bit on the fillings.