Lamb Empanadas with Sweet Sherry Sauce

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This is a classic Lamb Empanadas Recipe, but with a beautiful and unique sauce of rich, Spanish Sherry. The pairing of the rich lamb, a beautiful flaky pastry and this sweet sauce makes for some delicious eating! Also, who doesn’t love a good Empanada?

Some of the best Empanadas there is in the USA are from street carts. It felt like at almost every turn in NYC there was a street vendor selling delicious Empanadas with a delicious sauce. I was however surprised that not many Empanada stands were doing a Lamb version. Well, we can tell you from extensive trial and research that they’re missing out!

Slow roasted Lamb Shoulder is such a beautiful filling for a pastry snack. In particular, our 10-hour Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder recipe recipe link here. The Lamb is mouthwatering, tender, and bursting with flavor. We urge you, give it a try and as a reward you can make these beautiful Empanadas

Our Sauce tastes phenomenal if you use your own Lamb Stock (recipe link here). However, if you don’t have any on hand / don’t have the time then store bought Lamb or Beef Stock is ok as an alternative. Please use the low sodium stock if you are buying from a supermarket though

How to make Lamb Empanadas with Sweet Sherry Sauce from Scratch

If you’ve found this recipe but haven’t made our 10 hour Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder but still want to indulge in these wonderful Empanadas, we’ve got you covered. Here is an overview on how to make this most delicious Lamb Shoulder – a dish worthy of an Epic Weekend Cook Up if there ever was one!

Begin by preparing your Lamb Shoulder

The Lamb Shoulder doesn’t require a lot of ingredients, as all of that wonderful flavor is already in the Lamb. Our goal with slowly roasting this beautiful cut of meat is to render the fat slowly, which will help tenderize the meat, making it ridiculously tender and flavorful. So, simply season the Lamb Shoulder liberally with Salt, Olive Oil, and some finely chopped Garlic

If you like you can also add some herbs such as Rosemary (the classic pairing with Lamb) to the Seasoning. Another cool trick is to place a large bed of Rosemary at the bottom of your roasting pan and then place the Lamb on top. This way all those wonderful flavors and aromas will gradually seep into the Lamb as it slow cooks in the Oven

Then, it’s simply a case of covering the Lamb in the Baking Pan with aluminum foil and slow roasting it in the oven set to 225F for 10 hours. That’s literally all there is to it! You don’t even need to really check on the Lamb at all, but we guarantee you that you will. Your house will be filled with the most amazing and wonderful aromas that it’s impossible not to take a peek and see how it’s all going!

One word of advice when cooking this Lamb Shoulder however is to prepare early. If you want to eat at 6pm, that means the Lamb needs to be in the oven by 8am. So have a good plan in place to avoid eating your dinner at midnight!

What better way to use Lamb Shoulder Leftovers than tasty Lamb Empanadas with Sweet Sherry Sauce?

We guarantee you that you’ll have leftovers when cooking the Lamb Shoulder dish. A full lamb shoulder easily weighs about 6 – 7 lbs. so unless you’re feeding a family of 10, there will be leftovers ready to be devoured the next day

We’re making things easy for you when preparing these Empanadas, as we recommend buying the pastry ready-made. For simplicities sake, we’re opting for Puff Pastry for this recipe. The light, buttery Puff Pastry is the perfect vessel to carry that wonderful Lamb, and you don’t need to go through all of the fuss of making your own dough from scratch!

Simply cut even squares of Puff Pastry and lay them out on a flat surface. Place about 1 tbsp. or so of Lamb filling into the center of the Pastry, then roll it up! We like to use a little bit of Egg wash around the edges to help seal the Pastry. We also recommend crimping the folds of the Empanadas together. This helps to seal them up, but also looks quite nice

Then it’s into the Oven to bake for about 15 – 20 minutes at 375F until the pastry is beautiful and golden. The Lamb is already cooked, so the priority here is ensuring the Puff Pastry is cooked all the way through. Remove them from the Oven and allow to cool before serving with this amazing Sherry Caramel Sauce

Making the Sherry Caramel Sauce

These Empanadas are versatile and will go with almost any kind of sweet or savory sauce. You could enjoy them with a Chimichurri Sauce, or our spicy Tamarind Chili Jam if you wanted to and they’d be great!

However, keeping with the Spanish theme of this recipe we’ve paired these delicious Empanadas with a beautiful sauce made from Pedro Ximenez, the sweet sherry from the South of Spain. It’s a very simple sauce to make, you combine diced Shallots with Butter in a pan then add the Lamb Stock and Sherry. Cook it all down until it thickens to a beautiful, almost caramel-like consistency. It tastes amazing!

Lamb Empanadas Recipe with Caramel Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 lb. cooked Lamb Shoulder (see recipe here)
• 2 large sheets of Puff Pastry
• 1 Egg, beaten
• 1 cup Cheddar Cheese, shredded
• Water
  
  

Ingredients For the Caramel Sauce

• 1 cup of Lamb Stock (see recipe) Beef Stock can be used as an alternative
• ½ cup Pedro Ximenez Sherry
• 1 Shallot, finely diced
• 1 tbsp. Unsalted Butter
• 1 tsp. Sugar
• 1 tsp. Salt
  
  

Instructions

1. Cut the Puff Pastry into 4 even squares, so you have 8 squares in total
2. Place about 1 small handful of the Lamb Shoulder in the middle of each square. You want to ensure that approximately ½ the surface area of the Pastry is not covered. Top with about 1 tbsp. of the shredded cheese
3. Fold one corner of the Pastry over the top of the Lamb and connect it to it’s opposite, diagonal corner. Seal the two sides by dipping your finger in a bowl of water then running the water alongside the edges of the pastry
4. Press the two open sides of the pastry together to seal. Crimp the pastry either with a fork, or (preferably) folding it together with your hands to create a nice, wave-like shape
5. Repeat this process for all of the Empanadas, then set them on a large baking sheet. Brush each pastry with the Egg Wash then bake in a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes
6. Once a dark golden brown, remove the Empanadas from the Oven and let cool for a few minutes
   
   

For the Caramel Sauce

Preferably make the sauce in advance to allow enough time for the sauce to adequately reduce

1. Melt Butter in a Saucepan over medium heat then add the Shallots
2. Cook Shallots for 3-4 minutes then add the Pedro Ximenez Sherry. Reduce the Sherry by ½ then add the Lamb Stock
3. Continue to cook until the liquid has reduced by about two thirds and has just begun to thicken. The Sauce should coat the back of a spoon
4. Season with Salt to your taste then set aside ready to serve alongside the beautiful Lamb Empanadas
   
   

We hope you’ve enjoyed making these tasty Lamb Empanadas with Sweet Sherry Sauce. If you enjoyed this recipe, why not try some of these other awesome dishes out:

• Spicy Kale Chips
• Flat Iron Steak Tacos
• Pepperoni Pizza Rolls
• Teriyaki Chicken Skewers with Scallions
  
  

Happy Cooking!