Quesa-Birria Empanada at Chica
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By Kathleen Furore
On three Sundays in February, Chicago Empanada Mama became more than the full-service, upscale, casual dining restaurant that has attracted diners since it debuted in the city’s West Town neighborhood in June 2023. It became a culinary classroom that hosted “Empanada Fiesta: Roll, Fold, and Feast”— a 60-minute empanada-making experience that took participants on a journey that started with a history lesson about empanadas and progressed to a hands-on cooking class where they learned the fine points of rolling and filling the perfect empanada dough, and how to perfect the folding and sealing process. At the end of the class, each participant enjoyed the empanada they’d made, along with rice and a side.
Chicago Empanada Mama class
“We just started doing the classes, but my weekends are getting booked up through April,” owner Inez Melendez says. “Every Sunday in March and April are already booking up!” The class is just one of myriad ways owner Inez Melendez shares her passion for the food she learned to make from her mother Rosita, the inspiration behind Chicago Empanada Mama.
“She had this idea that food was the way to bring family and friends together,” Melendez says of her mom. “In the Caribbean, empanadas are often a staple in family holiday meals. My mother’s cooking was always the talk of the town. Many of the recipes were inspired by the beautiful times I spent in the kitchen with her, learning how to bring people together through cuisine.”
A Versatile Dish
It’s hard to come up with a single food item that is more versatile than the empanada. It can be a snack, appetizer, entrée or dessert; be served at breakfast, lunch, or dinner; and be filled with ingredients ranging from meat and cheese to all kinds of fruit and vegetables.
The dough, which also can be made in myriad ways, essentially becomes a canvas for so many kinds of cuisines — traditional, fusion, vegetarian and vegan among them.
At Chicago Empanada Mama, that canvas is made with butter and eggs, and all of the fillings are inspired by Puerto Rican and Caribbean culture. The empanada menu features a cornucopia of fillings and sauces.
There’s ham and cheese; stewed and pulled chicken breasts with basil and thyme; braised garlic yucca, bell pepper, squash, onion and beans in creole sauce; eggs, chorizo and cheese; guava and cheese folded in a handmade buttery dough, air-fried to a crisp; peach cobbler; and cherry. Sauce options include Chimichurri, Tomatillo, Balsamic Vinaigrette, Garlic Sauce, BBQ Sauce and Buffalo Sauce.
But the stars of the show — the best-sellers on the menu — are the Macho Man Empanada made with ground beef, potatoes and cheese and the Lechon Empanada filled with slow-roasted garlic-rosemary pork, Melendez says.
At Chica, the Latin fusion restaurant housed in The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, empanadas take a Mexican turn in the restaurant’s very popular Quesa-Birria Empanadas.
“The Quesa-Birria Empanadas have been a staple on our menu since the opening. They are our top-selling small plate,” General Manager Samantha Clapp reports.
The ingredients are decidedly upscale, with Wagyu beef brisket that’s slow-cooked and then shredded taking center stage — or actually, center dough.
“We reduce a house-made beef consommé and fold it back in with the shredded beef then hand-wrap it in a flaky pastry with freshly shredded, imported Mexican Oaxacan cheese,” Clapp explains.
The story of Chica’s empanadas attests to how versatile these small puffs of filled dough can be when developing menus for all dayparts.
“Originally, they were only available at dinner, but due to their popularity we now feature them all day,” Clapp adds, noting that the Wagyu version is the only empanada currently served at both Chica’s Las Vegas and Miami, Florida locations.
Empanadas lend themselves to creative interpretations that make great limited time offers (LTOs), too.
Melendez, for example, collaborated with Chicago’s famed Manny’s Deli — an 80-year-old institution in the Windy City — to create a St. Patrick’s Day LTO last year.
Chicago Empanada Mama St. Pat's Day Empanada
That empanada featured Manny's Corned Beef plus Kerrygold's Aged Cheddar.
“St. Patrick’s Day is a big holiday in Chicago,” Melendez says, explaining how and why she came up with the idea.
Her creative approach extends to other holidays, as well.
“We try to offer different specials for different occasions, for example, we offered heart-shaped empanadas for Valentine’s Day this year,” she says.
And she’s not opposed to exploring other renditions that veer from Chicago Empanada Mama’s focus on Puerto Rican and Caribbean fare.
“We are always open to doing custom empanadas like a taco empanada or pizza empanada — let's partner up!” Melendez says.