Sweet Potato and Chorizo Hand Pies
Sweet Potato and Chorizo Hand Pies are sweet, savory, slightly spicy and everything you want in a hand held appetizer. Flakey pie dough wrapped around roasted sweet potato, spicy chorizo and a shredded jack cheese. Think of these as a baked empanada.
All food, all day.
The ideas never stop. I can honestly say I think about food day and night. I dream about it, waking up and jotting down ideas in a notebook I keep beside my bed. My phone has umpteen lists on it with taco recipes, seasonal recipes and everything in between. I have grocery store receipts with lists of recipe ideas floating around my purse and kitchen drawers. Don’t even get me started on the notebooks scattered through my house.
Every so often, I gather my various lists in attempt to streamline my thoughts and put the recipes in one place. I cross off what I’ve made, delete the duplicates and prioritize what to try next. I did this a few weeks back and noticed a theme: sweet potatoes. Three sweet potato taco recipes, a soup recipe, something for the holidays, a pizza, two salads, one that involved grilling and one that involved roasting and stuffing. That’s 10 sweet potato recipes. And I already have almost a dozen on my blog.
The funny thing is I don’t even love sweet potatoes. Or so I thought. I like sweet potatoes but I surely wouldn’t say they’re my favorite by any means. So why so many sweet potato recipes? What gives? It got me thinking….they’re sweet so obviously I’m drawn to them. The flavor is pretty versatile so you can highlight them sooo many ways. And they’re a great vegetarian option. They can be roasted, mashed, in a soup, on their own, or in this case, stuffed into a flakey hand pie and paired with spicy chorizo and jack cheese. Please give me a moment as I swoon.
Maybe not the most conventional way to eat sweet potatoes or the quickest but I can assure you these are worth every minute of your time. Sweet potatoes for the win!!! And you can rest assured that the sweet potatoes recipes are going to keep coming at you!
Have a great Monday, everyone!!
PrintSweet Potato & Chorizo Hand Pies
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
For the Pie Crust:
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cold and cut into cubes
- 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon cold water
Sweet Potato Chorizo Filling:
- 1 large sweet potato
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 oz ground chorizo, cooked and drained of excess fat
- 3 oz shredded monterey jack cheese
Instructions
To make the pie crust:
- Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Add the cold, cubed butter and pulse a few times to break them up. With the food processor running, add the cold water and pulse until the dough becomes crumbly and starts to stick together. Dump the dough out onto a clean surface and gather into a ball. Shape into a disk and cover in plastic wrap. Chill for a least 2 hours in the fridge.
To make the hand pies:
- Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or silicone baking sheet.
- Roast the sweet potato on a baking sheet for 40 minutes or until fully cooked. When cool enough to handle, remove the peel and mash into a bowl with the melted butter, cumin, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.
- On a generously floured surface, roll the dough out into a large circle about 1/4 inch thick. Use a 5 to 6-inch round cutter to cut dough into rounds. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of sweet potatoes onto one half of the circles. And then add a heaping teaspoon of chorizo and a pinch of shredded jack cheese. Brush edges lightly with the egg wash and fold the dough over the mixture. Gently press to seal. Use the back of a fork to press a decorative edge around the now moon shaped pies.
- Cut vents into the top of each pie.
- Brush tops of hand pies with egg wash and sprinkle with a small pinch of kosher salt and chili powder (optional).
- Bake until crust is slightly golden and filling is just starting to bubble through the vents about 12-15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving. Hand pies are best the day they are baked but will keep at room temperature for a few days.
- You can reheat the hand pies in a toaster oven set at 325 degree for 5 minutes.
33 Comments
Oh lordy. These are calling my name! And the worst is when you can’t find that recipe idea in one of the said places! I have torn apart my house looking for it…to of course come across it the day after I attempted the recipe. Go figure.
Oh man, I do the same thing all the time. Or if I don’t write the idea down and can’t remember it. Ugh.
Still dreaming about these hand pies, they were SO GOOD! Definitely the winner of Best Hand Pie of the afternoon. Looking forward to another baking day soon!
Me too! Let’s set something up soon! xo
Oh these look really good, love the idea of savory hand held pies. Never thought of the sweet potato and chorizo combination together, but I bet it works.
It’s the classic sweet and savory combination. Gets me every time. This combo is a total winner!
These look amazing! I am the same way with various pads of ideas, notebooks, and phone lists of ideas always around. It’s great to have them jotted down, especially when you’re drawing a blank. Sweet potatoes are a personal fave, so keep them coming!
I figured I’m not alone when it comes to multiple lists!
I am all about the sweet potato. I need to go browse through your recipes and make all of them, of course, after this one!
I love the way you describe your obsession with food and developing new recipes. I can totally relate. My iPhone “notes” is a mess and I need to combine notebooks. LOVE YOUR BLOG! 🙂
Thanks, Becky!! Have a great week. xo
I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one who dreams about food. It’s not something that I admit in public very often. 🙂 These hand pies truly look like something that dreams are made of.
Dangerously good, Dara!
Happy Birthday! You’re very wise to celebrate and honor yourself as you acquire more birthdays – this is why I created “The Twelve Days of Lisa” when I was in my thirties (though now that I’m in my fiftieth year, I may expand the 12 Days to a full Lisember).
Great recipe – they’re very similar to our Louisiana Natchitoches pies! Though, as I don’t do well with spicy chorizo, I might sub some ground turkey sausage for it instead
I love the idea of The Twelve Days of celebrating yourself! We’re all better off for it!
Kelley,
Quick question…
I am making these for Mother’s Day, but wanted to know how many pies this recipe makes? Thanks!
Depending on what size cookie cutter you use….my guess is 12-15
These were amazing! I doubled the dough recipe, the chorizo and cheese, but only used 1 large sweet potato. I used a 5 inch cutter and got 17 pies. My 2 1/2 year old had a blast helping make these and my husband ate half of them in one sitting. I will definitely make these again.
Has anyone tried to freeze them? I wanted to make a large batch and freeze for later use, but not sure how they would fare.
I’m so glad you liked them! I haven’t frozen them but I’m sure they’d work beautifully. If you do try it, please share your thoughts!
I froze some of these last May and just ate them this weekend. They were just as good the second time around!
Don’t throw away any drained chorizo oil as this makes a great salad dressing base.
Great tip!
These sound phenomenal! If you’re making them for dinner for a party, how many should you make per person? Understanding, of course, that there will be sides and appetizers as well.
I think two per person is plenty if you’ve got other food as well. Hope that helps.
Thanks for responding, but you didn’t say a number!
Oops! I just edited previous comment. Two!!
Ok, thank you so much!
Ok, thank you!
These are popular with football parties in fall in my house. I usually plan on 2 per person. They freeze really well so if you make extra you can always throw them in the freezer. 1 min in the microwave and then 4 minutes in a toaster oven and you would never know they were frozen!
Awesome, thank you so much for chiming in! That’s exactly what I needed to know 🙂
These are popular with football parties in fall in my house. I usually plan on 2 per person. They freeze really well so if you make extra you can always throw them in the freezer. 1 min in the microwave and then 4 minutes in a toaster oven and you would never know they were frozen!
Hi there,
I’m looking to cook some Cornish pasties at altitude- was just wondering if I switched around the filling if it would take the same amount of time to bake? Just don’t want to burn the pastry or under cook the filling 🙂 Thank you so much in advance!
OMGoodness – these sound amazing and I cannot wait to make these. I do have a question though, if you are tight on time, can you use ready made refrigerated pie crusts and simply cut out the circles?
For sure!