Argentinian vs Mexican Empanadas: Compared

Empanadas are not one thing. Travel through Latin America and you find dozens of regional variations, each shaped by local crops, cooking traditions, and migration history. Two of the most widely recognised are Argentinian and Mexican, and they are, in many ways, two opposite expressions of the same idea.

At Argentum, we make Argentinian empanadas the way Pedro grew up eating them in Argentina: small, savoury, hand-pleated, baked at 190C or fried in grass-fed beef tallow. But Argentinian style is one branch on a much bigger family tree. This guide compares the two traditions side by side, with respect for both. Then we will tell you where to find each in Sydney.

What's the difference between Argentinian and Mexican empanadas?

The short answer: dough, size, fold, filling logic, and cooking method. Argentinian empanadas are almost always small, savoury, hand-folded with a decorative repulgue rope along the seam, and either baked or fried in beef tallow. Mexican empanadas span a wider category. Some are dessert pastries filled with sweet pumpkin or pineapple jam, others are savoury street food with picadillo or tinga, and the dough often shifts from wheat to corn (especially in central and southern Mexico).

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the most common everyday version of each.

Feature	Argentinian	Mexican
Typical size	Small, ~10 to 12cm half-moon	Varies, often 12 to 18cm
Dough base	Wheat flour, sometimes with beef fat	Wheat or corn (masa); sometimes sweet pastry
Common fillings	Beef, cheese, chicken, ham and cheese, vegetables	Picadillo, tinga, cheese; or pumpkin, pineapple, sweet potato, cajeta
Sweet versions?	Rare in everyday eating	Very common, often dessert or breakfast
Fold	Hand-pleated repulgue seal	Often a simple crimp or fork edge
Cooking method	Baked at high heat or fried in beef tallow	Often deep-fried; sweet versions baked
Eaten with	Chimichurri, salsa criolla, malbec	Salsa verde, salsa roja, crema, cafe de olla
Occasion	Family asados, lunches, parties	Breakfast, street snack, dessert, fiestas

Neither version is "better." They are answers to different questions. Argentina built its empanada culture around the cattle economy, with beef as the default protein and Mediterranean-leaning seasoning. Mexico built its empanada culture across a more diverse food landscape (corn, chiles, tropical fruit, dairy) and embraced sweetness as readily as savoury.

What goes in an Argentinian empanada?

The defining Argentinian empanada is carne, beef. Traditionally hand-cut (never minced in the old-school recipe), seasoned with cumin, paprika, oregano, and onion, sometimes finished with green olive, hard-boiled egg, or raisin depending on the province. From there, regional styles diverge:

• Saltena (Salta): juicy, slightly spicy, often with potato
• Tucumana: hand-cut beef with cumin, no potato, no raisin
• Mendocina: closer to the Chilean style, baked, with olive and egg
• Cordobesa: sweeter, often with raisin and sugar dusting
• Portena (Buenos Aires): more cosmopolitan, often baked, broader range of fillings

Beyond beef, the everyday Argentinian range includes cheese (often mozzarella with onion or ham), chicken, vegetable, and tuna varieties. At Argentum we run 5 active flavours: Carnivore (slow-cooked grass-fed beef brisket, no olives), Athlete (with green olives), Classic (vegetarian three-cheese), Patagonia (vegan with a distinctive green dough), and Habibi Yalla (a Levantine-influenced spiced beef nod to Argentina's strong Middle Eastern community). For the broader picture of what Argentinian food looks like, our guide to Argentinian food in Sydney and Argentinian food beyond empanadas covers the rest of the table.

What goes in a Mexican empanada?

Mexican empanadas are a much wider category, because empanadas in Mexico took root in two separate streams: savoury and sweet.

On the savoury side, common fillings include:

• Picadillo: ground beef with tomato, onion, sometimes raisin and almond
• Tinga: shredded chicken in chipotle-tomato sauce
• Cheese: usually a melty Oaxaca or quesillo, sometimes with rajas (poblano strips)
• Chorizo and potato: hearty, breakfast-friendly
• Hongos: mushrooms with epazote, common in central Mexico

On the sweet side, which has no real equivalent in Argentina, Mexican empanadas are often baked pastries closer to a hand pie or turnover, with fillings like:

• Pumpkin (calabaza) with cinnamon and piloncillo
• Pineapple jam
• Sweet potato (camote)
• Cajeta, the Mexican goat's-milk caramel
• Cream cheese and guava

The corn-based version, especially common in the south, uses fresh masa rather than wheat dough, giving a thicker, softer wrapper closer to a quesadilla than a turnover. This is one of the clearest dividing lines: Argentinian empanadas are wheat, Mexican empanadas can be either.

Are Mexican empanadas sweet?

Often, yes. This surprises a lot of people who come at the empanada from the South American side. In many Mexican bakeries (panaderias), the empanada lives alongside the conchas and orejas as a sweet pastry, eaten with coffee for breakfast or as an afternoon snack. Pumpkin and pineapple are the two most iconic sweet fillings, but cream cheese, guava, sweet potato, and cajeta all appear regularly.

That does not mean Mexican empanadas are only sweet. Savoury versions are everywhere, particularly the deep-fried picadillo or tinga style sold at street stalls and mercados. But the dual-stream nature of the Mexican empanada (sweet and savoury, both legitimate) is genuinely different from the Argentinian tradition, where savoury is the overwhelming default.

Which is older, Argentinian or Mexican empanadas?

Both descend from the same Spanish ancestor, the Galician empanada gallega, a large stuffed flatbread documented in medieval Iberia. Spanish settlers brought the form to the Americas in the 1500s. From there, each region adapted it to local ingredients.

Mexico, colonised earlier and with deeper indigenous food traditions, started absorbing the empanada into mestizo cuisine sooner. Corn dough, regional chiles, and tropical fruit fillings developed over centuries. Argentina, more sparsely populated until the 1800s, evolved its version more recently and more uniformly, anchored by the cattle economy and the asado culture that grew alongside it. For the deeper origin story, see where empanadas are really from and how Argentina compares to everyone else.

So in the strictest sense: the Mexican empanada has a longer continuous history in the Americas. The Argentinian empanada, as we know it today, is a younger but extremely codified tradition.

How are Argentinian empanadas folded vs Mexican?

The fold is where the two traditions look most visibly different.

An Argentinian empanada is sealed with a repulgue, a hand-pleated rope along the seam, twisted with the thumb and forefinger into a series of small overlapping folds. In many provinces, different fillings get different repulgue patterns so you can tell a beef from a cheese empanada without biting in. It is a piece of working-class craftsmanship that doubles as a signal system, and it is part of why we say our empanadas are made in Bondi Beach: every one is folded by a human, not a machine.

A Mexican empanada is more often sealed with a simple crimp, fingers pinched along the edge, or a fork pressed down to mark a ridged pattern. The presentation is more rustic and the fold is less of an identifier. Sweet Mexican empanadas, in particular, are often left with a smooth tucked edge and a sugar dusting on top.

Both are valid. The repulgue is just a more theatrical commitment to the seal.

Where can I buy Argentinian empanadas in Sydney?

Sydney's Argentinian empanada scene has grown a lot in the last few years, with a handful of dedicated kitchens, weekend market stalls, and a few restaurants that include them on the menu. Our own best empanadas in Sydney guide maps the landscape in detail, and the Argentinian Sydney map tracks where the broader community gathers.

If you want them at home: Argentum is a Bondi Beach kitchen with Sydney-wide frozen delivery and two pre-arranged pickup points. Empanadas arrive frozen, keep for 6 months at -18C, and bake to a golden finish in under 25 minutes. The Chef's Box is the easiest first order (and meets our $85 minimum). Catering for events runs through the contact form.

Where can I find Mexican empanadas in Sydney?

The Mexican food scene in Sydney is strong and growing, concentrated around the inner west and pockets of the eastern suburbs, with several taquerias, panaderias, and restaurants representing different regional styles. Mexican empanadas (both savoury picadillo and sweet pumpkin or pineapple) turn up at Latin-leaning bakeries, weekend markets, and specialty cafes.

For the broader pan-Latin food landscape, including where to find Mexican ingredients to make your own, see our guide to Latin American groceries in Sydney. Sydney has enough overlapping Latin American communities (Argentinian, Chilean, Mexican, Colombian, Peruvian, Brazilian) that you can taste your way across the continent without leaving the city.

Related comparisons

If you are enjoying the cross-cuisine angle, we have two more in the same form: meat pie vs empanada and empanada vs Cornish pasty. Same family, different traditions.

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