Empanada Recipe vs Buying Frozen: The Honest Verdict for Sydney Households

Should I make empanadas from scratch or buy frozen?

The honest answer is, it depends on how much time you have and how much you enjoy the process. If you want a four-hour kitchen project on a Sunday afternoon with music playing and a glass of Malbec open, scratch empanadas are a genuine pleasure. If you want eight perfectly-folded Argentinian empanadas on the table in under 25 minutes on a Tuesday, frozen is the smart choice.

Most Sydney households we deliver to fall into a third category. They have tried making empanadas at home once or twice, enjoyed it, and then realised that the dough alone is a 90-minute commitment before you have even thought about the filling. They keep a stash of Argentum frozen empanadas in the freezer for the other six nights of the week.

How long does it take to make empanadas from scratch?

A realistic timeline for a batch of 30 empanadas from scratch, starting from a cold kitchen.

Stage	Time	What it involves
Filling prep	60 to 75 minutes	Dice brisket, slow-cook with onions, cumin, paprika. Cool fully or the dough will tear.
Dough making	45 to 60 minutes	Mix flour, fat, salt, water. Rest the dough, roll out, cut discs.
Assembly + repulgue	60 to 90 minutes	Fill each disc, seal, fold the repulgue (the rope-shaped Argentinian edge).
Bake or fry	20 to 25 minutes	Bake at 190C, or shallow-fry in beef tallow.
Total	3 to 4 hours	And a sink full of dishes.

That timeline assumes you already own a dough roller, know how to fold a repulgue, and have brisket in the fridge. First-timers add another hour. We wrote a whole piece on why the repulgue matters and why home cooks get it wrong.

What ingredients do I need for homemade empanadas?

For an Argentinian beef empanada in the Carnivore style, the shopping list looks like this.

The filling (for 30 empanadas)

• 1.5 kg grass-fed beef brisket, diced (not mince)
• 3 brown onions, finely diced
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• Cumin, sweet paprika, oregano, salt, black pepper
• Beef tallow or olive oil for cooking

The dough

• 1 kg high-protein flour (look for 12 percent or higher)
• 200 g rendered beef fat or lard
• Salt, warm water

Sourcing grass-fed brisket in Sydney is doable but takes effort. Most butchers will order it in but you need to call ahead. The dough fat matters more than people realise. Lard or rendered beef fat is what gives Argentinian empanada dough its flake and structure. Substituting butter changes the texture into something more like a French tart.

What's the cost difference between making and buying frozen empanadas?

Here is the real maths for a batch of 30 empanadas, Sydney prices in 2026.

Cost line	Scratch at home	Argentum Family Box
Brisket (1.5 kg, grass-fed)	$45 to $60	Included
Flour, fat, eggs, spices	$15 to $20	Included
Energy (oven + stovetop)	$3 to $5	Bake only ($1)
Your time (3.5 hrs)	Priceless or $$$	22 minutes hands-off
Cash total	$63 to $85	$122 (subscription)
Per empanada	$2.10 to $2.83	$4.07

On pure ingredient cost, scratch wins by about $1.50 per empanada. But that figure ignores three and a half hours of your time, the sink-full of dishes, and the risk of a first attempt that does not seal properly and leaks brisket juice across your oven tray. If you value your Saturday afternoon at more than $11 an hour, frozen is the rational choice.

Are frozen empanadas as good as homemade?

Honest answer, not all frozen empanadas are. Most supermarket frozen empanadas are mince-based, with thin dough, factory-folded, and frozen weeks after they were made. The texture suffers. The dough becomes brittle, the filling watery.

What changes the equation is how the empanadas are made before they are frozen. Pedro folds each one in Bondi, fills them with slow-cooked brisket (not mince), and they are frozen within hours of being made. The repulgue is folded by hand, which is the difference between a sealed edge that crisps in the oven and a glued seam that splits open.

The point of freezing is to capture the empanada at its peak and pause time. Done well, you cannot tell the difference between a frozen-then-baked Argentum empanada and one that came straight off the kitchen bench.

Read our cooking guide for the exact oven setup that gets the dough to shatter on the first bite.

What's the verdict, make or buy?

If empanadas are a project you want to do, make them. The repulgue alone is worth learning. There is a meditative quality to folding 30 empanadas on a Sunday afternoon with someone you love. You will burn one or two, the dough will give you trouble on attempt one, and by attempt three you will have the muscle memory.

If empanadas are dinner and you have 25 minutes, buy frozen. You are not cheating, you are outsourcing the dough work to a kitchen that does it every day. The brisket is already slow-cooked, the repulgue is already folded, the only job left for you is the oven.

Most of our Sydney customers do both. A scratch batch maybe twice a year for the experience, frozen Family Box on subscription for the other 50 weeks.

Where can I buy quality frozen empanadas in Sydney?

Three places we deliver from, all made in our Bondi Beach kitchen.

• The Chef's Box, $85, our smallest order. Mixed 5-flavour selection of all the current range.
• Family Box on subscription, $122 per box (versus $132 one-off), 30 empanadas, pause or skip any week.
• The 5-flavour range a la carte. Carnivore (grass-fed beef brisket), The Athlete (chicken, green olives, curry, wholemeal dough), The Classic (cheese vegetarian), Patagonia (vegan green dough), Habibi Yalla (open-top Middle Eastern beef).

Free Sydney delivery on orders over $120. Frozen straight to your door, 6 months at -18C. See our delivery zones and timing for the full picture.

What if I want to try making them once for the experience?

Do it. Block out a Sunday, invite a friend who will not judge your first repulgue, and treat the first batch as learning. Three rules from the Argentum kitchen.

1. Use brisket, not mince. Mince releases too much water and the dough goes soggy. Brisket diced into 5mm cubes holds its texture and the slow-cooked juice stays in the empanada.
2. Cool the filling completely before assembly. Warm filling melts the fat in the dough and creates leaks. Make the filling the day before.
3. Practise the repulgue on a piece of plasticine first. The fold takes maybe 20 attempts to get the rope shape right. Doing it on dough wastes empanadas.

And if the dough beats you on the day, there is a back-up plan. Order frozen and bake in 22 minutes. Or read the story of how Pedro learned to do it.

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FAQ

How long do frozen empanadas take to bake?

18 to 22 minutes at 190C from frozen, no thawing needed. Brush with egg wash if you want a glossy top. Under 25 minutes is the upper bound.

Is it cheaper to make empanadas than to buy them?

On ingredients alone, yes. About $2.10 to $2.83 per empanada at home, versus $4.07 per empanada on the Argentum Family Box subscription. But scratch costs you 3 to 4 hours of kitchen time and a sink of dishes.

What is repulgue?

The Argentinian rope-shaped fold that seals an empanada. It looks like a twisted braid along the edge. Done right, it seals the filling and crisps in the oven. Done wrong, it splits and leaks.

How long do Argentum empanadas last in the freezer?

6 months at -18C. Vacuum-sealed bags, frozen within hours of being made in our Bondi kitchen.

Can I make empanadas with mince instead of brisket?

You can, but the texture is not the same. Slow-cooked diced brisket holds its juice and gives the filling its character. Mince releases water during the bake and the dough goes soggy. Argentum uses grass-fed brisket only.

What flavours does Argentum offer?

Five active flavours. Carnivore (slow-cooked grass-fed beef brisket), The Athlete (chicken with green olives and curry on a wholemeal dough), The Classic (cheese vegetarian), Patagonia (vegan with green dough), Habibi Yalla (open-top Middle Eastern beef).

What's the minimum order for Argentum?

$85, which is the Chef's Box. Free delivery on orders over $120.

Do you do a subscription?

Yes, the Family Box runs at $122 per week or fortnight (versus $132 one-off), 30 empanadas, pause or skip any week.