Grilled Pinata Rolls

How is this for fusion food? Chicken empanadas wrapped in an egg roll. Yeah. I don't even know what you call that. Span-sian? Asia-ish? Does it even matter? Nope. At least not to us Blockos. I found this recipe for Chicken empanadas with olives and raisins about two years ago over at the Gourmet Girl's blog. The original recipe isn't for a traditional empanada, but for an empanada styled appetizer using wonton/gyoza skins. In the past, that's how I've always made them.

This time, I saw egg roll wrappers sitting next to the wonton wrappers at the grocery store. That lazy girl in me said, "You'd fit more filling inside an egg roll. That means less wrapping, frying and fuss in the kitchen." That lazy girl would have did a little dance of joy, but well, that's a lot of work and she IS lazy.

Then, when I was assembling the rolls Mrblocko said, "I bet I could cook those on the grill, and that would save time and be a little bit more healthy too." How awesome is that? I was a bit skeptical. I had visions of our dinner in a blackened charred lump. Luckily, my paranoia was unfounded. The egg rolls came off the grill with a crispy bubbly exterior. They even had nice neato looking grill stripes.

Blockette liked these a lot. Even though they had evil olives. I think she's starting to come around.

Try as she might, Blockette could not pronounce the word Empanada. Every time she tried it came out pinata. So that is their new fancy name.

Grilled Pinata Rolls
1-2 cooked chicken breast, diced into 1" cubes (you could use raw diced chicken and cook it with the onion if you wanted to save time. We had some chicken that was already grilled, so we used that.)
1-2 T olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 heaping T tomato paste
2 tsp cumin
2 T chopped fresh cilantro
2 T chopped fresh parsley
1/3 c chopped pimento stuffed olives
1/3 c raisins ( we used half golden and half regular)
1/2 c white wine, white grape juice, or chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
1 package of egg roll wrappers
olive oil to coat egg rolls

In a medium skillet cook onion until caramelized. Add garlic, cumin, chicken and tomato paste. Stir to combine. Add cilantro, parsley, olives and raisins. Saute til warm, about 3 min. Add wine/juice/stock to deglaze pan. Stir occasionally until all liquid is absorbed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool. Once filling is cooled, add about 2 T of filling to egg roll skins. Fold and seal per package instructions. At this point you can pop these in the fridge until you are ready to grill. Once you are ready to grill, liberally brush each egg roll with olive oil to coat. Cook for five minutes on each side, on a low heat(about 325F), watching carefully so they don't burn. Serve with salsa, sour cream or guacamole for dipping.

One final note: The next time we make this we'll be adding a chopped up hard boiled egg to the mix and a bit of shredded cheese. There are so many other things you could add to these empanada egg rolls like cubed cooked potatoes, black beans, oregano, paprika, jalapenos, roasted peppers, rice, ground beef, mushrooms, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, peas, carrots, fish, or whatever strikes your fancy! There are so many different versions of empanadas, the possibilities are endless.