NATIONAL DAYFOOD & DRINK

National Empanada Day

National Empanada Day on April 8 honors the hand-held stuffed pastry that conquered two continents — born in medieval Spain, carried across the Atlantic, reinvented a hundred ways in Latin America, and now beloved at every food truck, family kitchen, and bakery in the US. Savory, sweet, fried, baked, flaky, doughy — the empanada is Latin America's most perfect portable meal.

APR8

Thursday, April 8Every year on April 8

days to go

Roots: Medieval Spain
Vibe: Hot & Hand-Held
Also on Apr 8: International Pageant Day · International Romani Day · All Is Ours Day
Hashtag: #NationalEmpanadaDay

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Ways to celebrate

Find them; make them; share them:

🥟 Visit a Latin bakery or food truck. Every major American city has at least one outstanding empanada spot. Ask for the specialty of the house.
🌎 Try two different countries' styles. Argentine (baked, beef-and-olive) and Colombian (fried, cornmeal, chicken) are radically different. Taste both.
👩‍🍳 Make them at home. Goya sells frozen empanada discs in every supermarket. Stuff with whatever leftovers you have. Fold, crimp, fry.
🌶️ Bring the salsa. Every empanada needs a dipping sauce — chimichurri for Argentine, aji for Colombian, salsa roja for Mexican.
🎉 Host empanada night. Different fillings, a crowd, a bottle of Malbec. Instant party.

Make it your kind of celebration

Family
Empanada-making night: one person rolls, one fills, one crimps. Even 5-year-olds can crimp an edge. Great multi-generational kitchen activity.
Kids
Pizza empanadas (mozzarella + pepperoni + marinara) are a guaranteed kid win. Gateway empanada — they'll be trying beef-and-olive by high school.
Couples
Date-night order at an Argentine restaurant: empanadas + Malbec + chimichurri-grilled steak. Never fails.
Office
Office lunch catered from a local empanada spot. Way more interesting than sandwiches; handles vegetarians easily.
School
Great intro to Latin American cuisine in a social-studies or Spanish class. Each country's empanada = a lesson in regional identity.
Community
Church or community fundraiser with homemade empanadas. Latin American churches have been doing this for a century; it's the most successful fundraiser format ever.
Just me
One from a food truck, eaten standing up, with hot sauce. Pure food-joy.

Plan ahead

National Empanada Day is observed on April 8 every year. Here is where it lands for the next ten years, handy for planners, marketers and party people.

2026Wed, Apr 8this year

2027Thu, Apr 8

2028Sat, Apr 8

2029Sun, Apr 8

2030Mon, Apr 8

2031Tue, Apr 8

2032Thu, Apr 8

2033Fri, Apr 8

2034Sat, Apr 8

2035Sun, Apr 8

2036Tue, Apr 8

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Fast facts

1520(Catalonia)

April 8, 2027

The story

The empanada is old. The first known recipe appears in a 1520 Catalan cookbook, 'Libre del Coch,' by Ruperto de Nola, a recipe for 'empanadas de carne.' But the technique is older still; stuffed pastries were common across medieval Spain, Portugal, and the Moorish Mediterranean, inspired by Persian samosas and the general medieval need to carry food that wouldn't spoil.

Read the full story

The name tells the story: "empanada" comes from the Spanish "empanar" to wrap in bread. The form is as simple as food gets: filling, wrapped in dough, sealed at the edge, cooked. Portable. Shareable. Works with whatever is on hand.

When Spanish colonists brought empanadas to the New World in the 16th-17th centuries, every country reinvented them. Argentina made them a national food. Colombia developed a cornmeal dough. Mexico called them "empanadas" but also fold them into their taqueria culture. Cuba made them smaller and sweeter. Chile made them massive and meat-heavy. Puerto Rico called them "pastelillos." Every regional variation is defensibly authentic.

In the US, empanadas moved up the mainstream with the Latin American diaspora. Argentine and Colombian immigrants brought their versions in the 1960s-90s. Empanada food trucks are now a fixture in New York, Miami, LA, Chicago, and Houston. Goya sells 40 million empanada discs a year domestically. National Empanada Day, established informally in the 2010s, is the American recognition that this is now an American food too.

Four technique fundamentals regardless of which country's style you're after:

Six countries, six wildly different empanadas, each worth a pilgrimage:

Did you know?

Empanadas are in the Guinness record books.

The largest empanada ever made was produced in Yamba, Argentina, in 2012, 20 meters long, weighed 3,200 pounds, fed 10,000 people. Local bakers used a specially-built oven tent.

Galicia has the 'Empanada Day' festival.

The Spanish region of Galicia (home of the galician empanada, tuna, flat, rectangular, served in slices) holds an annual Feria de la Empanada in the town of Bandeira every September.

Goya sells 40 million empanada discs a year.

Goya Foods, America's largest Latin food brand, sells pre-made empanada dough discs (Goya Discos) in nearly every supermarket. 40 million packs annually, most to home cooks.

The 'empanada' has a hundred cousins.

The stuffed-dough-pocket format is universal. Italian calzones, Indian samosas, Jewish knishes, Cornish pasties, Polish pierogi, Jamaican patties, Chinese jiaozi. Every culture invented one independently. Convergent food evolution.