Jamaican Beef Patties
Spicy, flavorful Jamaican beef patties deliver a juicy, spicy meat filling stuffed in an easy, buttery dough. They come together quickly and fly off the table even faster. Absolutely delicious comfort food!
Making your own pastry can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s super easy with or without a food processor. Sometimes I use it, and other times I love getting my hands in the dough.
Just so you know, we ate these guys every day while we were in Jamaica, and we even watched them being made. But when replicating them at home, I couldn’t help making a few tweaks with readily available ingredients in my area.
What Makes Them Unique
Have you noticed that almost every culture has its version of a handheld meat pie? Cornish pastries in England, empanadas in Spanish-speaking countries, salteñas in South America, and, in China, xian bing is a flatbread loaded with spicy ground pork.
Jamaicans took this treat to the next level by adding turmeric to the flaky, buttery pastry dough. Their iconic curry spice blend adds loads of flavor and a good amount of heat. That sounds close enough to health food to me.
How to Make Jamaican Beef Patties
- For the filling, sauté the aromatics, add ground beef and break it up, add the bread crumbs, water, and the rest of the seasonings, and simmer.
- For the crust, mix the dry ingredients, grate in the frozen butter, add the vegetable shortening, then the water, and knead until smooth.
- Roll out the dough, add more shortening, fold it over, and roll it out again.
- Add the filling to the dough, brush the seams with an egg wash, fold, cut, brush the finished patties with more egg wash, and bake.
Recipe Tips and Twists
- Personalize your filling with a little tomato paste for extra umami. Grated cheese on top of the filling when assembling wouldn’t hurt either.
- Add more diced veggies to the filling and replace the meat with diced mushrooms for a vegetarian version.
Make-Ahead and Leftovers
Frozen patties make a quick and easy snack; assemble and freeze them on a baking sheet in a single layer. After they freeze for about an hour, store them in a freezer ziplock bag until the craving hits. Bake as many patties as you want directly from frozen in a 375℉ (190℃) oven for about 30 minutes.
Freeze any leftover meat mixture for later, or add it to meat sauces over pasta, soups, and stews.
Leftover patties will stay fresh in the fridge for 3-4 days or in the freezer for 3-4 months. Crisp them back up in a 350℉ (180℃) oven, air fryer, or toaster oven for about 10 minutes or until heated through. The microwave works, but the crust won’t crisp up.
What to Serve With Jamaican Beef Patties
Turn these treats into a complete meal with a side of coleslaw, fried plantains, and rice and peas. Hot sauce is a must; Caribbean pepper sauce and my favorite hometown pepper sauce are good choices.
More Savory Pie Recipes to Try
By Imma
Watch How to Make It
This blog post was originally published in August 2016 and has been updated with additional tips, new photos, and a video.
[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”Rbin77ml” upload-date=”Mon Aug 06 2018 19:57:54 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)” name=”Jamaican Meat Pie (Jamaican Beef Patty)” description=”Jamaican Beef Patty – Spicy flavorful beef stuffed in an amazing super easy buttery dough.Comes together quickly and flies off the table. Simply Delicious!!!”]
This blog post was originally published in August 2016 and has been updated with additional tips, new photos, and a video
Jamaican Beef Patties
Ingredients
Beef Filling
- 1 tablespoons (15ml) cooking oil
- ½ medium onion, chopped
- 1 teaspoon (3-4g) granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon (3g) paprika
- 1 teaspoon (2-3g) allspice
- 1 teaspoon (2-3g) curry powder
- 1 teaspoon (2g) dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon (2-3g) white pepper
- 2 teaspoons (5g) chili powder
- 1 teaspoon (4g) chicken bouillon powder (optional, or replace with salt)
- 1 pound (450g) ground beef
- ¼ cup (30g) bread crumbs
- ½ cup (118ml) water
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 2 tablespoons (7-8g) parsley, chopped (optional)
- ½ scotch bonnet pepper, chopped (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
Dough
- 4 cups (480g) all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
- 2 tablespoons (24g) sugar
- ½ tablespoon (9g) salt
- ½-2 teaspoons (1-6g) turmeric
- 5 ounces (140g) unsalted butter, frozen
- 5 ounces (140g) shortening, very cold
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup (236ml) ice water
- 1 egg, lightly beaten with a tablespoon of water for the egg wash
Instructions
Meat Pie Filling
- Heat the oil in a saucepan or deep skillet. Add the onions, garlic, paprika, allspice, curry powder, thyme, white pepper, chili powder, and chicken bouillon. Sauté for about 2 minutes.
- Add the ground beef, break it up, and cook until no longer pink. Add the breadcrumbs and about ½ cup of water, and simmer until slightly thickened.
- Add the green onions and parsley, adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, and optionally make the filling smoother with an immersion blender.
- Remove from the heat and let it cool. While it's cooling, make the crust.
The Crust
- Mix flour, sugar, salt, and turmeric in a food processor or by hand, and blend well. Grate in the butter and shortening and mix in until you have coarse crumbs.
- Add the vinegar and water in small amounts, pulse or mix with your hands until combined, and the dough holds together in a ball.
- Place the dough on a well-floured surface. Divide it evenly into two parts and roll them out.
- Arrange six spoonfuls of filling on one side of each piece of dough, brush the seams with the egg wash, fold the other side of the dough over the filling, and cut with a pastry wheel or a sharp knife. If using a knife, crimp the edges with a fork.You could also cut circles out, fill each circle, brush the edges with egg wash, fold, and crimp.
- Refrigerate covered for about 30 minutes or until ready to bake.
- Preheat the oven to 375℉ (190℃).
- Carefully arrange the patties on a baking sheet, brush them with the rest of the egg wash, and bake for about 30 minutes.
- Serve warm, and enjoy!
Tips & Notes:
- Keep your dough as cold as possible for easy shaping and a tender, flaky crust.
- Avoid overworking the dough so the butter doesn’t melt and disappear into the dough.
- Please keep in mind that the nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary significantly based on the products used in the recipe.
Hi just wanted to know if I leave out the shortning can I substitute with something else eg more butter ? As I am Struggling to find any shortning in the uk? Any suggestions, or maybe there could be a alternative shortning in the uk which I haven’t heard of.
Thanks
Just replace with butter.
Shortening is any other solid fat. E.g. lard, margarine, etc., A lard/butter mix makes beautiful, very light and crumbly pastry! Lard has been used in pastry since time immemorial and tends to produce a lighter pastry than all-butter.
Can you use store dough (Pillsbury) ?
I do not have a food processor or mixer.
The texture would be different but it’s still going to do the Job. Try not to stuff it too much.
I mixed the dough by hand (using a spoon, then fork, then my hands) with no problems. Don’t use store-bought dough, it will spoil the authentic taste!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Michele!!!
Thank you for this recipe! Been making or for a year for my family and it’s my husbands favorite dish! I use 1/2 hamburger and 1/2 ground sausage ( that’s what we had on hand the second time and everyone raved about it!). Thank you for making me a culinary star in my family! 🙂
My pleasure!!! Nothing makes me smile more.
Looking forward to making this this weekend! Thank you! Lovely blog.
Thanks Caroline. Do let me know how it works out for you.
Imma, these look so good. Curious, can these patties be made with seafood filling? I was thinking about shrimp . I’m trying ground turkey filling tonight.
Thanks girl. I have never tried it with shrimp. So cannot say with certainty. Might just have to create another version with shrimp. Ground turkey sounds great!!!
How Nigeria Patties differ from its Jamaica counterpart in general?
The methods are pretty much the same with slight difference depending on individual. But the spices used are not the same. Most notably turmeric powder.
Hi there! If I make and freeze these, what would you suggest for time and oven temp for reheating? Should I bake them first, then freeze? Or freeze before baking? Thanks!
I usually just make them. Freeze before baking. Then bake at 350 degrees same temperature. It might take an extra 5-10 minutes longer.
I want to make this for my husband whose from Guyana. I think this will be the recipe to bring childhood memories of when his mom use to make them.
That’s so thoughtful of you. I think it definitely will. Do let me know how it works out for you.
Hi Juliet I always wanted to make patties I am going to try making now ty.roni
Imma,
I made these over the weekend and they were delicious. Once again, I let my meat marinate overnight. The combination of spices in the meat is fantastic! I used whole wheat flour though. So, my dough was more grain like vs being like a traditional smooth/soft dough. I don’t know if this is how it should be or if it happened because of the whole wheat flour. Either way, the meat pie turned out to be a hit in my home!!! I will definitely make these again.
Thank you for much for this unbelievably delicious recipe!!! It is amazing and a huge hit at my house!!!!! I have one question – is it chilli powder or dried chilli pepper flakes that you use?
Thank you,
Patti from Canada!
Hi Patti! It’s Chilli powder. Thanks for Feedback!
Can you use any type of vinegar for the dough mix?
I have tried it with several white vinegar and they all turned out good.
Made a vegetarian version of these tonight. very tasty, loved the dough! Used the same spices in the filling as the recipe calls for, just used a bunch of root veggies. Next time, I may try it with some lentils. but great recipe, and I can easily throw the leftovers into my daughter’s lunch box. she gives them a 5/5!
Always happy to hear it was a hit especially with the little one . Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.
For the dough, you have 5 oz of shortening and 5 oz butter, are both used? If yes, for butter only would it be 10 oz of butter?
Yes, I used both. For butter only use 10 ounce.
Hello Imma pls I’ll love to try this tomorrow but the green onion is confusing me. Is it a spring onion or bulb onion but green in color cos I’ve not seen this kind of onion. In case is bulb onion pls what can I substitute it for?
Juliet it is spring onion. You can leave it out completely!
My husband and I live in Pennsylvania, U.S., and ate these for the first time on our honeymoon in Jamaica. FINALLY decided to make some ourselves (this year is our 20th anniversary!). Your recipe was easy to follow and I really think the turmeric added something. We tried them in lots of dipping sauces- even Korean BBQ sauce. We now have ideas for tons of other meat pie fillings- thanks for the gorgeous pictures and incentive to try them ourselves!! My only add would be to roll the dough as thin as you can- it does rise a bit.
Hi Merrilee! I am glad you enjoyed it with the tumeric. You know what? I have never tried this with any dipping sauce, you are giving me ideas… And the korean sauce sounds heavenly with this. Thanks for the feedback!
I do not see parsley in the ingredient list but I see it in the instructions. .what kind of parsley? & how much?
Donna, use 2 tablespoons parsley, curly or flat leaf. Recipe has been updated. Thanks
It makes about 16-18 pies depending on your cutter.
how many per serving. It says 10-12 servings, but how many little pies?
Just made this today and it came out really good. The easiest dough I have ever made. Can the meat pie dough be made with the same dough recipe as Jamaican meat pie minus tumeric powder? because this dough was less strenuous to make. Can any pie dough be made with a food processor, because the food processor was easier to use than even the standing mixer.
Yes, you may eliminate the turmeric powder. Yes, most pies can be made with a food processor, it is preferable if you one. I am glad you like this dough kelsey.