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, could you please reload the video for the patty recipe. It keeps saying there is an error and I would love to watch you make it.
Hi Janay! It is probably a glitch in the system. Working on it…
My Jamaican husband loved it, and actually prefers it over the Jamaican Bakery in our village. I’ve made these patties several times, and when I’m pressed for time, I use frozen puff pastry as a substitute for the crust. Thanks for sharing this flavorful recipe.
Hi Ruth. I am so thrilled you love this recipe. Now, I feel a little bad for the Jamaican Bakery in your village.:)
Puff pastry is a good substitute for the crust. Thanks for sharing that and thanks for stopping by!
Hi! I love your recipes and would love to make this one but was wondering if I could use saltfish in any way?
Hi Tara. I don’t see why you can’t use saltfish for this recipe. Do let me know how it works out for you!
I have eaten saltfish patties and they were delicious.
Awesome!! Thanks for sharing JoAnne :).
I love these just as I love every other recipe I’ve made from this blog! I froze most of them, any recommendations on heating temp/time? I’m giving some to family and want to tell them best way. Thanks!!
I’ll Add VEGGIES INSTEAD OF MEAT THANKS QUEEN
This recipe is great! My partner and I come from Toronto, where these are available everywhere frozen, so we were both familiar with how it was supposed to look and taste. And we both agreed that this recipe delivered!
Thanks for posting this and all the other recipes on your website. You have never steered us wrong!
Yay! I am so glad this was a hit with you! Thanks for the feedback!!
This is an amazing recipe. Will never buy the ones from the store ever. I’m so happy I found a recipe that is close to its authenticity. Thank you .
Hi Roma. Homemade is always better 🙂 ! I am glad you love the recipe.
I may never buy another meat patty again. These were so delicious. Made these last Sunday and my foodie (teenage son) loved them. I froze most of the patties; it was so easy for him to bake them for lunch this week. I’m making another batch tomorrow and have sent this link to my nephew (another foodie) and he’s going to make some next week too. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. The pie crust was amazing— will be using it for my chicken potpie.
So happy to hear how it turned out for you. Thanks for taking the time to let me know. =)
These are really good. It was my first time making Jamaican patties and I am a beginner with making pastry of any kind. The dough was easy to work with. My family loved them and they freeze and reheat very well for a quick supper.
Hi Jana. So happy it worked out well. Thanks so much for the feedback.
I would like to be connected with this kitchen
This is my first time making jamaican patties. Everyone gives them 6 stars (not just 5).
Aww… Thanks so much!!!!
I made these for my husband and he loves them. There is no more buying these frozen he wants them homemade. I enjoyed them as much as he did. We ate them in less than two days between the two of us. Thank you so much for a great recipe.
Please why the cider vinegar? I want to know the purpose of adding the vinegar. Thanks
Bc it tastes good
It helps set up the dough chemically for a flakier crust
cider vinegar adds taste and take the toughness out of the pastry making it flaky
If you make this with ground chicken, what spices would you substitute?
Here is the chicken patty version. https://www.africanbites.com/jamaican-chicken-patties/
My taste buds are doing a happy dance. I used to treat myself to a Jamaican beef patty from a small shop close to where I was working at the time. 15 years is way too long to go without one and now thanks to you I can make them at home. They blow the commercial ones out of the water. Easy to prepare, the pastry is perfect. I love a bit of bite from heat but can’t find scotch bonnet chilies here in Australia so I’ve used habanero instead. Is there a separate recipe using ground chicken instead of beef or can I just replace the beef with chicken? Thank you so much … I’ll be sharing this recipe.
Hi June! Thank you for joining me all the way from Australia. You can definitely use chicken, especially ground chicken since it will be closer to the same consistency. Please adjust spices accordingly since you’ll be using a different kind of meat. Habanero works great and so does Jalapenos just for that added kick 🙂
Can you make this meat filling and roll it in puff pastry like your sausage roll recipe?
Hi Terrell,
Yes you can. Try not to over-stuff it or fill it up too much.
These turned out so delicious! I did have to make a few substitutions (due to my celiac disease and garlic allergy). Despite that it was still amazing and my husband loves it too.
I made these gluten free also! I did 3 cups of Pamela’s bread mix, 1 cup of potato flour and a tsp of Xanthan gum. They came out amazing!!!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your gluten free option with us.
Imma.. you have made my week with this recipe!! I made these for a potluck at my mother’s house.. She loved these beef pies, as did many of the guests. Mom said they were delicious and that I was a wonderful cook. I love my mother, but one would not call her effusive… getting a compliment from her is a RARE occurrence.. ( presenting: my childhood baggage) Anyway… it really is a compliment for you.. because this recipe was delicious and foolproof!!! Thank you… next time I cook for her, I will be visiting this website… and probably before that too!
Also as a side note, you are right.. it a lot easier to work with a dough that is at least partially made with shortening… I would say it makes working with dough more fun!
Take Care,
Amy
Thank you, Amy for taking the time to let me know. And thanks to your mom for the compliment. Glad you guys enjoyed this. =)
These are amazing! I have made them several times now and have all my friends requesting them for every gathering or event! The dough has a fantastic flavor and is light and flaky (I use only butter, as a side note) and the beef mixture is outstanding. Thanks for this awesome recipe!
Hi Shelley! I am so glad these were a hit! Thanks for stopping by!
Imma,
I really want to try these out but want to make them as close to how you are making them. The video shows creole seasoning, the recipe doesn’t have that listed. If I should be using it, what brand do you prefer and how much should I be using? Also, should I use it in place of other ingredients in the recipe or in additional to? Also, what kind of curry powder are you using. Madras curry powder is what I use when I’m looking for a generic taste but I also have regular and spicy Indian curry as well as Japanese curry which is quite a bit different in flavor. Thank you for the recipe! I am looking forward to making this for some Jamaican friends of mine.
Thanks for your help!
Hi Craig,
Creole seasoning here is optional, a matter of preference – Not traditional. I like to use it in most of my recipes because it adds tons of flavor without a boat load of calories . I would leave it out if you want something more traditional. Homemade creole seasoning here https://www.africanbites.com/creole-seasoning/
Madras curry would work just fine here. The focus should not be the curry powder . I make my own curry powder recipe here .https://www.africanbites.com/jamaican-curry-powder/. Hope this help
Let me tell you how the creole seasoning SAVED my Beef Pattis
Bless you!!!
Can I use a pie crust that u have to roll out and cut circle myself instead of make the pastry dough
Hi Imma,
I used this recipe and and it turned out niceee though crunchy. I didn’t have butter so used margarine and shortening. Maybe that could explain the crunchiness or probably they overstayed in the oven. Baked for 30mins.
Would like to know how to get them very very soft.
Also, why do we use iced water instead of warm?
Thanks for the recipe.
I love the way you are meticulous with the recipes.
Regards,
Hellena