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.
Thank you for this recipe I will definitely make your Jamaican Patties again
Woohoo! Thank you, Cheryl! 🙂
Easy to follow recipe! And big flavour! The pastry was amazing. I may have added more scotch bonnet! Can’t wait to make it again!
Yay! Thank you for trying this recipe, Sabrina 🙂
Just a question. I noticed in your comments above the recipe, it says cumin. But the recipe itself doesn’t have it listed. How much should I use?
Hi Brenna! One of the ingredients in curry powder (which is listed in the ingredients) is cumin, I meant to say that if you want more cumin, you can add up to 1/3 teaspoon, more than that and it might overpower the other ingredients.
Also, you may try my Jamaican Curry Powder in this recipe, it’s awesome! Hope this helps. 🙂
I tried this and it was great however I had a question about the crust. I followed the recipe but for some reason my crust didnt come out as flaky so just wondering if I did something wrong? any help would be appreciated.
Hi Chittakookar! I can’t say if you did anything wrong, but it may be the measurement or the ingredients itself? Check your cider vinegar as well, next time. 🙂
I made this recipe for dinner tonight, along with your pineapple, cucumber, and avocado salad and they were both so tasty! My 18 month old LOVED every bite and both dishes will definitely be keepers in our house. Thanks so much for your great recipes!
Yay! Thank you, Jenn!
Can I omit the all spice?
Yes you can.
Transcendent! Made these as directed and I was worried I was messing up the dough but it was very forgiving. My entire family, including kids ages 1 and 4, loved them. Thank you for such a great recipe!
Delicious! I added in a little diced green pepper and a shake of ghost pepper flakes in lieu of scotch bonnet pepper. I was a little unsure as to the amount of turmeric, and went with 2 1/2 tsp. Mine were much more yellow than those in the pics above, but they resemble the ones I used to buy at Jamaican restaurants on the East Coast.
I use this recipe and it always turns out great!
This is so good. The beef mixture alone, I could eat with a spoon. Thank you for sharing!
My foster son is from the Caribbean and discovered upon moving in with us that American food is not his favorite. This was my first attempt at meat pies, and it was a win for him and the whole family! Thank you!
There is a discrepancy between the recipe and the instructions. The recipe calls for chilli pepper, but the instructions read chilli powder. There is a big difference between the two. Is the chilli pepper referring to chilli flakes or chilli powder? Thanks for clearing g it up.
It’s chilli powder. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
What’s the process for cooking it If you premade it and froze it? Thanks!
Place in a cookie sheet in a single Layer. Then re-heat in the oven at 300degrees F , until heated through.
I really loved this recipe, it was easy to follow and tasted great! Had to use coconut oil for the shortening and it worked out lovely!
Am definately going to cook some more from your site, Thank you.
Great! Thanks so much.
Hi, I’m confused about your advice about using butter only vs butter and shortening. There is shortening in the ingredients list but you say not to use it. Would you please clarify? Thanks so much.
Sorry about the confusion Julia. You can either use all butter or butter and shortening . I have tried it both ways and it works out just fine .
I just made this today, and it was so easy to do. My random question is – do you have a pie crust pastry recipe that is as lovely to work with as this recipe? I have never had a pastry so easy to work with before. 🙂
Absolutely delicious!!! My fiancé is from Belize & he approves!!! I put 2 habaneros in mine, the amount of spice was perfect. Thanks for the great recipe!!!!! Even a white girl can do it
YESS!!!
Subbed the ground beef for chicken, used pre made pie crust rubbed with melted butter and tumeric, and added chive and onion cream cheese after the greens were added. Incredible! My only change for the future will be to add more chili pepper. There was very little heat.
Well then you didn’t make the patties Nolan, you made your own recipe and posted it in the reviews. Make your own blog and move along.
That’s what good cooks do, Jenn.
Just made. Tastes just like my days in Jamaica. My only self edit would be to ensure all dried seasonings aren’t recent. I think my allspice may have been a bit old. Thank you for this recipe Jenn. Of course good cooks adjust recipes to their liking but they don’t criticize for something that they did not make or taste.
Rude some people like to be inspired by others recipes
Where do you get scotch bonnet peppers in the US?
Hi Stacy. You could try Asian or African stores. You may also substitute this scotch bonnet with Hebenaro, Chilli, or jalapenos.
Tried this today with my family. Definitely a keeper.
Awesome! I am so glad this was a hit with your family, Judy!
My mum loved this and so did my son
It was my first time, and tasted delicious of cause because of my Jamaican roots made a few changes, my mum loves baking them for the family so for her to be impressed was fantastic
Woohoo!! High-five on nailing it the first time! I am so glad this was a hit with your family and that you got to impress mum :). Thank you for the feedback, Sheena!