Chicken Empanadas with Avocado Sauce

One of my favorite things I ate in Rio de Janeiro was empanadas. There was a store on nearly every corner with windows full of all sorts of tasty empanadas. These empanadas are a great way to use up leftover shredded chicken from tacos.  I used tomatillo chicken tacos from the freezer, but any shredded chicken taco meat would do.  Miss F liked the chicken the most, she at a bit of the flaky pastry, but not much.  C proclaimed the sauce to be "too lime-y!"  I thought it was delicious, even though the empanadas are great on their own, no sauce is needed.

Chicken Empanadas with Avocado Sauce

2 cups of shredded tomatillo chicken
½ cup shredded Colby Jack cheese
2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed

1 small avocado
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray. In a bowl, stir together the cooled chicken and cheese. Roll out each puff pastry sheet on a floured surface. Cut 10 six inch circles on each sheet of pastry, you will have 20 circles in total. Spoon ¼ cup of the chicken mixture onto 10 of the circles. Top each with the remaining 10 pastry circles, crimping at the sides to form a seal. Place the empanadas on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 25 minutes until the pastry is golden.

Cut the avocado in half, peel and remove the pit. Cut the avocado into eighths and add it to the bowl of a small food processor. Add the lime juice, vinegar, water and salt to the avocado. Puree until smooth. Stream the olive oil through the top of the processor while it is running. Serve avocado sauce with the empanadas.

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