Catering with Delicious Empanadas: Perfect for Your NYC Event!
In New York City, Empanadas are a popular choice, because they are versatile and convenient to eat, without compromising on taste. Not only do they make a quick grab-and-go meal, but are also perfect as an event catering option. These little pastry pockets are baked or fried and stuffed with a variety of fillings. They offer both familiar and unique flavors in a portable, delicious package.
So, if you're an event planner, party host, or food lover searching for catering options in NYC, let us assure you—adding empanadas to the menu is a perfect choice!
Savory empanadas with perfect pairings.
Why Empanadas are the Perfect Choice for Your NYC Event
In a city like New York, where street food rules, people love having the ability to choose from bold flavors. For bustling events, empanadas are the perfect, mess-free choice, especially since they come with endless filling options to satisfy any and every taste.
Imagine a single dish that offers dozens of choices and caters to all sorts of dietary preferences and restrictions your guests may have - all in one flavorful package.
With empanadas on the menu, your guests can enjoy their food while mingling and socializing, making the event even more lively and enjoyable! Let’s deep-dive further into why empanadas make an ideal addition to any NYC catering menu.
The Key Benefits of Catering with Empanadas
Offering a variety of empanadas on your catering menu serves both the host and the guests well. Who doesn’t love a customizable and flavor-packed food option, especially at parties in NYC, where guests are constantly on the move?
Here are some of the key benefits of including Empanadas among your catering options:
Mess-Free and Easy to Handle
Many events in today’s time involve a lot of moving around, and a lot of hustle-bustle. People like to mingle, socialize, and even dance. In scenarios like these, empanadas are the perfect choice. They’re easy to eat, enjoy, and carry around, without the need for utensils.
Their baked or fried exterior makes them both durable and flavorful. This reduces spills and messes, whether you have kids running around or adults dancing nearby.
A Crowd-Pleasing Variety of Flavors
Empanadas can rival a three-course meal on their own. No kidding!
They are compact and bite-sized, perfect as appetizers, as flavorful and filling as a main course, and can even be sweet enough to serve as a dessert!
With limitless flavor options, one can move from savory fillings like marinated pork, tiger shrimp, crab meat, beef, chicken, or Greek spinach and feta, to sweet varieties like Nutella, banana, apple-cinnamon, guava, and cheese.
Suits Every Serving Style
Whether you’ve arranged a sit-down meal area or are planning passed hors d’oeuvres or a buffet setup, empanadas always fit in perfectly. Serving empanadas requires no fancy handling or preparation. Empanadas also provide easy portion control and prevent food wastage.
Customizable to Suit Every Guest
In the diverse and accepting city of New York, you’ll have guests who are far apart from each other in dietary preferences. Curating a meal plan that accommodates every preference without burning a hole in your pocket is very challenging.
Empanadas are ideal for crowd-pleasing catering in NYC because their fillings can be easily customized to suit various tastes and dietary needs, while the core recipe and side dish options remain consistent and easy to manage.
They can be customized to offer vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and meat options, allowing inclusivity for all guests. Spinach and cheese for vegetarians, and beef for meat lovers, are among the top crowd-pleasers, as we have seen at Empanada Mama.
The Ideal Occasions for Empanada Catering
Flavor-packed burrito, perfect in every bite!
There is hardly any event where empanadas fail to fit in as an ideal food option. Empanada catering shines everywhere, from corporate functions to casual family gatherings and much more. Such is the case because empanadas are flexible enough to adapt to various themes and group sizes, from small gatherings to large celebrations alike.
Let’s take a look at how they manage to seamlessly fit into any event’s vibe.
Corporate Lunches and Office Events
Since empanadas are a quick-to-consume and satisfying lunch option, they are perfect for busy office events and corporate lunches. They can be enjoyed at desks or during group discussions, without creating a mess or disturbing the work rhythm.
They are easy to serve in office settings and can be customized to fit various dietary needs, adding convenience and flexibility.
Weddings and Formal Receptions
Empanadas are not only reserved for casual and light events, they can be fancied up as well. Add some gourmet fillings and creative plating, and voila! They’re ready for formal occasions like weddings, offering both elegance and variety.
Empanadas also work well for cocktail hours or as part of a dinner buffet, offering guests a bite-sized but memorable treat. So, if you’re looking for NYC wedding catering, do look for places that serve empanadas.
Family Gatherings and Private Parties
Any family gathering is filled with people of all ages, from picky eater kids to health-conscious old agers. Empanadas consider them all and that’s why they are a popular choice for family gatherings, birthday parties, and anniversaries, providing comfort food that members love.
Choosing the Right Empanada Flavors for Your Event
With options comes confusion. Choosing the right flavors for your empanada fillings is the key decision to crafting a well-rounded menu that appeals to different tastes.
To fully satisfy your guests, consider a blend of traditional and creative flavors for an authentic yet exciting experience. Let’s dive into some taste analysis:
Classic Latin Flavors
Popular Latin American flavors like beef, chicken, and cheese appeal to a broad audience and bring authenticity to the menu. This traditional aspect of empanadas caters to the classic American palette and is always a crowd-pleaser at events.
Shredded chicken breast slow-cooked with sofrito sauce or ground beef cooked in traditional Latin spices with cheddar cheese – these flavors speak to the soul of NYC.
Modern and Fusion Flavors
NYC folks are as innovative and open-minded as they are traditional. Empanadas with fusion fillings have been in high demand for some time now. Options like buffalo chicken, cheeseburger, or barbecue pork, puts a twist on the classic empanada. These creative flavors can attract adventurous eaters and add a unique element to the catering experience.
Curried chicken with chickpeas brings bold Eastern flavors and the beef and olive fusion can summon Brazilian authenticity.
Sweet Empanadas for Dessert
Desserts to end the meal on a sweet note! Dessert empanadas can be filled with flavors like guava and cheese, chocolate, or apple, offering a sweet ending to the meal. And who doesn’t save room for such desserts?
You can choose an exotic melted Belgian chocolate with bananas, warm caramel with mozzarella, or bring home the classic baked apple and cinnamon, by keeping your eyes open for the best sweet empanada catering in NYC.
Adding sweet empanadas can create a well-rounded catering menu that covers every course. You can’t even argue on this.
A Check-List to Find the Best Empanada Catering in NYC
Bite-Sized Bliss
For a city like NYC, finding the best among the many empanadas-serving venues can be challenging. However keeping a checklist of your expectations and covering aspects like reviews, menu diversity, and service quality will help.
Selecting the best empanada catering in NYC will involve thorough research and tastings to ensure top-tier quality for your event.
Some points of consideration are:
Considering Quality and Freshness
Look for a catering service that emphasizes hygiene, fresh ingredients, and authentic cooking methods. Quality empanadas should have a flavorful filling and well-made dough which ensures crunchy and flaky covering.
Checking for Dietary Options
Select caterers who offer vegan, gluten-free, and other dietary options to accommodate all guests. Inclusivity is essential for any event. Make sure they have a fresh setup for each one to avoid any cross-contamination.
Looking at Customer Reviews and Testimonials
Make sure to visit potential caterers online. Look for public and food federation reviews, testimonials of previous clients, and a range of menus on their website and social media to gauge a better understanding of whether your catering needs can be met or not.
A good catering service will have a lot of positive feedback regarding both their food and customer experience.
Tips for Ordering Empanadas for Large Events
A large event requires macro and micro-management, especially when there is catering involved. You must look prior into the number of empanadas needed, their storage facility, and serving style.
Some worthy points to note are:
Estimate the Right Quantity
You can start by listing your guests and categorizing them by age groups so as to estimate their appetites. Now classify them further by dietary preferences, to be able to select the correct types of empanadas. Once you’ve got a count, add a small surplus and place your final order.
As a rule of thumb, ordering 3-4 empanadas per person for your party is ideal, given that there are multiple food options simultaneously available.
Considering Serving Options
There are mainly two serving options: buffet-style and plated service. Based on the event size and format, you might want to consider either option. For family gatherings or professional meetings, people generally prefer formal, seated service, whereas a buffet works well for friendly gatherings and functions.
Passed hors d’oeuvres can be a great option for cocktail hours or mingling events as well.
Storage and Reheating Tips
Empanadas are crunchy and flaky on the outside and gooey and rich on the inside. This pairing makes them even more flavorful when enjoyed fresh and warm. Therefore, try to minimize the time gap between their preparation and serving, to ensure a great experience.
If you anticipate the need to reheat them or have leftovers, make sure that there’s a reheating setup that can accommodate a large number of guests in one go.
Some caterers in NYC also provide reheating instructions, making it more convenient for hosts to serve empanadas at their finest.
Presentation Ideas to Elevate Your Empanada Catering
Depending on the function and preference, empanadas can be made handy or fancied with side dishes and sauces, making them an elaborate meal option. This kind of presentation can enhance the guest experience, adding a touch of elegance to any type of event.
Empanada Mama: Your go-to spot for fresh, flavorful bites!
We at Empanada Mama can be your top choice for empanada catering in NYC, with the experience and authenticity we hold in serving empanadas. Our menu options are well-rounded and diverse, containing vegetarian to vegan to meat alternatives.
We have Latin-based authentic empanadas alongside many fusion dishes, introducing new flavors from around the world. From flavorful bite-sized empanadas to customized and elaborate meal options containing empanadas, we serve all kinds.
Our catering service, based in NYC, takes pride in its dedication to quality, reliability, and customer service, through which we’ve secured the claim to be among the ideal choices for events of any size.
If you’re also considering empanada catering in NYC, give Empanada Mama a try. We’ll try our best to ensure a flavorful and memorable catering experience for your next event.
Contact us for your next catering!
Overall, choosing empanadas for NYC event catering can be the best decision you make for your guests. From their versatility to their unique flavors, they truly bring unimaginable fun and satisfaction to any occasion.