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Guerrero and Oaxaca's Costa Chica empanadas fold fresh masa around dried shrimp, chile costeño, tomate, and epazote, then fry them until the edges turn crisp and golden.
Guerrero's Costa Chica, crossing into Oaxaca around Pinotepa Nacional and Chacahua, is where these empanadas live. Cuajinicuilapa, the Perla Negra del Pacifico, knows dried shrimp because the coast knows salt, sun, lagoons, and work. This is Afro-Mexican food. Not a footnote. Not a curiosity. A community kitchen that has been here for 400 years.
The filling is camarón seco ground with chile costeño, tomate, onion, garlic, and epazote. The chile costeño matters because it belongs to this coast. It gives heat, yes, but also a sharp red fruitiness that a guajillo cannot pretend to give. The shrimp must be rinsed and toasted, then ground until it smells like the market stalls near the coast, salty and deep, not fishy.
The women who make these well know the engineering. Masa has to be soft enough to fold and strong enough to hold the filling. The edge must be sealed tight, because oil finds laziness fast. Fry in manteca de cerdo if you have it. La manteca es el sabor. If you fry in neutral oil, the empanada will still feed people, but it will not taste like the ones passed across a palm mat under a palapa awning.
Serve them with lime, salsa de chile costeño, and nothing that does not belong there. No cheese. No sour cream. No flour tortilla thinking. This is a 32-state cuisine, and the Costa Chica has its own hands, its own chile, its own hunger. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
The Costa Chica of Guerrero and Oaxaca has one of Mexico's strongest Afro-Mexican culinary identities, rooted in communities such as Cuajinicuilapa, San Nicolas Tolentino, Pinotepa Nacional, and Chacahua. Afro-Mexican people received constitutional recognition in 2020, but their foodways, including dried seafood, coconut, plantain, rice, and coastal chiles, have shaped regional cooking since the colonial period. Dried shrimp empanadas show the practical coastal logic of preserving seafood with salt and sun, then stretching it through masa for market snacks, family gatherings, and outdoor eating.
Quantity
2 cups
preferably white or yellow nixtamalized corn masa harina
Quantity
1 1/2 cups, plus more as needed
Quantity
1 tablespoon
softened, for the masa
Quantity
3/4 teaspoon
Quantity
5 ounces
heads and legs picked over
Quantity
4
stemmed and seeded
Quantity
2 medium
charred on a comal
Quantity
1/2 medium
charred on a comal
Quantity
2
unpeeled and charred, then peeled
Quantity
1 tablespoon
for the filling
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
Quantity
1 large sprig
leaves chopped
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
Quantity
1/2 cup, as needed
Quantity
2 cups
for frying
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| masa harina for corn tortillaspreferably white or yellow nixtamalized corn masa harina | 2 cups |
| warm water | 1 1/2 cups, plus more as needed |
| manteca de cerdosoftened, for the masa | 1 tablespoon |
| fine sea salt | 3/4 teaspoon |
| camarón seco (Mexican dried shrimp)heads and legs picked over | 5 ounces |
| dried chile costeñostemmed and seeded | 4 |
| ripe tomate rojocharred on a comal | 2 medium |
| white onioncharred on a comal | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovesunpeeled and charred, then peeled | 2 |
| manteca de cerdofor the filling | 1 tablespoon |
| dried Mexican oregano | 1/2 teaspoon |
| fresh epazoteleaves chopped | 1 large sprig |
| black pepper | 1/4 teaspoon |
| water or shrimp soaking liquid | 1/2 cup, as needed |
| manteca de cerdo or neutral oilfor frying | 2 cups |
| lime halves (optional) | for serving |
| salsa de chile costeño (optional) | for serving |
In a bowl, mix the masa harina, salt, softened manteca, and warm water until a soft dough forms. Knead for three minutes. The masa should feel like a soft earlobe, not cracked and not sticky. Cover with a damp towel and let it rest 25 minutes. Resting gives the corn time to drink the water. Rush it and the empanadas crack when you fold them.
Pick through the camarón seco and remove any hard bits of shell, heads, or legs that look too sharp. Rinse quickly under cold water, then soak in warm water for 10 minutes. Drain well and save 1/2 cup of the soaking liquid only if it tastes clean and pleasantly salty. If it tastes bitter or dusty, throw it out. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado. Good dried shrimp smells like the sea, not like an old cupboard.
Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the drained shrimp for three to five minutes, stirring often, until they dry back out and smell concentrated. Do not blacken them. This step wakes up the shrimp and removes that flat storage taste. Transfer to a molcajete or food processor and grind to a coarse powder with some small pieces left.
On the same comal, toast the chile costeño for about 15 to 20 seconds per side. It is small and thin, so watch it. The skin should darken slightly and smell fruity, not burned. Cover with hot water and soak for 10 minutes, then drain. Burned chile makes bitter filling. There is no good speech that fixes burned chile.
Place the tomatoes, onion, and unpeeled garlic on the comal. Turn them until the tomatoes blister and slump, the onion gets dark spots, and the garlic softens inside its skin. Peel the garlic. Blend the tomatoes, onion, garlic, and soaked chile costeño until you have a thick red sauce. Do not add too much liquid. This filling has to sit inside masa, not run away from it.
Melt 1 tablespoon manteca de cerdo in a skillet over medium heat. Add the chile-tomate sauce and fry for five minutes, stirring, until it darkens and thickens. Stir in the ground shrimp, Mexican oregano, black pepper, and chopped epazote. Add a few spoonfuls of water or clean shrimp soaking liquid only if the mixture is too dry to come together. Cook until the filling is thick, salty, and spoonable. Taste before adding salt. The shrimp usually brings enough.
Divide the rested masa into 14 to 16 balls, each about the size of a small lime. Line a tortilla press with plastic cut from a clean bag. Press each ball into a round about 5 inches wide and a little thicker than a tortilla. Too thin and the filling breaks through. Too thick and you get a heavy empanada. Balance, comadre. The masa tells you.
Place 1 heaping tablespoon of shrimp filling on one half of each masa round, leaving a clean border. Fold the plastic over to close the empanada into a half-moon. Press the edge firmly through the plastic, then crimp with your fingers or the tines of a fork. If the edge cracks, dab it with a little water and press again. Oil finds every loose seam. No me vengas con atajos.
Heat the manteca de cerdo or oil in a heavy skillet to 350F. Fry the empanadas in batches, two to three minutes per side, until golden with crisp bubbled edges. Keep the heat steady. If the fat is too cool, the masa drinks it. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the center is ready. Drain on a rack or brown paper, not a stack of paper towels that traps the crust.
Serve warm or at room temperature with lime halves and salsa de chile costeño. These are botanas for the afternoon, for a potluck table, for eating under shade while someone argues about whose aunt folds them better. That argument is allowed. The sour cream is not. Así se hace y punto.
1 serving (about 70g)
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