You Gotta Try This! El Pequeno Horno Chicken Empanada

El Pequeno Horno Chicken Empanada and Tres Leches Cake

Rubi Rojas is the local entrepreneur operating El Pequeno Horno, or “The Little Oven,” which produces the flaky-crust and savory chicken-filled empanadas you can find in the Grab & Go case at GreenStar’s Cascadilla Street store.

Rubi makes her empanada dough and filling from scratch, assembles, and bakes at Shared Kitchen Ithaca. “I use Peruvian olives. They’re more pungent,” Rubi says. “And almost every Peruvian food has either Aji Amarillo or Aji Panca that gives the dish that unique flavor.”

Originally from Peru, Rubi came with her close-knit family to Ithaca about six years ago. She credits her sister, who bakes and her mother, for teaching her how to cook. “My mother learned to cook by watching her mother and then doing, but that’s not my learning style,” Rubi said. “I watched, asked questions, took notes and worked to standardize the empanada recipe to make sure the result was consistent every time.”

Rubi also bakes Peruvian desserts. Her family and friends encouraged her to sell at Ithaca Farmers Market. As she developed her business, she found Shared Kitchen Ithaca (SKI), which helped her with necessary permits, a business plan, wholesale requirements, how to be profitable, and now branding and labeling.

“I can’t imagine creating this small business or retailing my products without the help of Shared Kitchen Ithaca,” Rubi said. “The first time I saw my food on the shelves at GreenStar, I thought ‘Wow, I did that.'”

But Rubi acknowledges the family effort from her mother’s lessons and her sister helping her test new cake recipes to her father and extended family’s taste-testing.

If you’re looking for the perfect dessert to pair with the chicken empanada, try Rubi’s favorite cake, the Tres Leches Cake, stocked in GreenStar’s dessert case. Rubi notes the steam injector oven at SKI helps make the cake more spongy to absorb that milky filling, without getting soggy. It’s cool, creamy, and just the right amount of sweet.

Rubi will return to the Ithaca Farmers Market this summer with cakes and desserts as well as to the The SMORG outside Ithaca ReUse. She’s exploring ideas for a vegetarian empanada and even a Peruvian version of the black forest cake. We can’t wait!