When I was growing up, my mom made hand pies stuffed with chili as a special treat for us every fall. She detested cooking, but baking always seemed to light her right up. I thought it was magical watching her work, carefully crafting her infamously flaky pie dough and meticulously constructed hand pies for us to devour later in the evening. Delicate pastries wrapped around a warm savory filling sends me straight back to the good ol’ days. Once the weather started cooling down after the heat of the summer, I knew I had to recreate this childhood favorite. Enter low carb hand pies.
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Unlike my mother, I’ve never been much of a baker. I love to cook, but have yet to develop the patience to master the art of baking. If my mom ever reads this, she is going to totally flip when she sees what I used for the pie dough (…hi mom!).
The Keto Low Carb Hand Pies Recipe
I used the Fathead pizza dough recipe for the hand pies! This cheese-based dough was an excellent low carb pastry dough for two main reasons.
- You don’t have to be a skilled baker to pull these off. The Fathead pizza dough recipe is incredibly forgiving; if you can turn the oven on and follow the gist of a recipe, then you totally got this. If I can do it, you can do it.
- Its super low in carbs. For something that looks like a crust and tastes like a crust, it’s surprising how minimal the carb count is. The only flour used in the dough is almond flour, so it is also gluten-free.
In true “love to bake, hate to cook” spirit, my mom would use canned chili to fill her homemade pie dough. I literally can’t even. I just love chili too much to think of pouring it out of a can. Not to mention most canned chili is crazy high in the carb department (even the kind without beans). I used my keto chili recipe to stuff the low carb hand pies instead.
I’ve gotten rave reviews on my shredded chicken chili and 50/50 pork & beef based chili recipes. If you have leftovers, this recipe is the perfect way to use them up!
Mom would make huge batches of hand pies and whatever we didn’t eat that night, she froze. We could pop them in the microwave after we got home from school or have a quick, easy dinner ready to go in minutes. I feed a hungry houseful every time I cook, so I’ve never actually had leftovers when I’ve made these… they disappear quickly because everyone loves them! But if you’re cooking for one or two, you could easily freeze the extra hand pies for nights you don’t feel like cooking but still need a keto friendly meal.
Just like mom used to make (kind of)!
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups low carb chili
- 1.5 cups low moisture mozzarella cheese shredded
- 2 tablespoons cream cheese
- 3/4 cup almond flour
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Prepare low carb chili of your choice, following instructions for chicken chili or pork/beef chili recipes here.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
- Melt mozzarella and cream cheese in the microwave for 60 seconds.
- Stir almond flour and egg in with the melted cheese mixture to form the dough.
- Wet your hands to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands and evenly divide into 6 balls of dough.
- Keeping fingers wet, press each ball of dough into a flat circle about 5-6 inches in diameter.
- Spoon 1/4 cup of chili onto the center of the dough, leaving the outer edges free of filling.
- Fold dough over the filling and press edges together. Strengthen the seal by crimping the edges with your fingertips or using the back of a wet fork.
- Repeat with each ball of dough until all hand pies are formed. Poke holes in the tops of hand pies with wet fork.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until dough becomes golden.
- Let cool before serving.
Nutrition
Hi, I’m Tasha! I’m a nutrition author and educator dedicated to helping women succeed on keto. As a former yo-yo dieter, I know just how hard it can be to change your eating habits and pin-point what works for your body. That’s why I teach keto strategies that honor your preferences and needs. If you thrive on low carb and are ready to ditch the one-size-fits-all approach, you’re in the right place!
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These sound so good. I’m already thinking about different kinds of fillings to use in them But you don’t have the calories, carbs, etc listed. Could you please do that as I won’t try them with out that information.
They’re in the table below the recipe! Should be good to go! 🙂
These look amazing Tasha. I love the Fathead dough – so versatile. My mother used to make a stew pie with left over stew. It was amazing. I used to make it for my husband when we first were married. Them’s was the days. Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you very much. I just made these. They were a hit with my kids and so vdry yummy!
I haven’t tried the Fathead dough yet – these look great!
These look so good Tasha! Anything in a pie crust is for me 🙂
Mozzarella dough is just the best! I love how you’ve turned it onto mini pies.
Do you know if these freeze well? I’m thinking about making a huge batch like you said your mom did.
Wow, this is my first try of the Fathead dough and this is like a miracle! I can’t believe it tastes (and feels) just like pastry!
Right?! Haha, that’s how I feel every time I make anything with the Fathead dough. 😀
I’ve been trying for a very long time to create a low-carb empeñada pastry and have failed miserably. These look fantastic, however, I think I will try it with Quark cheese instead of cream cheese because for some reason I cannot find a cream cheese that doesn’t have thickening agents. (checked everywhere I can think of around Vancouver BC)
I’m definitely going to give this a whirl & am adding it to my ‘Healthy Low-Carb Recipes’ Pinterest Board ♥ Thank you! ツ
We made these and they were so good!
I’m kind of obsessed with them! 😀 Glad you enjoyed them Holly!
Do these freeze well? Would be great for meal prepping.
Both links to the pork/beef chili are broken. I am looking forward to making these for my husband who is still not loving on LC options! I think these could be a game changer along with your pizza rolls!
I would love to try these BUT my husband is allergic to almonds. Is there something else I can use in the place of it?
Freeze well??
Allergic to almonds here, what about coconut flour, do you think it would work?
I haven’t tried it with coconut flour, I’m going to have to try it out. I think it would work well, but might require more egg since it soaks up moisture so quickly.
Ok – this was delicious! I made chilli pockets for us and made the pizza crust with pizza for kids. We were all very happy!! 😀
I am a vegetarian so I won’t use chili. Any idea what net carb count is for just the dough? Thanks! I can’t wait to try these!
This looks so beautiful! I am planning on making these pies with a feta and spinach filling and sesame seeds on top to recreate a traditional Turkish dish, ispanakli borek, that is a staple in any Turkish family. I cannot even tell you how happy it would make me if it actually works – that would open up a whole new world of family recipes! I just got one question: I don’t have a microwave. Has anyone ever attempted to make the fathead dough with an oven and if so, what are the instructions? I’d be very grateful for any advice!:-)
The first time I made fathead, I didn’t have a microwave. Instead, I would just set the broil to low and use an oven safe dish to mix the ingredients instead of every so often in the microwave. Only takes about 30-60 seconds. 🙂
IN Australia, these are called Pasties. You can put ANYTHING you chose inside. Delicious!
Hi, it looks great, but as a european i wanted to change it to metric scales and much to my surprise I suddenly needed 44 eggs instead of only 1….🤔
Fixed it! Thanks for the heads up!
My recipe plug-in was converting the 1 egg into it’s metric weight equivalent of 44g instead of keeping the same unit. Should be working fine now. 🙂
I am new to this so been trawling the internet nd also I live I thailand which can make sourcing certain ingredients difficult. These are amazing, I do find it easier to fold them on a septerate piece of paper first then put them on a tray, thanks again x
Something that could enhance your site would be if you included a picture of what is being made when a person prints the recipe. Now, it’s just text and a picture really makes a difference. Thanks for a wonderful collection of recipes.
Thank you for the suggestion! I made the print recipe function text only to help save ink for people, but I can look into switching it to include a photo. 🙂
How many equal one serving?
These are amazing! I just made one giant “biscuit” and put it over a creuset full of chili. So easy and so yummy.