Arepas, Take II

Arepa filled with chicken, vegetables, cheese and avocado

You may have seen one of my first posts when I attempted to make arepas, but couldn’t find the masa precocida they require and substituted the Mexican staple, masa harina. While it still tasted good, the result was more like a sope or thick tortilla than an arepa. Well, since then I found masa precocida at the Mercado Medallin in Mexico City, so this is my attempt to make the real thing. They were quite tasty and distinctively different from what I had made before with the masa harina, the only thing I don’t love is the amount of oil involved since they are fried in oil. I think next time I would try to use less oil and/or bake them. The possibilites for fillings are endless, but I stuffed them with chicken cooked with onions, tomatoes, peppers and chipotle, and others with black beans and cheese. And you can never go wrong with a little avocado, either. Here is how I made the arepas, and I will leave you full creative license to fill them with whatever you like.

Ingredients:

2 cups masa precocida

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups hot water (approx)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Place the masa in a bowl and mix in the salt. Add the hot water and vegetable oil and stir. After stirring, I let the dough rest for about 10 minutes, since that’s what some recipes called for and because the water made it really hot to handle! After it has cooled, I kneaded the dough with my hands, and ended up adding some additional water (I had only added 2 cups to begin with) because the dough was cracking at the edges when I pressed it between my palms.  Once it was the right consistency, I rolled the dough into balls about 2 inches in diameter, and then pressed them out to about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch thick.  Then I fried the patties in hot vegetable oil for maybe 5 minutes on each side, or until they were brown and make a hollow sound when tapped. Once done, I put them immediately onto paper towels to soak up some of the oil, and once cool enough, you can slice them down the middle to add whatever fillings you fancy.

P.A.N. masa precocida

Frying the arepas

Chicken cooked with onion, tomatoes, red pepper and chipotle

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