You can not talk about Venezuelan cooking without mentioning arepas. Every Venezuelan knows what it feels to wake up every morning with the smell of recently made arepas. This has to be the best feeling of the world.
You can fill your arepa with infinite variety of food. The are lots of possibilities. I guess that is part of the charm of arepas; you can always reinvent the classics and make it better.
In Venezuela we usually eat arepa for the breakfast, but it’s not limited to it. Now, the rest of the world knows arepas as street food and it’s perfectly understandable why.
You can —should— eat it without cutlery and fancy dishes. You only need a napkin and the ability to eat with your hand without making a mess — I don’t have that superpower but I gladly lose my elegance to eat a delicious arepa.
To make a classical Venezuelan arepa you only need to get Harina Pan. Harina Pan is a precooked corn flour that is the base of the arepas dough. In the EU you can get it in any Latin American store. In some states, it’s common to find it in large store chains like Costco in Florida- you know Miami is basically the capital of South America.
After you get your Harina pan, now it is time to make arepa. You can make them fry or grilled. The classical way is grilled in a budare, but you can use a nonstick pan or a grill. In some parts of Venezuela like Margarita or Cumaná, arepas are fried. Usually, they fry it because they fill the arepas with fish — Margarita is an island and Cumaná has access to the Caribbean Sea. For some reason, fried arepas go a lot better with tuna or cazon.
So let’s learn now how Venezuelan cook their favorite food.
Table of Contents
How to make the arepa dough?
I’ve already made an entire article about how to make authentic arepas. But here is the recipe card in case you want to see the recipe instructions.
Arepas
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cup of “Harina pan”
- 4 cups of water
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- In a bowl add the water, then the corn flour with the salt.
- Mix with your hands until it’s soft and there is no lumps of flour.
- Make balls of dough and the flatten the sides to create the characteristic form of arepas.
- Cook in the cast iron pan for 10 minutes each side over medium heat.
Notes
- If you are going to fry the arepas make a tiny hole in the middle to help the cooking.
- If you are going to fry the arepas use a medium pan with enough oil to cover the arepas. In this way the finish will be even.
These Are the 5 Best Arepa Fillings
These are the top 5 of arepa recipes that every Venezuelan knows and loves.
Reina Pepiada (chicken and avocado)
A creamy mix of shredded chicken with ripped avocado. This is going to be the holy grail for those avocado lovers.
Reina Pepiada (chicken and avocado)
Ingredients
- 300 gr chicken breast boneless
- 4 cups of chicken broth
- 1 avocado cut into cubes
- ½ onion chopped
- 1 garlic clove
- 4 tbsp mayonnaise
- ½ cup of peas
- Salt
Instructions
- Cook the chicken breast, previously seasoned with salt and pepper, inside the chicken broth in medium heat for 15 minutes.
- Shred the chicken. In a big pan add some oil and put the onion and the garlic to cook for a couple minutes. Add the shredded chicken and stir for 5 minutes.
- In a bowl add the avocado, the green peas, the chicken and the mayo. Mix well and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Fill the arepa and enjoy!
Carne mechada (Shredded beef)
Soft flank steak slow cooked with a rich sauce. The shredded meat will mince into your mouth. This arepa goes perfectly with some Guasacaca ( Venezuelan avocado cream).
Carne mechada (Shredded beef)
Ingredients
- 500 gr flank steak
- 1 onion finely chopped
- ½ red pepper
- 1 garlic clove minced
- ⅓ cup coriander
- 1 tomato chopped
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 4 cups meat broth
- Sal and Black pepper
- olive oil
Instructions
- Cut the flank steak in big chunks, and pour them into a big stock pot with a little of olive oil and let it sear. Make sure that every side has a nice brown.
- Remove the meat and in the same pot add the onions, the red pepper, the garlic, the tomato and the worcestershire sauce. Stir for a couple minutes.
- Incorporate the meat and pour the broth until it covers the meat. Let it simmer for 1 hour.
- Remove the meat and shred it. Put it again into the sauce and stir for a couple minutes. Now you can serve it with the arepas.
Dominó (black beans and cheese)
This particular filling is called that way for sharing the colors of a domino piece. This filing is the simple combination of black beans with white shredded cheese. Divine!
A good variation is refried black beans. They have a thicker texture and the beans are smashed to create a paste texture.
Dominó (black beans and cheese)
Ingredients
- 400 gr black beans I usually use 1 can
- ½ small onion thinly chopped
- ¼ red pepper cut into small cubes
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 tbsp fresh coriander
- 100 gr shredded jack or mozzarella
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
- In a big stock pot add some oil and cook the onion, the red pepper, the garlic and the coriander until the onion is soft and translucent. (note 1)
- Add the black beans and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
- Serve with the arepa and a lot of cheese.
Notes
- You can blend them and then add the black bean if you don’t like the chunks of onion and pepper.
Atún (tuna)
The easiest arepa filling. This is the most common arepa in my house. You can prepare a normal arepa but i highly suggest you to prepare a fried arepa to get an out-of-this-world result.
Atún (tuna)
Ingredients
- 220 gr canned tuna
- 1 tbsp cream cheese
- ½ avocado cut into cubes
- ½ onion chopped thinly
- 4 cherry tomatoes chopped
- ½ lime juice
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients into a bowl and stir until it has the consistency of a paté.
Pollo guisado (shredded chicken)
A rich tomato based sauce that goes perfectly with shredded chicken. This filling also goes well with some guasacaca.
Pollo guisado (shredded chicken)
Ingredients
- 250 gr chicken breast
- ½ onion cut into small cubes
- ¼ red pepper cut into small cubes
- ¼ cup of tomato sauce
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 4 cups of chicken broth
- 1 tbsp leek thinly chopped
- 1 tbsp coriander thinly chopped
- 2 laurel leaves
- salt
- olive oil
Instructions
- Cook the chicken breast in the chicken broth.
- In a big pan add some olive oil, the onion, the garlic, the leek and the red pepper and cook for a couple minutes.
- Add the tomato sauce, the coriander, the laurel and a pinch of salt.
- Shred the chicken and add it to the sauce. Remove the laurel leaves.
I hope you enjoy these delicious recipes from my homeland. We love arepa and now that Venezuelan are all around the world we want to conquer the food industry with tons of arepas.
You can always reinterpret this classical of the Venezuelan food and make it your own. As I said before the magic of the arepas is their versatility. Now go and make a bunch of them and try a different filling every time. You will never get bored.
See you soon! 🙂
I’m Maria and I love cooking—and mostly EATING—food from all around the world. I’ve been sharing my abuela’s secret Latin-American recipes for the last 7 years with the world on this blog. I’ve been a full-time food blogger for many years and I’m always trying new delicious meals that don’t require a culinary degree or a Michelin-star chef. I also love traveling, cats, and knitting.
What is chopped coriander? Is it ground coriander the spice?thanks
Hi Michelle! Coriander is cilantro. This recipe calls for fresh cilantro.
Thank you for commenting!
Nope. It’s the fresh coriander you find in the supermarkets herb section.
Do you drain your can of black beans?
Hi! I drain about half the liquid but I like to let some to ensure the black beans won’t dry too much.