The Caribbean · Volume 45, The Arepa Coast, the Hallaca and the Titoté
Arepa with reina pepiada
Caracas, 1955, by the Álvarez family's account
Illustration
- Time
- Hands on 1 hour · Waiting 8 hours
- Researched
- Researched from 92 sources in the brief
The arepa is the dish two countries claim. Venezuela's, journalists on both sides agree, is white precooked maize, opened and filled; Colombia's is often thicker, often yellow, stuffed or topped with cheese or egg, and Colombia's Andean arepa has its own chapter, AM-21. Each claim is its maker's. The reina pepiada's story is told in the chapter's history, and the original filling is the one here, roast chicken with avocado and peas; the mayonnaise salad in every arepera is the later form. The dough is the plain one, precooked flour, warm water and salt; the chicken is the part that takes the time, boiled, chilled overnight and roasted.
As tradition built it
Makes 6. About 1 hour, plus overnight to chill the chicken.
Ingredients
For the arepas
- 480ml (2 cups) precooked white maize flour
- 600ml (2 1/2 cups) warm water, a little over the flour's own volume
- 1 tsp salt
For the reina pepiada
- 1 whole chicken
- to taste garlic, for the marinade
- to taste onion, for the marinade
- to taste salt, for the marinade
- to taste pepper, for the marinade
- 1 large ripe avocado, sliced
- as needed petit pois, cooked
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise, in the later form
Method
- Marinate the chicken with the garlic, onion, salt and pepper, boil it until tender, chill it overnight, then roast it until the skin colours. Shred the meat.
- Stir the flour and salt into the warm water and knead until the dough is smooth and holds a shape without cracking. Rest it 5 minutes.
- Divide into balls and pat each into a disc a finger thick.
- Cook on a hot budare or griddle until each face is crusted and spotted brown and the arepa sounds hollow when tapped.
- Split each arepa most of the way through and fill with the chicken, slices of avocado and the petit pois, or with the chicken, avocado and mayonnaise mashed together.
What a modern chef changes
The griddle, then the oven; the filling made twice
Rung 1
Method
- Griddle the arepas 4 minutes a side, then finish them 10 minutes in a 200 degree oven, which the Caracas areperas do on a rack so the crust dries and the middle stays tender.
- Poach the chicken in a stock made from its bones, chill it in the stock, and roast only the skin side, so the meat is moist and the skin is the seasoning.
- Dress the avocado with lime and salt the moment it is cut.
- Serve the original and the later form side by side. It is a dish with a date, and the two are a lesson in what seventy years do.