Essential · about 3 hours, almost all of it braising · Serves 4
Arepas stuffed with shredded pork, avocado and cheese
Illustrative image generated with AI, not a photo of the cooked dish.
Kitchen test pending
The same root as the Signature rum-braised pork arepa: white corn, pork braised until it falls apart, avocado and something acidic to cut the fat. This version goes back to the everyday arepa of Venezuela, made with pre-cooked flour, split open and stuffed until overflowing, like the pernil or the reina pepiada.
The twist is in the filling. The pork shoulder is braised with orange, cumin, garlic and a little panela until it shreds on its own, and the liquid is reduced to glaze it. To serve, the crisp arepa is split open hot and filled with the pork, avocado slices, grated cheese and a quick red onion with lime.
Special equipment: heavy pot with lid; cast-iron pan or griddle
Ingredients
Shredded pork
- 900 g pork collar, in 4 large pieces
- Fine salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 20 ml neutral oil
- 1 large onion, in thin slices
- 1 red bell pepper, in strips
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 5 g ground cumin
- 5 g sweet paprika
- 15 g panela or muscovado sugar
- 150 ml orange juice
- 20 ml apple cider vinegar
- 300 ml chicken stock or water
- 1 bay leaf
Quick red onion
- 1 small red onion, in very thin slices
- 40 ml lime or lemon juice
- 1 pinch of salt and another of sugar
Arepas
- 300 g pre-cooked white corn flour
- 400–420 ml warm water
- 6 g fine salt
- 15 ml neutral oil, plus a little for the pan
Filling and finishing
- 2 ripe avocados, sliced
- 120 g queso fresco or grated firm white cheese (llanero-style, or a lightly salty semi-hard cheese)
- Cilantro leaves
- 1 lime, in wedges
Method
Shredded pork
- Searing. Pat the pork shoulder dry and season it. Heat the oil in the pot over medium-high heat and brown the pieces 3–4 minutes per side, until a brown crust forms. Remove them.
- Sofrito. Lower to medium heat and cook the onion and bell pepper 6–8 minutes, until soft and barely golden. Add the garlic, cumin and paprika and stir 1 minute, without burning them.
- Braising. Return the meat, add the panela, orange juice, vinegar, stock and bay leaf: the liquid should come halfway up the meat. Bring to a boil, cover and cook over the lowest heat for 2–2 h 30 min, turning the pieces every 40 minutes, until the meat separates on its own with a fork.
- Shredding and glazing. Take out the meat and shred it with two forks, discarding the hard fat. Uncover the pot, remove the bay leaf and boil the liquid for 10–15 minutes, until reduced by half and glossy and thick. Return the meat, mix and taste: it should be juicy, slightly sweet and acidic.
Quick red onion
- Curing. Mix the onion with the lime, salt and sugar, squeezing with your fingers. Let it sit at least 30 minutes: it turns fuchsia and loses its bite.
Arepas
- Dough. Dissolve the salt in the water, add the oil and pour in the flour little by little while mixing by hand. Knead 2–3 minutes and rest 5 minutes: it should be soft, without cracks when pressed flat and not sticking to your hands. If it cracks, add water a spoonful at a time.
- Shaping. Divide into 8 balls of about 85 g and flatten them between your palms into discs 9–10 cm across and 1.5 cm thick, smoothing the edge with a wet finger.
- Cooking. Heat the pan or griddle over medium heat with a film of oil and cook the arepas 6–8 minutes per side, until they have a golden crust with spots and sound hollow when tapped. If they are thick, finish them 10 minutes in the oven at 180 °C (355 °F).
Filling and finishing
- Heating. Heat the pork in a saucepan over low heat, covered, with a splash of water if dry, until steaming and 74 °C (165 °F) at the center.
- Assembly. Split each hot arepa along the side with a knife, leaving a hinge, like a bread roll. Fill with a generous portion of pork, two or three avocado slices, the cheese and a little drained onion.
The dish
Use flat plates or a board. Set two arepas per person, slightly open and resting on their sides, so the overflowing filling shows: the glossy pork, the avocado and the cheese. Finish with a few cilantro leaves and a little more onion, and add a lime wedge on the side. Serve at once, while the arepa is crisp. Final look: golden arepas with toasted spots, the glossy brown of the pork, the green of the avocado, the white of the cheese and the fuchsia of the onion.
Key points
- Braise covered and over the lowest heat until the meat shreds on its own.
- Reduce the juices until they glaze the pork, without letting it dry out.
- Knead until the dough does not crack when pressed flat.
- Brown the arepas over medium heat, never high: they have to cook through inside.
- Split and fill them hot.
Pairing
A very cold lager. Without alcohol, papelón with lime.
Notes
- Flour: use pre-cooked white corn flour; regular cornmeal or polenta do not work for this dough.
- Storage: the pork improves from one day to the next. Always reheat it to 74 °C (165 °F) at the center.