Recipe: Arepas con Queso from “Encanto”
They might not heal you, but they sure are comfort food.
A key part of the Madrigal household is food — mainly because Mirabel’s mom, Julieta, can heal people through her recipes and she loves making arepas. While our arepas con queso won’t physically heal you, they are a delicious comfort food that you’ll want to make again and again. Here’s our recipe for the cheese-filled arepas from Encanto.
Arepas con Queso from Encanto
Yields 18 arepas
Ingredients:
2 ½ cups lukewarm water
1 ½ tablespoons Kosher salt
2 cups pre-cooked white cornmeal
1 cup shredded mozzarella
¼ cup vegetable oil
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
To a large mixing bowl, add water and salt. Then, while you slowly stir the water with your hand, pour the cornmeal into the bowl, breaking up any clumps that form. Continue stirring with your hands until a dough forms.
Once incorporated and a workable dough, separate it into golf-ball-sized pieces and place the pieces on parchment paper or a counter sprayed with cooking spray.
Flatten each dough ball into thin, roughly 3-inch, discs.
Add cheese to the disc, then fold the dough around the cheese, ensuring the dough stays in a flat, disc-like shape. Repeat for each piece of dough.
Over medium-low heat, warm vegetable oil in a large skillet with high edges.
Once oil begins to shimmer, add four arepas con queso to the pan, ensuring that they aren’t overlapping with one another.
Working in batches, cook for 5 minutes. Flip and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from the skillet and transfer to a baking sheet. Repeat for all arepas.
Bake for 10 minutes until brown and crispy
Review:
Our biggest tip is to spray your work surface before working with the arepa dough or else the pieces will stick to the counter. Also, don’t overfill the dough with cheese because you’ll have a hard time closing up the pieces so the cheese doesn’t spew out in the oven.
Other than those few snafus, this recipe is relatively easy to make and produces a deliciously cheesy, crispy arepa con queso.
For visual learners, you can find our recipe, both part one and part two, as well as a full review, on our TikTok.
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