# Cómo hacer arepas, con recetas y consejos

Learn how to make arepas, whether from Venezuela or Colombia, with tips, preparation steps and a video.

- Servings: 4 servings
- Total time: 40 min
- Cuisine: Other
- Category: Lunch
- Language: en

## Ingredients

- 300 g agua
- 200 g harina de maíz precocida de la marca que más os guste (en este caso hemos empleado marca PAN)
- 3 g sal
- queso
- jamón
- pollo
- cerdo
- aguacate
- huevos revueltos
- cebolla
- tomate
- verduras

## Instructions

1. To make arepas we need, basically, two ingredients: pre-cooked corn flour and water.
2. The pre-cooked corn flour can be of different types.
3. For arepas we usually use P.A.N. flour.
4. You have white corn flour, extra-soft white mix (white corn and rice), yellow corn, special corn for frying arepas (usually yellow) or the (more current) wholemeal version.
5. Choose the one you like the most, although I recommend white or yellow corn flour.
6. We don't need salt (we'll put it in the filling).
7. Although in some recipes from Venezuelan friends they usually put a pinch, I will leave it as an optional ingredient.
8. With them we are going to form our dough.
9. It is very important that during the process we break up all the lumps of flour to obtain a smooth product.
10. The dough should be elastic, but not sticky.
11. Once we have our dough, we let it rest for a few minutes.
12. After that time, we can know if the dough is very dry if, when making the patty, cracks form on the edges.
13. In that case we must add water to the dough.
14. If, on the contrary, the dough has been too soft and cannot be easily molded, we must add a little flour.
15. Once we get our dough perfect we will move on to the next step.
16. Shaping the arepas is a fairly free process.
17. The cakes are achieved by making balls with the dough and then crushing them to create a circular shape.
18. The thickness of the arepa varies depending on our tastes: they can be larger and thinner or smaller and thicker.
19. We can cook the dough of our arepas in different ways:
20. Fried: It is usually the favorite option of most people.
21. To do this, it is recommended to use a frying pan (preferably iron) and enough oil to cover up to half of the container.
22. This ensures that the cooking is uniform and the arepas are golden in a few minutes.
23. As a tip to know if they are done, tap them with your index finger.
24. If the sound is hollow, they are ready to rest and fill.
25. Grilled: It is a more complicated option than the previous one, and we must be much more careful so that they are not undercooked inside.
26. We start with a very hot griddle or frying pan that we will lower to medium temperature one minute after putting the first arepa.
27. We must move them until they have the color and crispy touch that we want.
28. The process can take up to 15 minutes (depending on the time we have), we must not be in a hurry.
29. Baked.
30. For the healthiest, who prefer to avoid oil, fried foods and calories, there is the possibility of preparing arepas in the oven.
31. To make them perfect and not stick, we must put a layer of oil on the arepas with a brush and put them in the hot oven.
32. This type of preparation takes longer than frying them: it can take 20 minutes of baking.
33. The result is also crispy.
34. To fill the arepas we must make a transverse cut in the cakes.
35. The arepas can be filled with all the ingredients you want.
36. And logically to fill them we must empty them a little, so that all the filling fits and leave the interior a little free of dough.
37. Thus we form a kind of pocket for our filling.
38. As in almost any recipe, imagination and creativity, in addition to tastes, are essential.
39. Cheese, ham, avocado, scrambled eggs, onion and tomato, vegetables… There are endless possibilities, but as always, and to make a more sustainable cuisine, it is highly recommended to use the leftovers of our meals (like when we make croquettes!).
40. The filling will also depend on the moment you take the arepas: in the morning, for breakfast, or at night for dinner.

## Tips

- To make the dough crispy, it is recommended to use very cold water when mixing and kneading the flour.
- If, in addition to crispy, you want the dough to be smoother, you can add a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch to the mixture.
- If we want to make them in advance and freeze the arepas, we can wrap them individually without frying in baking paper or transparent film and put them in a freezer bag with a hermetic seal.
- The dough must rest for at least 15 minutes so that the flour finishes absorbing all the water.
- The size of the arepa is indicative, although at home we like an arepa of approximately 180 to 200 grams.
- When we want to consume them, we will have to leave them for 5 minutes at room temperature before preparing them.
- Another option is to store the already fried arepas in the same way (wrapped individually).
- In this case, when we are going to consume them, we will simply have to heat them in the oven at 175º C.
- You can also enrich the dough with different ingredients to give it color, flavor, texture and increase its nutritional value.
- For example, you can add cheese, eggs, milk, oatmeal, chia seeds or even pureed or raw vegetables.
- I have even seen sweet arepas, as a dessert. For this type of arepas, we must include that sweet part in the dough.
- In Venezuela they usually put a little panela or papelón, it gives a more golden color and sweet taste to the dough.

## Source

- Original video: https://www.abc.es/recetasderechupete/arepas-como-hacer-arepas-consejos-y-su-origen/26665/
- Recipe page: https://www.cliprecipe.com/recipe/25d1ebdb-8e21-4f03-b41d-607741fb7f10
- Extracted: 2025-05-07

Extracted from the video by Clip Recipe (https://www.cliprecipe.com). Quantities and steps are as stated or shown in the video. Site guide for agents: https://www.cliprecipe.com/llms.txt