Venezuela's iconic stuffed arepa with creamy avocado-chicken salad — created for a 1955 beauty queen.
Arepas Reina Pepiada are Venezuela's most beloved stuffed arepa: a griddled corn-flour pocket split open and filled with a creamy mash of shredded chicken, ripe avocado, mayonnaise, lime, and cilantro. The arepa shell, made from precooked white corn flour (masarepa), is crisp on the outside and soft inside — a vehicle for the rich, cool, slightly tart filling. 'Reina Pepiada' translates roughly as 'curvaceous queen', a tribute to Susana Duijm, the Venezuelan winner of Miss World 1955, for whom the brothers Heriberto, Ángel, and Antonio Álvarez first created the dish at their arepera in Caracas. It remains the dish that Venezuelans abroad miss most painfully.
Serves 4
Whisk masarepa and salt in a bowl. Pour in warm water and stir with your hand until you have a soft, smooth dough — like wet Play-Doh. Rest 5 minutes (the dough firms up).
If it cracks when you pat it, add a tbsp of water; if it sticks to your hands, add a tbsp of masarepa.
Divide into 8 balls. Pat each into a disc 9 cm wide and 1.5 cm thick. Smooth edges with damp fingers.
Heat a dry or lightly oiled cast-iron pan over medium. Cook arepas 5 minutes per side until a deep golden crust forms and they sound hollow when tapped.
Transfer arepas to a 200°C oven for 8 minutes — this dries the interior and gives the signature crisp-shell, fluffy-inside texture.
Mash avocados with lime juice, mayo, salt, and pepper to a chunky-creamy texture. Fold in shredded chicken, onion, and cilantro. Taste; adjust.
While still warm, slit each arepa horizontally three-quarters of the way through — keep one edge attached, like a pita pocket.
Spoon filling generously into each arepa. Eat immediately while shell is crisp and filling is cool.
Only precooked corn flour (masarepa) works — regular cornmeal or masa harina (used for Mexican tortillas) will not form arepa dough.
The two-stage cook — griddle then oven — is what professional areperas do; skipping the oven gives you raw-feeling centers.
Make filling no more than 30 minutes ahead; avocado oxidizes and the texture turns sad.
Pelúa: filled with shredded beef and yellow cheese instead of chicken.
Dominó: filled with black beans and white cheese.
Vegetarian Reina: replace chicken with mashed chickpeas; everything else the same.
Unfilled arepas keep 2 days refrigerated; revive in a 200°C oven for 6 minutes. Filling is best fresh; refrigerate up to 1 day with plastic wrap pressed onto surface.
Arepas Reina Pepiada were created in 1955 at Areperas Los Hermanos Álvarez in Caracas to celebrate Susana Duijm's Miss World victory. The dish is one of the few Venezuelan recipes with a documented inventor and date.
Masarepa is precooked white or yellow corn flour from Venezuela/Colombia, used for arepas. Masa harina is nixtamalized corn flour from Mexico, used for tortillas and tamales. They are not interchangeable.
Either your dough was too thick (over 1.5 cm), your pan was too hot (browning the outside before the inside cooked), or you skipped the oven step. All three are essential.
Absolutely — and Venezuelans often do for speed. Just shred it finely and remove all skin; the filling should be smooth, not stringy.
Yes — masarepa is pure corn flour. Just check your mayo brand if you're strict celiac, as some include trace gluten.
Per serving (290g / 10.2 oz) · 4 servings total
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