Seeing a stack of freshly made pupusas, you might think they were difficult to make at home. Not so! With Chef Emna’s recipe, you’ll be serving them in minutes!
Similar to Venezuelan arepas or Mexican gorditas a pupusa is a traditional Salvadorian thick corn tortilla that is usually stuffed with a savory filling.
Instructions
1 lb of chicken thigh (boneless skinless)
½ roma tomato
¼ green bell pepper
¼ yellow onion
1 teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder
½ teaspoon of salt
Pinch of black pepper
½ tablespoon of oil
24 oz of mozzarella cheese (6 cups)
Masa
3 cups of masaseca
1 teaspoon of salt
3 cups of warm water (as hot as you can handle it)
Instructions
- Cut chicken thigh into dice. (big or small pieces doesn’t really matter)
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook chicken thigh with salt, pepper, and chicken bouillon powder.
- While the chicken is cooking, start dicing bell pepper, onion, and tomato. Then add the vegetables to the chicken.
- Cook the chicken and vegetable for 20-25 minutes; until the chicken looks brown and juice has reduce to almost nothing.
- After the chicken is cooked let it cool for about 10 minutes before putting it in the food processor. Blend the chicken until it looks like paste.
- Put the chicken in the bowl then add the mozzarella cheese and mix it together. Before adding the cheese make sure that the chicken is not hot so the cheese doesn’t melt. Put it aside to start making the masa.
- In a bowl add the masaseca and the salt. Then add half of the warm water slowly while mixing it with the other hand. Continue adding the water and mixing the masa until it feels like a playdough.
- Place skillet on stove with medium heat.
- While the skillet is getting warm, grab a piece of masa and make it into a ball – the size of a lemon.
- Flatten the masa with your hand so it would look like a handmade tortilla about 4 inches, not too thin because it will break.
- Grab a piece of the meat and cheese mixture and place it on the middle of the masa.
- Cover the meat mixture with the masa making it look like a dumpling.
- Then flatten the masa and meat mixture so it would look like a handmade tortilla. If you feel like the masa is sticking to your hands add a little water to your hands so it will help with the sticking.
- Put a little bit of oil on your skillet and place your pupusa.
- Flip pupusa every 2 minute for about 8 minutes.
CHEF TIPS
- You can also substitute the chicken with beef or pork.
Download this reicpe and the curtido and salsa roja: Pupusas