Make chef Victor Aguilera’s delicious at-home chicken avocado arepa recipe
One hobby that we can all take away post-quarantine is cooking and trying new recipes from home.
ABC News’ Becky Worley got a lesson from chef Victor Aguilera, who opened Arepas en Bici, a new Venezuelan restaurant in San Francisco, California, specializing in arepas and other Venezuelan dishes during the pandemic. To stay afloat in the COVID-19 economy, he's made dishes at home and delivered them all over the city via bicycle.
Aguilera shared his Reina Pepiada arepa recipe, which is filled with avocado and chicken salad, with "Good Morning America" for you to make at home.
"[Reina Pepiada] is a chicken and avocado salad used as filling for the arepas," Aguilera told "GMA." "It was an arepa created to honor Venezuela's first international beauty queen Susana Dujim (1955)."
Get the full recipe below.
Reina Pepiada filling
Ingredients
1 skinless chicken breast
2 avocados
1/2 cup of mayo
4 garlic cloves
¼ cup oil
Half onion
Lime juice or white vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste
Directions:
Place chicken in a pot with enough ester to cover it. I like to use vegetable stock for better flavor.
Boil and simmer chicken for 20 minutes or until its full cooked all the way through.
Use your hands to shred the chicken once the chicken is cooled.
In a separate bowl, smash the avocado.
In the blender add garlic, and onions 1/4 cup oil and blend until it becomes liquefied.
Add mayo and avocados and blend until you have a nice thick sauce.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Mix avocado sauce with chicken and there's your filling!
Arepas
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups filtered water
2 cups Harina P.A.N. white corn meal (Can be found in most Spanish markets)
1 spoonful of salt
Directions:
Add water and salt in a bowl first.
With your hands or I prefer to use a whisk, whisk as fast as you can when adding the masa so it mixes well and doesn't leave any clumps.
Let it rest for 4 minutes until the masa absorbs all the water. If it's too soft, you can always add a bit of masa or if it's too dry, you can also add a bit of water.
