Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

San Antonio, Texas-based chef Geronimo Lopez embraces the taste of his Venezuelan childhood with a reinvention of the popular Arepa de Reina Pepiada. This comfort food consists of pillowy golden dough stuffed with a mix of tender shredded chicken and creamy avocado, seasoned to highlight every ingredient.

Ingredients

Arepa

4 cups arepa flour (harina PAN or masarepa available at Latin grocery store)
4 tsp salt
5 cups of water

Reina Pepiada Filling

2 lb. chicken breast
4 avocados
1/2 white onion (diced)
3 tbsp chopped garlic
6 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste

Cooking Instructions

In a pot, add the raw chicken breast, salt, and black pepper. Add water until it is covering 1 to 2 inches above the chicken.
Bring water to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Let the chicken soak in the broth for 3 more minutes, remove the chicken and let it cool. Once cool, shred the chicken with two forks, and set it aside.
In a large bowl, mash the avocados and add the garlic, onion, cilantro, mayonnaise, and lime juice. Add the shredded chicken and toss until the chicken is coated with the avocado mixture. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge.
In a bowl, pour the water and combine the arepa flour and salt until smooth. Let it rest for a couple of minutes to thicken.
Divide the dough into eight equal portions. Roll each one into a ball and flatten using your hands.
Cook the flattened balls on a heated nonstick pan or griddle. The darker the “skin” of the arepa, the better. Let the cooked arepas rest on a wire rack until ready to serve.
While the arepas are still warm, slice them in half and add as much filling as you like in between. Don’t be stingy, these vessels are meant to be stuffed.

Home Cooked

From Issue 05, words by Grace West

Geronimo Lopez has cooked his way around the world, but the flavors that shaped him came from his childhood in Caracas, Venezuela. In a city where migration influenced every corner bakery, this infusion of diversity helps even leftover roast chicken become something iconic. Lopez, now the executive chef at Hotel Emma in San Antonio, Texas, has watched with excitement as Venezuelan arepas, a stuffed flatbread, have taken on a life of their own in many U.S. kitchens.

“Everybody is experimenting with arepas these days and that’s fantastic,” says Lopez.

The chef and teacher’s culinary experience spans over 30 years and nearly as many borders. After growing up in Venezuela and pursuing professional training in prominent spots around from Mexico to Hawaii and Croatia, he honed his craft in international hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants. In 2012, he moved to San Antonio to teach at the Culinary Institute of America before opening the Peruvian-fusion restaurant Botika. Finally, he took the helm of the Hotel Emma kitchen.

He says European migration to Caracas turned the arepa into something far more dynamic than its humble roots. Portuguese migrants established bakeries and areperas and utilized the day’s leftover roast chicken as filling for the original Venezuelan Reina Pepiada.

In recent years, nearly 8 million Venezuelans are once again on the move, but, even far from home, they have brought their culture—and their dishes—with them. For Lopez, it's a taste of home.