Pupusas are a Central American tradition, featuring warm corn cakes stuffed with cheese, meat or beans.
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Central American, Honduran
Keyword: beans, masa harina, Monterrey jack cheese, pupusa, quesillo, shredded beef, shredded chicken, shredded pork
Ingredients
2cupsmasa harina
1/4teaspoonsalt
1 3/4cupswarm water
6ouncesshredded quesillo or Monterrey jack cheese
6ouncesshreddedcooked pork, chicken or beef
2-6tablespoonsoilI used canola
Instructions
In a mixing bowl, combine the masa harina, salt and water.
Mix until the dough comes together and you can shape it with your hands. You want it to be just moist enough that it doesn’t crack when you flatten it out. (Add more water, just a little at a time, if it’s too dry, or add more masa if it’s too wet.)
Form the dough into six balls of roughly equal size.
To make a pupusa, carefully flatten a ball of dough in your palm to about one-half inch in thickness. Place about a tablespoon each of cheese and meat into the center, and then squish the sides up around the filling to form a ball again.
To finish it up, gently flatten the dough back out to a disc with your hands until it is about one-quarter-inch thick, and set it aside on a plate. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
In a skillet, heat a tablespoon of oil over medium heat.
When the pan is hot, add as many pupusas as will easily fit in the pan. Let them cook several minutes and form golden brown blistered spots before flipping them to the other side. When the second side is golden, remove them to a plate. Continue until all of the pupusas are cooked, adding oil as necessary.
Serve with salsa or, for a traditional dish, curtido, which is a pickled slaw.