Arepas: How to Make Reina Pepiada Filling with Avocado & Chicken

Arepas rule in Venezuela, and reina pepiada is the name of one of the most popular and traditional types of stuffings to put inside the country’s legendary bread. Slightly texturized and crunchy on the outside and warm and soft in the middle, arepas are made with precooked cornmeal. They can be eaten plain with a little butter or filled with a range of ingredients, ranging from cheese, beans, meat, eggs and chicken — and found on Venezuelan tables at just about every time of day.

Which brings us to reina pepiada. Named after a 1955 Venezuelan beauty pageant winner, reina pepiada (which means, more or less: shapely queen) is an arepa filling made with avocado, shredded chicken and minced onion. It was also the winner of Familia Kitchen’s Your Favorite Arepa Recipe Contest, sent in by one of our favorite Venezuelan homecooks Liliana Hernández. Thank you and felicidades for your reina pepiada recipe, queen Liliana.

For more of Liliana’s family-famous Venezuelan recipes, try her carne mechaada arepas, her bienmesabe cake, asado negro roast beef, can’t-stop-at-one cheese-stuffed tequeños, and her mother’s go-to ensalada rusa potato salad. All are totalemente, 100% delicioso.

Find more recipes for arepas here.