Easy Pupusas Recipe
Easy Pupusas Recipe
If there’s a food that my boys absolutely love it’s pupusas!
If you’re wondering what a pupusa is, well it’s a traditional Salvadoran dish made of a thick, handmade corn tortilla that is usually filled with cheese, cooked pork meat ground to a paste consistency. This meat mixture is called chicharrón, but it’s not to be confused with fried pork rind, which is also called chicharrón in other Spanish speaking countries. Pupusas can also be filled with re-fried beans, or cheese and Loroco. Loroco is a vine flower bud from Central America.
With El Salvador being so close to Guatemala it’s only natural that Guatemala would have it’s version of a pupusa. We usually make them with any of the above named fillings but also fill them with shredded chicken, shrimp or beef.
This recipe is for shredded chicken and cheese pupusas. Pupusas are almost always accompanied with curtido which is a lightly fermented cabbage slaw that has red chilies and vinegar, and a watery tomato sauce. It’s so delicious. This may seem like a long recipe, but it’s really not. I’m just going to give a lot of details so that you may get the most delicious pupusas when you make them. Okay now that I have my taste buds watering, on to the recipe.
Ingredients:
1/3 of the 4.4 lb. package of tortilla corn flour I use Maseca 
2 Cups of shredded chicken
2 Cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
2 Tbsp. chicken flavor boullion
5 Tbsp. Oil
8 Cups Water (warm)
Directions:
1. In a medium size bowl add the 2 cups of shredded chicken, the 2 cups of shredded cheese and mix well and put a side.
2. Take the flour and add 6 cups of water, chicken flavor boullion, and 3 tbsp. oil.
3. Mix well until the mixture has a soft consistency and is no longer sticking to your hands.
4. In a small bowl add the remaining 2 cups of water and 2 tbsp of oil. This is what you’ll use to moisten your hands for the following steps to avoid the pupusas sticking to your hands.
5. Make a round ball of the masa mixture about the size of the palm of your hand.
6. Start using both your hands to make a bowl out of the ball.
7. Take some of the cheese and chicken mixture and place it inside of the bowl.
8. Wrap the flour around the chicken mixture and form a ball again.
9. Take both hands and flatten the ball into a tortilla shape. Be sure to make it as thin as possible. Don’t worry if some of the chicken mixture starts to push out of the tortilla or if it cracks in a few places. The cheese will help it stay together once it’s cooking.
10. One you have the pupusa as thin as you can (they will never be as thin as a tortilla so don’t worry) place it on a hot griddle or a skillet.
11. Do not move the pupusa once you set it on the griddle. Let it cook for about 3 minutes. Turn it over and if it’s lightly brown go ahead and flip it over. If it’s not then leave it for another minute. It should look like the pic below when it’s ready to flip.
12. Let it cook for about 3-4 minutes on the second side, then it’s ready to be removed. I like to place them on a glass Pyrex and cover them with a kitchen towel to keep them warm.
Once they’re all done you can serve and enjoy. 🙂
I would love to see your recreations! Please share them with me using the #mysillylittlegang, that way I can share them on my blog and YouTube channel.
15 Comments
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Just made pupusas for the first time!! And they are delicious!!! There is a local El Salvadoran restaurant where I can order them, but I have been wanting to make them myself, and your steps helped greatly. I didn’t want to use 1/3 bag of masa, since I didn’t know what I was doing and how the pupusas would turn out, so I adjusted and used 2 cups masa, about 2 cups water, 1 tsp oil and 2 tsp of boullion. The oil/water mixture to keep my hands moistened is brilliant. That helped enormously, and yours was the only recipe I found online that offered that suggestion. The dough is so forgiving, and the filling just folded right in quite easily. My first one had several cracks and crevices, but no filling leaked and it fried up perfectly. One suggestion for anyone new to making pupusas–I did find that flattening the pupusas on a sheet of plastic wrap (wax paper, foil, parchment paper would also work) helped me be able to pick up the pupusa when I was ready to fry it. Also I did add some fajitia seasoning to the chicken/cheese mixture before folding it in.
Now a couple of questions. I am quite sure that these are better freshly made, but is there any way they can be made ahead of time and reheated, like for a party? Can they be made and then and frozen, either cooked or uncooked?
Thanks so much for helping!
Question? Do you not need to let this rise? I’ve seen a few recipes for this. I like yours but wondering why this is omited. Also how many does this make?
Hi Charmagne 🙂 no, you do not need to let it rise. I didn’t put how many it makes because that depends on how big or small you make them. I usually make them about the size of my hand and make 12-13 with this recipe. Enjoy!
Wanting a Spanish dish over here and Mama is too far away. I’m thinking this might be the ticket….Puerto Rican’s eat pupusa’s no?
I believe so, Maybe they’re just called differently. 🙂
I wonder if I can make these with regular flour? No Masa in the house…
I’ve never tried making them with flour…good question. I know they can be made with rice flour like this: rice flour, warm water, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp baking soda. maybe it will work if we switch the rice flour with regular flour. :/ I should try it. 🙂
I think I’ll try it tomorrow. I’ll have to remember to let you know how it turns out! 🙂
Great! Let me know 🙂
Well, my mouth is watering. Yum! I’ll definitely pin this for later.
Thanks for pinning 🙂
My husband grew up in Montreal and often had pupusas. I will be giving these a try!
Let me know how you like them 🙂
I seriously think I’m going to try this. It’s unique to us and my family is always looking to mix things up. Looks delicious. Pinning 🙂
They are so yummy Diane, let me know what you think. 🙂