Chicken Arepas

Arepas are little corn cakes, traditionally stuffed and sold as street food in many Latin American countries. They're tasty, they're authentic, and they're easy. Found this recipe over at the blog Pink Parsley and I added a few things to it because I was in the mood for something spicy.

Ingredients:

3 Chicken breasts
2 small avocados, diced
2 tablespoons minced cilantro
2 scallions, thinly sliced
juice of 1 lime
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus 1 teaspoon
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 Serrano pepper, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 cups corn flour
1 cup frozen corn
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 & 1/2 cups warm water
1/4 cup vegetable oil

It's CROCKPOT time! I received a crockpot as a gift a couple Christmas' ago and I absolutely love it. You just throw what you want in there and it does the rest! Makes a busy girl's life a little easier! And this is no exception.

For the filling, put the chicken, lime juice, chili powder, salt, black pepper, cumin, serrano pepper, and chicken stock in the crockpot and heat on low for about 3 hours.

Stir occasionally. This will get the chicken nice and moist and easy to shred when it's done! Which is the next step... when it's done, shred the chicken! Add avocado, cilantro, and scallions and keep warm.

For the corn cakes, mix together the flour, corn, baking powder, and water. Form a dough. This will make eight 3 inch round corn cakes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in fry pan and brown corn cakes, in batches of 4, about 6 minutes.

Transfer browned cakes to parchment paper lined baking sheet and fry other 4 cakes. When all the cakes are browned, place in oven for about 10-15 minutes.

The cakes should split apart with a fork, just like an english muffin. Stuff cakes with chicken mixture and you're ready to go! In addition to the chicken I also added shredded cheese and freshly made salsa! Enjoy!