Venezuelan Arepas

Name: Venezuelan Arepas
Prep time: 19 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 54 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Venezuela
Ingredients: 2 cups Cornmeal; 2 1/2 cups Water; 1 tsp Salt; 1 tablespoon Vegetable Oil

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Side recipe with Venezuela flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 69 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Step-by-step instructions

Preheat oven to 410° F.
Pour the water into a large bowl. Make sure it is room temperature.
Add the salt. Blend well with a mixer, fork or spatula to make sure it dissolves well.
While you continue to beat the mixture, slowly add the corn meal—a little bit at a time.
Once all the flour is added, keep mixing until the corn meal, water and salt are thoroughly blended and dissolved.
Set aside the masa in its bowl. Let it rest for 5 minutes so that the flour is thoroughly hydrated. This type of corn flour does not have any gluten, so it doesn’t need to be kneaded. The masa should be smooth, firm yet malleable.
While waiting for the 5 minutes’ rest, heat your budare (or comal, griddle, cast-iron pan or non-stick pan) over medium heat. Coat with a little bit of the oil.
Fill a small bowl with water to wet your hands to make the arepas.
Take about 2 Tbsp of the masa in your damp hands. The masa should fit easily in your palm so that it is easy to shape into a small ball.
Cross your hands, so that one is on top of the other, with the masa ball between them. Rotate your right hand in a circle, so that you are at the same time both pressing the masa into a flat disc and keeping its round shape.
arepa making The last step in shaping your arepa is to quickly pass and lightly press the masa disc from one hand to the other until it is about ¾ of an inch thick and 4 inches wide. Smooth the edges with your fingertips (quickly dip them into the water bowl first) so that they stay as round as possible and without cracks.
arepa making Place your arepas in batches on the preheated surface of your budare griddle or nonstick pan. Let each side turn golden, about 4 to 5 minutes per side. Check them often so that they don’t burn.
Once they are nicely browned on both sides, place the arepas on a baking sheet in your preheated oven for 10 minutes. They should be somewhat puffy, so that if you tap an arepa lightly on top, it will sound like you are tapping an empty box.
Serve arepas hot, whether you stuff with them with your choice of fillings or serve solo to accompany your favorite Venezuelan guiso or stew.

Why this works on a weeknight

Venezuelan Arepas lands at about 54 minutes total — a little longer than our 30-minute target, but most of that time is hands-off simmering, which is why it earned a spot in our Sheet-Pan Dinners collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Venezuelan Arepas actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🍳 Sheet-Pan Dinners Side Venezuela