Venison Pupusas has been on my list of recipes to try for forever and these turned out amazing!
You would think the main food I would miss when moving away from San Antonio might be the Mexican food or the BBQ, but its the pupusas! My family had an El Salvadorian place we loved right outside of San Antonio in Boerne, TX called Casa Amaya Pupuseria & Taqueria. They serve authentic delicious El Salvadorian food and the people working there are so nice.
Since I am in New Orleans now I decided I would have to make some pupusas myself to make up for it! If you’ve never heard of pupusas before, they are little fried circles of deliciousness! Most people probably think of masa only being used in tamales, but I might like it in this application even better.
The only thing a little hard about this dish is getting the right ratio of masa to meat and cheese. It is just like tamales, in that you might overload it with masa the first few times because you are afraid of breaking them. But give it a couple dozen and you will be throwing it back like any abuelita can (not really though but its a good start lol)!
I paired these with some Salsa Roja and Curtido and oh my goodness it was amazing! My husband had actually planned on dropping some extra off at one of his classmates houses, but they ended up disappearing somehow… Overall I hope you guys ENJOY these as much as my husband and I did!
Venison Pupusas
Equipment
Ingredients
Meat
Other filling
- 8 oz mozzarella
- 16 oz refried beans
Dough
- 4 C masa flour
- 3-4 C cold water
- 1 tsp salt
Toppings
- cotija cheese
- curtido
- salsa roja
- lime wedges
Instructions
Cooking the Meat:
- Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat.
- Add all meat and seasoning ingredients and combine.
- Cook until browned. Set aside to cool so you don't burn yourself when handling.
Dough:
- Combine dough ingredients until your dough resembles the photo below. It should hold together but it should NOT be sticky:
- Once your dough is combined flatten out (I do this on parchment paper to create less mess) a heap/palm full and layer your beans, meat, and then cheese like so:
- The flatter the dough the better. This will create a better dough to filling ratio.
- Bring edges together and enclose your filling with the dough. This can get messy but don't worry! Practice makes perfect. Once you have a rounded ball of enclosed filling, press the ball flat to ~1/4-3/4 inch thick. These should be about palm size. The thinner the crispier the better. Do not worry about cracks! They might not be as pretty but they will still taste delicious!!!
- In a deep frying dish, add oil to coat the bottom of the pan (keep the oil out you will need to add more as you go). Heat oil over medium high heat. Once hot, add 1-2 pupusas at a time, do not overcrowd the pan. Once they start to get nice brown spots, flip them over. Once done, remove and place on a paper towel lined plate. Repeat until done.
- Serve with salsa roja, curtido, cotija cheese, and lime wedges. ENJOY!
