Pantry-Friendly Mexican Sopes (GF)

I love Mexican food, as I've mentioned before, and I just got a recipe for sopes.  Sopes are from south-central Mexico and look a little like a thick corn tortilla made into a shallow bowl.  You can fill sopes with various toppings (like you would a taco).  Sopes are naturally gluten-free.

Sopes themselves are pantry-friendly, meaning all (3 of!) the ingredients for them can be kept on hand in your pantry.  The great thing about pantry-friendly recipes is that the ingredients usually store for a long time, too.

Of course, I decided to make these sopes entirely pantry-friendly--toppings included!  I was really happy with how they turned out.

PANTRY-FRIENDLY MEXICAN SOPES

By way of disclaimer, you have to like corn tortillas to like sopes.  This recipe only got 4 out of the possible 5 thumbs-ups from my family because one of my kids doesn't like corn tortillas.  And the corn tortilla flavor is fairly strong.

PREP TIME:  10-15 minutes
COOK TIME:  5 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 c. warm water
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/3 c. masa harina (corn flour--like this or this)
• optional:  canola oil spray or butter/butter flavor Crisco for frying
• about half of a 16-oz. can refried beans
• 1 c. freeze-dried chopped chicken, rehydrated according to package directions (or 1 12.5-oz. can chicken breast chunks.)
• about 1 c. freeze-dried shredded Monterey Jack cheese, rehydrated
• salsa
• optional:  freeze-dried sour cream, rehydrated (I tried this the second time I made sopes, but I forgot to take a picture for you.  I don't think it's excellent by itself--but who eats sour cream by itself anyway?--but mixed with all these other flavors, I thought it was quite good.)

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, mix together warm water and salt.  Gradually stir in the masa harina until dough forms.  Divide into 6 pieces and roll into balls.  Heat a griddle to 350 degrees.  (May use a skillet.)  Press dough balls until they are about 1/3" thick.  If desired, spray the griddle with canola oil spray or melt a little butter or butter flavor Crisco on it.  Cook sopes on the griddle for 1-2 minutes each side.  Immediately remove sopes to a plate and (using a paper towel to protect your fingers from the heat) pinch up the sides with your fingers, forming a rim* around each sope to hold the toppings. Top each sope with warmed refried beans, chicken, tomatoes, cheese, and salsa.  (I microwaved my sope at this point to melt the cheese.)  Top with sour cream (optional).  If available, you can also top sopes with taco meat, black beans, lettuce, cilantro, onions, and avocado/guacamole.

* This is sort of the defining mark of a sope, but technically this step is fairly optional.  You can just pile on toppings without having a rim around your sope.

Try this recipe, then comment and let me know how you like it!  And Pin it to Pinterest to save and share using the image below.

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