Sopes

Sopes (pronounced so-pays) are something my Mom never made, but I did some googling and learned how to make them, they just seemed like they would be good! My kids love them.The sope is a cornflour or masa disc that is thick and topped with whatever you can think of. It is served as an "antojito" or "little bite". There are even dessert sopes. The sopes I am going to show you are Roasted Chicken sopes. Traditionally sopes are fried, which you can do but I made these as a clean eating version and skipped the frying altogether.

Ingredients

For the Masa

2c. Maseca brand cornflour

2c. warm water

2tsp of salt

For toppings

Refried beans of your choice, pinto,white or black see my Boiled Beans recipe

Roasted chicken see my Easy Roasted Chicken recipe or buy one precooked at the store
or use some roasted beef, or barbecued tri-tip
salsa- see my Easy Blender Salsa recipe
fresh guacamole
shredded lettuce
diced tomato
cotija cheese (fresh mexican cheese)
sour cream

For the masa mix all the ingredients until a soft dough forms add 2nd cup of water in intervals using only the amount needed to form a dough you can easily handle.

Dough should look like this and be easy to roll into balls about the size of a baby lemon this recipe should yeild you 8 sopes

Take the sope ball and place between two sheets of plastic, I opened the sides of a large storage bag. This shows you how to do it without a tortilla press. Next take a plate and press down on masa. This should form a 3 to 4 inch disc.

This sope is ready to heat up in a cast iron pan or comal, which is a griddle...pour a drop of canola

oil onto a napkin and wipe surface of your pan or griddle.

heat through as you would a tortilla, the sope will be dry on both sides

Once the sope is out of the pan pinch up the edges with your thumb and forefinger,this creates a lip on the sope, be careful not to burn yourself! At this point you can make all of the sopes and set aside. When building your sope if you prefer to fry them do so in a pan with a little bit of oil till both sides are golden, drain on paper towels. I prefer them unfried they are just as tasty and healthier.

To build your sope spread some refried beans on it, add shredded chicken or beef, top with lettuce, salsa,  guacamole, sour cream and cotija cheese. These are a hit at my house! Hope they are at yours!