Today, we are heading to Costa Rica for a classic breakfast recipe from this Latin American country: chorreadas.
What are chorreadas?
Chorreadas are traditional pancakes from Costa Rica that are prepared with fresh corn and are usually served for breakfast, but they can also be enjoyed at lunch or as a snack. These pancakes are often sweet but can also be prepared in a savory version.
In Costa Rica, you will typically find these snacks in what Ticos (how Costa Ricans refer themselves as) call a soda or street-side diners serving local cuisine. Chorreadas are prepared either with fresh white corn, or with yellow corn which gives a more pronounced color and corn taste.
Sweet chorreadas are traditionally served with honey or syrup to accompany a coffee. Savory chorreadas are served with sour cream, cream cheese, bacon or sausage.
Chorreadas are quick and easy to prepare and can be the basis for a variety of pancake recipes that can only be limited by your imagination!
The original recipe of chorreadas is a native indigenous recipe that only included fresh corn also known as elote. Modern versions of the Costa Rican recipe call for other ingredients like flour or eggs. If you try the original version, it is recommended that you grind corn by hand (not the blender) and reap the “corn milk” separately in order to add just enough to the corn and get a dough a tad thicker than pancakes.
Chorreadas are reminiscent of pupusas, savory pancakes from another Central American country, El Salvador. Pupusas have become a favorite of mine on 196 flavors. The only difference with chorreadas is that they are prepared with nixtamalized corn flour called masa harina.
I do not often prepare breakfast, but I decided to prepare a surprise for the kids as they came back from soccer practice this Saturday. Surprises from the past few months have included Austrian pancake kaiserschmarrn, or Swedish buns lussekatter. For this meal featuring Costa Rican food, I chose another breakfast recipe called gallo pinto (black beans and rice with salsa Lizano) that we ended up eating for lunch.
If you are looking for a new and original pancake recipe, I highly recommend you give chorreadas a try. The whole family adored them, whether savory with melted cheese or sweet with honey, jam and even less traditional toppings like Nutella… A very easy recipe to make and a real treat for young and old!
This recipe is validated by Chef Randy Siles Leandro, first Ambassador of Costa Rica’s National Plan for Sustainable and Healthy Gastronomy. Randy is the owner and creator of OS restaurant, cofounder of Autóktono and founder of Academia Artesanos de la Gastronomía in Costa Rica.
Chorreadas
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh corn (about 5 ears of corn or canned corn)
- ½ cup sugar (for sweet version)
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ⅓ cup milk
- Butter (to cook)
For savory version
- 1 tablespoon dry oregano
- 1 clove garlic
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until the mixture is crumbly.
- Fry in butter to form round pancakes for a couple minutes.
- Turn over and fry for a couple more minutes.
- Serve warm with honey, syrup (sweet version), sour cream or cream cheese (savory version) on top.
- For a savory version of chorreadas, omit the sugar and add 1 tablespoon or oregano and 1 garlic clove. Optionally, add grated cheese on top of the chorreadas before turning them over.
Mike is “the devil” of the 196 flavors’ duo. Nicknamed as such by his friends, he is constantly in search of unusual recipes and techniques with impossible to find ingredients. The devil is always pushing the envelope, whether it is with humor or culinary surprises.
Annika says
Awesome, thanks for the recipe! I am currently spending an exchange year in Costa Rica and wanted to post this recipe on my blog for friends and family to try. Your article has been a great help and I love the pictures!
Joni m Welch says
It’s so awesome that you posted this recipe. I lived in Alajuela and on the road heading to Heredia growing up. We used to go to volcan Poas on the weekends and my dad would stop to get chorreadas otw. So delicious. I been craving them.
Nicole Rossetti le Strange says
Joni, we are so pleased to have made you happy! Have you made them yet?
Tonya Denmark says
These look so yummy! I learned how to make tortillas while I was there. I can’t wait to try.
Andrea says
I am Costa Rican and for I’ve known all my life chorreadas we don’t include garlic or oregano, if these have that twist great otherwise those two ingredients should be omitted.
Mike Benayoun says
Understood Andrea. Apparently, there are sweet and savory versions. The sweet one is definitely the most common, but the savory version is Costa Rican too. Here is one example of a Costa Rican source for both versions: https://www.costaricaguides.com/articles/recipes/chorreadas.html
Alejandra says
Hello Mike, I am also Costa Rican and I have known chorreadas all my life my mother used to make them regularly and we tend to have them in different occasions as in fiestas patronales as well, but garlic and oregano where never included, neither honey or syrup and definitely not with bacon or sausage. This may be variations but it is not common at all. The original recipe is only served with sour cream. Maybe you got the recipe of the variations that some people used to do but it is not the usual.
Mike Benayoun says
Understood Alejandra. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience as a true Tica 😉
Mireille says
Hi Mike,
I met you and your son in a cooking class in Thailand December 2017. So I was so happy to come across your blog.
I first tried choreadas in January 2020 in Costa Rica right before the lockdown and fell in love with them. I have been looking for a recipe that would taste as good as the one I had there. I can’t wait to try this one out. Thanks for posting!
Mike Benayoun says
Wow, Mireille. So nice to reconnect. Good times at this cooking class… except I got sick that same night, so I never knew if it was anything I had at the cooking class or later at the hotel. You didn’t get sick? Please let me know how those chorreadas turn out!
Mari says
I can’t believe that I’m gonna follow this recipe instructions from a foreigner i make chorreadas every now and then for my multicultural family kids (we’ve been living abroad for many years) and i always follow different recipes cuz i don’t like to stick to just one version. As a tica myself, I approve
Gilda says
Just made them and they turned out pretty tasty. I did reduce the sugar to 1/4C and added just a bit of baking powder so it would raise a little more on the pan and make it easier to flip. It’s one of the simplest meals out there.
Mike Benayoun says
Thanks a lot, Gilda. Really glad you enjoyed them!
Gustavo says
Mike, thanks for this fabulous recipe! I am a tico living in Oregon, and this year we harvested our own corn! Our nine grandchildren came over from Portland to spend the night with us in Eugene. They haven’t been in CR yet but we want them to try chorreadas tomorrow morning for breakfast! BTW, now that you gave us the savory options, we’ll have to try them. They all sound exquisite!
Nicole Rossetti le Strange says
Did you make chorreadas Gustavo? What did the kids think of them?
I bet your corn was lovely… nothing quite like home-grown, is there?!