Rellenos de Papa (Stuffed Potato Balls)

Rellenos de Papa: Savory Puerto Rican Picadillo encased in smooth mashed potatoes, coated in cornstarch and panko breadcrumbs, then deep-fried to crispy, golden perfection. A deliciously irresistible treat!

Rellenos de Papa (Stuffed Potato Balls) is one of my absolute favorite foods by far! 

And really if you’re anything like me where comfort food for you means home, then this recipe is for you!

You will absolutely love rellenos de papa too! It’s comfort food in a little sphere!

What are Rellenos de Papa?

Well if you’ve ever had Shepherd’s Pie, then this is sort of Shepherds pie in a sphere Puerto Rican style! 🙂

It’s a soft potato blend surrounding a delicious, savory carne molida (Puerto Rican picadillo) and then lightly coated with cornstarch and fried to golden perfection! 

Rellenos de papa, are simply a deep fry genius creation, period!

It is sort of a potato croquette.

All Latin countries have their own version of a relleno.

Whether it is how the picadillo is seasoned, potato is blended or how they are coated. 

For example, in Puerto Rico once the rellenos have been formed, they are then lightly covered in cornstarch.

In Mexico, these potato fritters are covered in breadcrumbs and are known as Bombas.

For the love of my own cultural food and upbringing we are going to make my hyper flavorful Puerto Rican rellenos!

But I am also going to share with you how they are coated traditionally but also a little extra delicious idea!

Plus normally we have rellenos with hot sauce or pique, which is my favorite way to have them!

But if you are not all about hot sauce, I’ve also added a Mexican dipping sauce that is really mild and doesn’t take away from all the delicious relleno flavor!

So this is your choice, you can either make it or not, you decide, either way they will be amazing!

How do You Make Rellenos de Papa?

• Start with boiling quartered potatoes.
• Make the hyper tasty carne molida.
• Form relleno balls.
• Fry potato balls. 

Serve rellenos with hot sauce or poblano pepper dip sauce or both!

Here is another delicious recipe made with carne molida, espagueti (Puerto Rican spaghetti).

Recipe and full recipe steps with photos below ↓

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📖 Recipe

Start with your potatoes…peel and quarter potatoes and once cooked follow recipe.

While potatoes are cooking, make the picadillo. 

Note: The carne molida recipe includes cubed potatoes, exclude potatoes for this recipe.

Set picadillo aside to cool.

Form potato balls.

Make a hole in the center for picadillo filling.

Fill potato ball with picadillo.

Slowing start on one side to close potato ball by gently over lapping potato over to the other side.

Continue to fully cover picadillo with potato.

Once potatoes are stuffed, sprinkle a little cornstarch and lightly coat. Rellenos are ready to cook, however if you would like to coat in panko crumbs, follow the additional step.

Cover rellenos with egg wash and roll in panko breadcrumbs.

Note: Traditional rellenos de papa are just covered with the cornstarch, so you can do some with and without panko breadcrumbs. They both will be nice and crispy on the outside and perfectly moist on the inside.

Finally fry to golden perfection!

For a Rellenos de Papa recipe made with sweet potatoes, you may want to check out Delish D’Lights Sweet Potato Rellenos.

When will you be making Rellenos de Papa (Stuffed Poato Balls)?