These Venezuelan Tequeños are easy to make and so delicious! They’re sticks of white cheese wrapped with a homemade crunchy and slightly sweet dough and then fried to golden perfection. One won’t be enough! The recipe includes step-by-step photos and lots of tips.
Eggless Venezuelan Tequeños
Today, I am introducing these fabulous irresistible bites of heaven – Tequeños or Venezuelan Cheese Sticks. Some Venezuelans might want to kill me if they see I’m calling Tequeños cheese stick (LOL), but in my opinion, it’s the best way to describe them.
What is Tequeños?
Tequeños are a popular meal or snack in Venezuela. They are basically white cheese sticks wrapped with a crunchy and slightly sweet dough. And as most delicious things, Tequeños are fried.
Back home, they are a very popular snack food, party food, or even breakfast. No gathering or party is complete without a platter of Tequeños. Everyone loves them – and what’s not to love? Fried dough with cheese inside?
They are typically served with a dipping sauce, like Guasacaca sauce, Pink sauce, or garlic sauce. The Spicy Pink Sauce recipe that I’ve included with the recipe will 100% knock your socks off! It’s creamy and wonderful. I made the pink sauce with my eggless mayo to keep things egg-free.
Most Venezuelan Tequeños recipes have eggs, but not this! I promise you won’t notice any difference.
What I love more about this dough is that it’s very easy to make but also is great for making ahead and freezing, and when needing a quick fix or friends unexpectedly showing up, you just have to fry them.
Venezuelan Tequeños Recipe Ingredients
Amounts are included in the printable recipe below (scroll down). You’ll need:
- Flour: Standard all-purpose flour works best here, skip the cake flour, bread flour, and wheat flour.
- Salt: I prefer kosher or sea salt. If you only have table salt handy, I recommend reducing the amount to half.
- Baking powder: Make sure it’s not expired or too old
- Water
- Oil: Vegetable or canola oil – Or any light-tasting oil of your preference.
- Milk: For cooking and baking, I like to use whole milk. However, you can use any milk you have handy.
- Sugar: Brown sugar — either light or dark brown sugar works.
- Fresh white cheese for frying — You can find fresh white cheese for frying at Walmart in the refrigerated section. It’s called Tropical queso de freir.
- Vegetable oil for frying
For the Spicy Pink Sauce, you’ll need:
- Mayonnaise ( I used eggless mayo ), ketchup, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, brandy or rum, and cayenne pepper.
How To Make Eggless Venezuelan Tequeños
Detailed instructions are included in the printable recipe below (scroll down). Also, check out these videos on how I do make tequeños.
1 – Prepare The Dough
Place the flour, salt, and baking powder into the bowl of a stand mixer with the hook attachment. Mix to combine.
Add water, vegetable oil, milk, and brown sugar and mix the dough for 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Press dough into a disc, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Unwrap dough and place on a lightly floured surface. Knead with your hands until the dough is very smooth and elastic, about 2 -3 minutes. Add more flour over the surface, if necessary, and roll out into a 12 x 15-inch rectangle 1/8-inch thick. Using a knife, or a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 1-inch wide strips lengthwise to end up with 12 strips.
2 – Form the Tequeños
Cut the cheese block into 6 equal pieces, and then cut each piece in half lengthwise; you end up with 12 cheese sticks.
Take one strip of dough and cover one of the ends of one cheese stick with dough. Continue to wrap dough around the stick in a spiral fashion, overlapping the edges until you reach the other end. Cover the other end with dough and pinch edges close to seal fully. The cheese has to be completely covered with dough. Repeat with remaining cheese sticks.
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3 – Fry
Add 2-inches of oil to a skillet. Heat oil to 350°F over medium heat. When the oil is hot, cook the tequeños in batches, 2 -3 at a time, turning them until all sides are golden brown. Remove tequeños to a plate lined with paper towels. Let cool for 1 minute, and serve immediately with guasacasa, garlic sauce, and/or spicy pink sauce.
4 – Make the Pink Sauce (Salsa Rosada)
Mix with a fork, or wire whisk, all the sauce ingredients until smooth and creamy. If you like a sauce with more bite, add more cayenne pepper. This sauce will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.
Quick Recipe Notes
If you do not have a stand mixer, you can do the process by kneading by hand.
If you’d prefer your dough to be sweeter, you can add an extra tablespoon of sugar to it.
Make sure you fully cover your cheese with the dough, so the cheese doesn’t leak out. No one wants a cheese explosion.
Maintaining the temperature of the cooking oil at a steady 350 ºF throughout the frying process is important. If the oil gets too hot at any point, remove it from heat until the temperature has lowered. Otherwise, the Tequeños won’t cook properly. I highly recommend using a frying thermometer.
If you’re making a large batch of Tequeños, you can keep them warm until ready to serve. Turn your oven to 250°F and place the Tequeños covered in foil to keep warm.
Frequently Asked Questions
Tequeños are a popular meal or snack in Venezuela. They are basically white cheese sticks wrapped with a crunchy and slightly sweet dough and then fried to perfection.
Yes, you can make the dough and form the tequeños two days in advance. Keep them well covered in the refrigerator until you are ready to fry them.
Yes, you can. I recommend freezing them in a single layer on a sheet pan before transferring them to a freezer bag or container. When ready to eat, you can fry them from frozen.
If you’re making a large batch of Tequeños, you can keep them warm until ready to serve. Turn your oven to 250°F and place the Tequeños covered in foil to keep warm.
You have to use a semi-hard queso Blanco that softens while frying but still holds its shape. After all my testing, I found one that works great. It’s called Tropical queso de freir, and I buy it at Walmart. If you can not find that specific brand, try using a semi-hard white cheese for frying (para freir).
You can refrigerate any leftover Venezuelan Tequeños for a couple of days and then reheat them in a 350°F oven until it’s warmed through.
Storing
These little finger snacks are almost always finished immediately, but here’s what to do if you have extra or want to prep them ahead of time:
Leftovers
These are best served immediately, and we rarely have leftovers (or freeze any we don’t think we’ll be able to finish). Still, if you do, you can refrigerate any leftover Venezuelan Tequeños for a couple of days and then reheat them in a 350°F oven until it’s warmed through. You don’t want to microwave these as the exterior won’t be as crispy. You can also reheat them in a toaster oven or air fryer.
Freeze
You can make these ahead of time and freeze them before frying. Simply freeze them in a single layer on a sheet pan before transferring them to a freezer bag or container. When ready to eat, you can fry them from frozen.
More Venezuelan Recipes You’ll Love!
- Easy Venezuelan Roasted Chicken
- Venezuelan Asado Negro
- Venezuelan Pabellon Bowl [Video]
- Easy Venezuelan Cocada
- Venezuelan Flan Quesillo
- Venezuelan Polvorosas Cookies
- more
Easy Venezuelan Tequeños Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking power
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) water
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) milk
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 block (12 oz / 350 g) semi-hard white cheese for frying (I used Tropical queso de freir – see note)
- Vegetable, corn or canola oil for frying
Spicy Pink Sauce (optional)
- 1 cup mayonnaise (I used eggless mayo)
- 1/3 cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon brandy or rum
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or more for spicy lovers
Instructions
Make the Tequeño Dough:
- Place the flour, salt, and baking powder into the bowl of a stand mixer with the hook attachment. Mix to combine.
- Add water, vegetable oil, milk, and brown sugar and mix the dough for 5 – 7 minutes over medium speed, or until the dough is smooth and starts pulling away from the bowl's sides.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Form the dough into a disc, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, unwrap the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Knead with your hands until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 2 -3 minutes. If the dough feels too sticky, add more flour (about one tablespoon) over the surface, if necessary.
Form the Tequeños:
- Roll the dough out into a 12 x 15-inch rectangle, 1/8-inch thick. Using a knife, or a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 1-inch wide strips lengthwise so that you end up with 12 strips.
- Cut the cheese block into 6 equal pieces, then cut each piece in half lengthwise; you end up with 12 cheese sticks. NOTE: You can form the tequeños as big or small as you like; just cut the cheese accordingly to your preference.
- Take one strip of dough and cover one of the ends of one cheese stick with dough. Continue to wrap dough around the stick in a spiral fashion, overlapping the edges until you reach the other end. Cover the other end with dough and pinch edges close to seal thoroughly. The cheese has to be completely covered with dough. Repeat with remaining cheese sticks.
Fry the Tequeños
- Add about 2-inches of oil to a skillet. Heat oil to 350°F over medium heat. When the oil is hot, fry the tequeños in batches, 2 -3 at a time, turning them until all sides are golden brown. Remove tequeños to a plate lined with paper towels. Let cool for 1 minute, and serve immediately with guasacasa, cilantro mojo, garlic sauce, and/or spicy pink sauce.
Spicy Pink Sauce:
- Mix all the ingredients with a fork or wire whisk until smooth and creamy. If you like a sauce with more bite, add more cayenne pepper. This sauce will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.
- If you’re making a large batch of Tequeños, you can keep them warm until ready to serve. Preheat the oven to 250°F and place the Tequeños, covered in foil to keep warm.
- Make sure you fully cover your cheese with the dough, so the cheese doesn’t leak out. No one wants a cheese explosion.
- If you’d prefer your dough to be sweeter, you can add extra sugar to it.
- Maintaining the cooking oil temperature at a steady 350 ºF throughout the frying process is essential. I highly recommend using a frying thermometer. If the oil gets too hot at any point, remove it from heat until the temperature has lowered. Otherwise, the tequeños won’t cook properly.
- If you do not have a stand mixer, you can do the process of kneading by hand.
Nutrition
The recipe was originally posted in August 2015, the post content was edited to add more helpful information, no change to the recipe in June 2022.
