Chicken Saltados With Vegetables
If you’ve never had Chicken Saltados, or any Saltados for that matter, you haven’t lived! Normally with potatoes, Chicken Saltados are essentially a Peruvian stir fry style meal, that is loaded with flavor! Making a lower carb Keto diet friendly alternative was a no brainer, adding some green beans, broccoli and asparagus to make up for the lake of potatoes, and trust me, it’s going to be a new favorite!
I recently was introduced to this dish when visiting a Peruvian restaurant, and was immediately hooked! With the addition of a spicy cilantro sauce, I was highly addicted to this plate. Obviously since trying to lose weight, I’ve followed the keto diet so I needed a lower carb alternative to get my fix in.
Saltados, have a very savory flavor, using a soy sauce/vinegar mixture, onion, garlic, tomato and a some cilantro that ties everything together. It’s cooked in a wok at high temperature so that you can get that smoky flavor incorporated. Ugh.. I wish I had leftovers, because I’m craving them now just by talking about it.
The spicy cilantro sauce is really what takes this dish over the top, so you HAVE to make it when serving this. It has a little spice from the peppers, along with amazing flavor with a little cumin, garlic, and smoked paprika. There’s going to be a little extra but it really goes good on any other dish you have in the house, even just to dip in bread; which I can’t have right now ????????????
Normally Saltados are made with a pepper called Aji Amarillo, which is native to Peru. I found that this pepper isn’t easily available in my area, so if you’re in the same boat I am you have a couple options: 1) Find some Aji Amarillo Paste online, which is what I will be doing in the future or 2) use a pepper of similar heat, which in this case I used the Serrano pepper.
Another tip, topping it with a fried egg = AMAZING!
Ok I’ll shut up now. Just go make this, ok?
On To The Recipe
Chicken Saltados With Vegetables
Ingredients
Spicy cilantro Sauce
- 8 oz sour cream
- 3 tbsp chopped cilantro
- 1 whole serrano pepper
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 whole lime
Chicken Vegetable Saltados
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
- 2 whole tomatoes
- 1/2 whole red onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 whole aji amarillo pepper paste will work. Or use a serrano pepper
- 1/2 lb green beans
- 1 head broccoli
- 1/4 lb asparagus
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 3 tsp soy sauce
- 3 tsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp oilve oil
- 2 cups cooked rice
Instructions
Making the spicy cilantro sauce
- Add sour cream, cilantro, serrano pepper, peeled garlic, cumin, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lime juice into a food processor.
- Blend until the cilantro you can barely make out any cilantro leaves; about 2-4 minutes. You'll have a beautiful green sauce. Place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
The Saltados
- While your rice is in the rice cooker, prepare all the vegetables. Chop the broccoli from the head, prepare the green beans, and chop the asparagus into thirds; set aside.
- Chop your onion into medium sized chunks, along with the cilantro.
- Chop tomatoes into medium chunks and chop your garlic
- Remove the seeds and pith from the serrano pepper (or leave it in to add more heat), cutting into thin strips. Place onion, cilantro, tomato, garlic and peppers into a container.
- In a separate container mix the soy sauce and vinegar and set aside.
- Cut your chicken breast into thin strips. Now it's time to cook everything!
- On high heat, get your wok nice and smoky, then add your olive oil. Place the chicken in the wok and season with salt and pepper. cook for about 5-7 minutes.
- Add the container with onion, cilantro, tomato, garlic and peppers. Cook for about 5 minutes stirring frequently. It should start smelling really good at this point!
- Last step is adding the soy sauce mix and vegetables. Stir for about another 5 minutes, don't over cook at this point because you want the vegetables to still have a nice crunch to them.
- Serve with the spicy cilantro sauce, 1/2 cup of cooked rice per plate (an egg for extra protein) and enjoy!
