Pollo con Tajadas

Easy·40 min active + 20 min resting

Honduras's beloved fried chicken over plantain chips — crisp fried chicken piled on a bed of thin fried green-plantain tajadas, topped with pickled cabbage slaw (curtido) and a special pink sauce.

Pollo con tajadas is a Honduran street-and-cantina staple: fried chicken over fried green plantains, dressed with curtido and a creamy pink salsa. A national comfort plate.

Take a forkful — crisp fried chicken, a shatter of golden plantain underneath, tangy-crunchy cabbage curtido on top, and a swipe of creamy pink sauce. Bite: the chicken juicy and seasoned with lime and cumin, the plantain crisp and faintly sweet, the curtido sharp and acidic, the sauce cool and creamy. A messy, joyful pile — the Honduran cantina classic.

Slicing green (unripe) plantains thin and frying them gives crisp, savory chips rather than sweet maduros. The acidic curtido and cool pink sauce cut through the double richness of fried plantain and fried chicken, balancing the plate.

Variations

With fried pork (chuleta) instead of chicken. With ripe sweet plantain. With refried beans on the side. With a fried egg. 'Tajadas con todo' loaded. With chimol (fresh salsa).

On the Palate

Where Pollo con Tajadas sits in the Honduran flavor cloud

Cook to learn

Use green (unripe) plantains and slice them thin — fried this way they crisp into savory chips, whereas ripe plantains would go soft and sweet and miss the point.

Techniques

Deep Frying Marinating

Ingredients

Serves 4

How it's made

8 steps · 40 min active + 20 min waiting

1
32 min
Marinate 8 chicken pieces in lime, garlic, cumin, salt, and pepper 30 min.
2
10 min
Shred 1/2 cabbage and 1 carrot; toss with vinegar, lime, and salt for curtido; rest.
3
8 min
Peel 3 green plantains and slice thinly lengthwise into long tajadas.
4
12 min
Fry the plantain slices in hot oil until golden and crisp; drain and salt.
Watch out
The tajadas are done when golden and crisp with no bendy give — lift them out and salt right away.
5
4 min
Dredge the chicken lightly in seasoned flour.
6
15 min
Fry the chicken in hot oil 12-15 min until deep golden and cooked through.
Watch out
Deep golden and cooked through means the juices run clear at the bone — 12-15 min at a proper frying heat.
7
2 min
Mix mayonnaise with a little ketchup and mustard for the pink sauce.
8
3 min
Plate plantains, top with chicken and curtido, and drizzle with pink sauce.