Honduran Fried Chicken | Pollo Chuco | Pollo con Tajadas

Pollo chuco or pollo con tajadas is a great way to eat fried chicken. It's colorful, rich, and loaded with tons of different flavors and textures.

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 20

Total Time 50

Course Main Course

Cuisine Honduran

Servings 4 people

Calories 668 kcal

6 6 lemons' juice (to "wash" the chicken before marinating)
2 pounds of chicken pieces with skin and bone (I used breast and legs)
2 tbsps of mustard
2 tbsps of chicken flavor bouillon diluted in about 1.5 cups of warm water
Vegetable oil for frying
1 cup of wheat flour for breading chicken
1 green plantain, peeled and cut into slices, which is then fried in vegetable oil.

¼ cup of mayonnaise
1 tbsp of mustard
1.5 tbsps of ketchup
2 tbsps of whole milk (depending on how you prefer the consistency you can add one more tablespoon)

Put your chicken in a bowl and clean it with lemon juice. Some people say it's good to remove bacteria from it, while others say it's good for the taste. In any case, it's part of the traditional process of making pollo con tajadas.
After you rinse the chicken, discard the liquid, and let's start with the marinade.
Add mustard, white vinegar, and chicken flavor bouillon dissolved in warm water. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, we’ll prepare the rest of the ingredients.

To cut the cabbage you can use a trick I learned online, using a potato peeler as if you are peeling the cabbage. You can do it the traditional way too, using a knife to get thin slices.
Shred carrots and them to the mix. Then, season with salt and cumin, followed by white vinegar.
Leave the coleslaw aside while we make the chismol or pico de gallo.

Dice green chiles, white onions, and tomatoes.
Put them in a bowl, and add chopped cilantro or culantro. Then add cumin, salt, and finish with lemon juice.

This special sauce is quite simple, but it's essential for Honduran fried chicken.
To make the sauce, mix mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, and milk. Depending on your preference, you can use more or less milk, to have a thicker or lighter sauce.

The dish has a bed made of plantain chips. If you've read Latino recipes before, you'll know that choosing plantains can be confusing. For this recipe use green "platano macho" or green "guineo".
It's very important that it has green skin and it's hard.
To peel it more easily follow the lines in its skin and with the back-side of a spoon lift the skin, little by little.
Cut the plantain slices diagonally so they're long.
Before frying the plantains, the chicken might be ready, so check your time.

Pour flour in a platter to bread the chicken.
Using your hands grab each piece of chicken and cover it with flour. Then, put the chicken piece in a grid, to let the flour stick a bit more.
Heat vegetable oil in a pan and add the plantain slices carefully, one by one.
At the same time, in a separate cooking pot with hot oil fry the chicken.
When plantains get a brownish color take them out of the pan and put them on a paper towel to remove the excess oil.
The chicken will take longer than plantain chips, but once you see it's brown, take it out of the pot and use a paper towel too.

Now let’s put our special dish together, the "pollo chuco".
First, make a generous and delicious base with a bed of plantains. Cover the base with coleslaw, then add chismol, and fried chicken on top.
To decorate and add a punch of flavor add the pickled onions and decorate with salsita.

Keyword Honduran fried chicken, Pollo chuco, Pollo con tajadas