Does Lomo Saltado Need Chicken? (All You Need to Know)

Are you looking to make Lomo Saltado and want to know if it needs chicken?

Maybe you have seen others add chicken to Lomo Saltado and want to know if you need to add chicken?

Or are you curious and want to know more? No matter what your reason might be, we are here with the answers for you! 

Knowing how to cook Lomo Saltado can be tricky, especially if you have never cooked it before.

You can quickly find yourself overwhelmed, searching through recipe after recipe, never finding the answers you need.

Frustrated and disappointed, you wonder if you will ever know if Lomo Saltado needs chicken. 

Well, no more! Today, we are here with the answers for you!

Keep reading to find out if Lomo Saltado needs chicken and everything else you need to know about this tasty dish! We have all the answers below, so be sure to stick with us! 

What Is Lomo Saltado?

Before we dive into today’s article, let’s have a quick recap for those that need it. Lomo Saltado is a traditional Peruvian dish.

The stir fry typically contains onions, tomatoes, french fries, and marinated strips of beef steak (usually sirloin).

The vegetables and meat are usually fried with soy sauce and a mix of spices. You can expect parsley, chili, cumin, black pepper, and oregano to be added to the dish.

Of course, the seasoning can be adjusted to suit your preferences. This dish can be as mild or spicy as you like! 

Lomo Saltado is often served with french fries and rice. The fries tend to be homemade, but you can always purchase frozen ones to be cooked in the oven or fryer if you prefer! 

Although it is a traditional Peruvian dish, the stir fry has Chinese elements.

This is because it originated as part of the chifa tradition, known as the Chinese cuisine of Peru. Thanks to how popular the dish is, it has become part of mainstream culture.

You can expect the dish to be made at restaurants and family homes across the country. The dish has also become popular outside of Peru too, with many of us looking to recreate the dish ourselves. 

Now that we have established what Lomo Saltado is, let’s move on to see if it needs chicken. 

Does Lomo Saltado Need Chicken?

Typically, no, Lomo Saltado does not need chicken. Lomo Saltado is typically prepared with marinated cuts of sirloin steak.

You can use other cuts of beef steak if you prefer, but traditionally sirloin is used. The cuts are also marinated in soy sauce and spices to help deliver a wonderful taste to the dish! 

We recommend using a reduced-salt soy sauce to help keep the salt content of the dish relatively low. 

Although beef is used in Lomo Saltado, there are Peruvian stir-fries that use chicken. The most popular is Pollo Saltado.

This is essentially the chicken version of Lomo Saltado, where chicken is used instead of beef. It is still served with french fries and rice, often using the same vegetables and spices too. 

Pollo Saltado is often considered a cheaper alternative too, as chicken tends to be cheaper to purchase than sirloin or other steak cuts.

The recipes typically call for skinless chicken breast which can be purchased at an affordable price from butchers or grocery stores. You could use other cuts if you prefer to! 

We have seen Pollo Saltado made with chicken thighs or even shredded rotisserie chicken! You must buy the cut of meat that you enjoy. What’s the point in cooking a dish if you won’t enjoy it?

So, while you can add chicken to your Peruvian stir fry, it’s important to note that the dish would no longer be Lomo Saltado.

Instead, you would be making a Pollo Saltado! You could also add both cuts of meat to the dish if you wanted, making your own hybrid Peruvian stir fry! 

How Do I Make Lomo Saltado?

Now that we have established that chicken does not go in Lomo Saltado, let’s look at how you can make this tasty steak-based dish!

We have a full list of ingredients below and a recipe you can follow, so keep reading to check it out! 

Ingredients 

For the dish, you will need the following (to serve four)

• 18 oz of sirloin steak (cut into cubes or strips)
• 2 tomatoes (chopped) 
• 1 red onion (chopped) 
• 11 oz f thick potato slices 
• 20 oz of cooked white rice 
• 1 chili pepper with seeds removed 
• Cilantro leaves 
• ½ cup of beef stock 
• 4 tbsp soy sauce 
• 4 tbsp plain vinegar 
• 1 tsp garlic paste 
• ¼ tsp oregano 
• 1 tsp black pepper 
• 1 tsp cumin
• Salt to taste 
• 1 tbsp olive oil 

Once you have your ingredients, you can start cooking! 

How To Make Lomo Saltado 

Below is a step-by-step guide you can follow to make Lomo Saltado for four people. 

1. Heat a large pan with some oil and fry your potato slices. Once cooked, set them aside. 
2. Cube or cut your sirloin into strips. Make a marinade using salt, black pepper, cumin, vinegar, olive oil, and soy sauce. Leave the steak to marinade for at least 10 minutes before cooking, 
3. Add a tablespoon of oil to your pan on high heat. Strain your steak strips and add them to the pan. Fry on high heat for roughly four to five minutes. 
4. Add your vegetables (except tomatoes) to the pan and fry for another minute. Once fried, add your beef stock.
5. Add your tomatoes and fry for another thirty seconds. Then add your oregano and french fries. Toss everything together. 
6. Serve immediately with your white rice. Take some cilantro leaves to decorate your plate with. 

There you have it! How easy is Lomo Saltado to make? You can adjust this to suit your tastes too if you wish. If you want to make the dish milder, we recommend using half a chili instead of a whole one. 

You can also adjust the salt content too if you want to make the dish a low-salt one. You can use a reduced-salt soy sauce if you prefer.

This helps to reduce the saltiness of the marinade without compromising on taste. You can also marinade the steak for less time, which helps to reduce the salty taste. 

Alternatively, you can leave the marinade for longer.

You might want to make the marinade the night before, or you can leave the steak in the fridge for several hours to soak up the flavors of the soy sauce and spices.

Just remember that doing so will increase the cooking time of the dish! 

If you follow the instructions above, you can have this dish ready in a few minutes. It’s the perfect stir fry to tuck into after a long day at work! 

Final Thoughts

And there you have it! Lomo Saltado does not need chicken as it is made with strips of marinated sirloin steak. You can add chicken if you want, but that would be a Pollo Saltado instead of a Lomo Saltado.

Either way, you are sure to enjoy this tasty Peruvian dish!