Salchipapas with Sweet Potato Fries

Salchipapas is a Peruvian dish (or Ecuadorian or Colombian dish, depending on, you know, who's talking).  It is a street food that consists of fried potatoes and sliced hot dogs.  As simple as it is, it's delicious!  Hard to meet a Peruvian who doesn't love salchipapas.

I had some leftover hot dogs to work with and my Boston Organics box had brought in 3 sweet potatoes, so I decided to experiment by trying to substitute the normal potato-fries with sweet-potato fries in the salchipapas.  I also decided to bake the sweet potatoes instead of frying them, to be a *little* bit healthier, and also to warm up the apartment since it started snowing today! (Wtf?!)

So the big chore here was really baking the sweet potato fries.  Then I fried up the hot dogs, whipped up a sauce (basically ketchup, mayo and a dollop of sriracha), and improvised salchipapas!  Oh yeah, you also need plenty of salt and seasoning.

Ingredients:

3 sweet potatoes, thinly sliced (approx a quarter inch by 3 inches; basically, keep it thin)
Olive oil
Salt, paprika, cayenne, oregano, salt
Hot dogs
Ketchup
Mayo

The Sweet Potato Fries (the "papas" part)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  After chopping the sweet potato up into thin slices, toss in a bowl with olive oil, salt, and spices (cayenne, paprika, oregano, salt, and whatever else you think would go well -- I like plenty of paprika).  Make sure to add plenty of oil and salt.

Place fries on a thin layer on a baking sheet, lined with aluminum foil.  Since the fries must be in one layer, you may need two baking sheets (or cook them in turn).  The less they touch each other, the crispier they'll get; but it's hard to get sweet potato fries particularly crispy.  (On the other hand, I overcooked one batch that definitely burned to a crisp, so beware if you dare to find the perfect crispy sweet potato fry.)

Put in oven and let bake for about 10 minutes.  Check in on it and turn the sweet potato fries.  The thinner you slice the potatoes, the quicker they will cook.  I like them very thin and had to be careful not to burn them.  If you like them thicker, try upping the temperature to 400-425 degrees.  But keep an eye on them and keep turning.  The total baking time should be closer to 20 minutes, but it may be less, depending on how thinly cut the fries are. 

When the fries are fully baked, lay them on a plate with a paper towel to soak up the grease and begin working on the hot dogs.  Transfer the fries to a large bowl.

The Hot Dogs (the "salchi" part)

Cut the hot dogs into thirds or quarters.  On each open end, slice in a cross about half an inch deep.  The edges from the cross will expand when the pieces heat up.  This "flare" is essential to bonafide salchipapas (but then again, sweet potato fries are antithetical to bonafide salchipapas, so do as you will).

Once sliced, fry up the hot dogs on low heat.  When fully fried, transfer the hot dogs to the bowl containing the sweet potato fries.  No salchipapas is complete without a sauce.  Even with the most sophisticated sauces, it's hard to beat out le ketchup.  If, in addition to le ketchup, you add a dollop of mayonnaise and sriracha, it's downright fancy.  Stir it all together to taste.  And done! (If you hate ketchup, you can do the same thing with le mustard, or, if you can get your hands on it, some real Peruvian Ají.) 

Chicken Paprikash

This dish makes me think of my best friend from childhood, Claire.  Her family happens to have Hungarian roots, which may or may not be why they made it all the time.  But they definitely had the dish perfected.  And I probably had the dish with them at least 20 times over the years.  It feels like that may be an exaggeration, but in all seriousness, I think it was around that many times.  I am by all means a paprikash amateur, and this did not come close to the paprikash wonders experienced at Claire's house over my formative years, but it didn't come out half bad, either.  I got the base for this recipe from Simply Recipes, but there are a ton of great paprikash recipes floating around out there, with all kinds of variations that I want to try.  I like to up the amount garlic and spices in a recipe, usually.  Almost as a rule.

You start with thinly sliced onions (2-3 depending on size).  Add a couple tablespoons of paprika, a dash of cayenne, a dash of salt, and some water (I put in about half a cup).  Mix it all up in a baking pan.

Add pieces of chicken to the onions in the baking pan.  Use about three pounds of chicken.  I used a chicken cut up into pieces (with skin and bones and all).  Next time I might try using chicken filets.  This was delicious, but it might be a little less fatty without the skin (but also less tasty).  If I need a shortcut in the future, I might try using leftover chicken (and just use chicken broth in the onion mix), since cold meat is easier and less painful to shred.

Prepare the chicken by rubbing garlic (one or two cloves) and butter over the pieces.  If using skin, rub it under the skin as well.

Once the chicken is on the bed of onions, stick it in the oven.  You can also cook it on the stovetop, but I prefer the oven.  Cook it at around 350-400 degrees for 40 min-1 hour (I just used a meat thermometer to check when it was done). 

Once the chicken is done, remove the pieces to a separate plate and cut it off the bone and into smaller pieces.  If you used a chicken with skin and bones, take the fat off from the top of the onion bed.  Then add some more water or stock to the onion bed (again, only a little bit).  Put the baking pan on the stove top and bring to a boil.  Add a little bit more salt, paprika.  Then add a couple tablespoons of sour cream.  Stir.

That's it.  Serve up the chicken and pour the sauce over it.  Voila, chicken paprikash.
I steamed up a head of broccoli (sprinkled with cheese) as a side dish. 

 

It made for a pretty dinner. 

 And plenty of leftovers for tomorrow!