Chicken and Plantain Fries From Montañita!

Pollo Frito con papas fritas, or fried chicken with fries. These are a pretty cheap option, with only a few easily sourced ingredients, this comfort food is pretty easy to make.

You'll Need:

1. Chicken, we used the variety pack that had half of a whole chicken in it

2. 2 eggs

3. 1 Cup Flour

4. Salt

5. 1 TB Pepper

6. Potatoes

7. Freshwater (For soaking the potatoes)

To start, peel and cut the potatoes into fry-sized slices. The thinner you cut the fries, the less time it will take to cook and the more likely to be crispy. The thicker you cut them, the longer you will need to cook them and have a softer center. Then submerge them in a bowl of cold water for at least 30mins.

While the potatoes are soaking, cut the chicken into smaller biteable pieces, I left the leg and wing with bone-in and deboned the rest, but whatever way you want to cut it is fine.

Once the potatoes have finished soaking, dry them thoroughly, and put them into a pan of preheated oil. Medium-high on my gas stove works well, but it'll depend on what temperature your stovetop puts out.

Once the fries have cooked for 3 to 4 minutes pull them out and put them in a paper towel-lined bowl. (These are cut about a cm in thickness and they should not be done at this point; they'll be cooked again).

After the fries have been fried for the first time, you can start prepping the chicken.

Crack the two eggs in a bowl and mix them until fully blended.

In another bowl put the flour, 1TB pepper, and 1TB salt; mix well. How much pepper and salt is a matter of taste, but it's better to underdo it than overdo it, it's easy to add more later if needed.

Depending on how much chicken you will be cooking will influence the amount as well. What we are cooking is just half of a chicken so a full chicken could be double the amount.

Take the chicken pieces and coat them with egg first and then the flour mixture.

Pop the chicken into the oil at medium-high heat and cook until the inside is no longer pink, and the outside is golden brown.

As soon as the chicken finishes up, add the fries back into the fryer and cook until crispy, before putting into a towel-lined bowl. Salt fries immediately, and the meal is ready to serve.

Don't these look so good? You can always coat them again and pop them back in the frying for a little longer!

Potatoes are not hard to find here, but not as cheap and easy to find as plantains. We discovered that green plantains make some amazing alternatives to fries and could go great with any meal.