El Pollo Inka’s most popular entree, Lomo Saltado, is a Peruvian dish with sliced steak, onions, tomatoes, fries and cilantro topped with spicy green aji sauce and brown rice.
Lomo Saltado is the most popular dish at a small restaurant chain in our old neighborhood in Los Angeles called El Pollo Inka. They’ve attained a sort of cult following for their amazing food, most notably the amazing Lomo Saltado with Aji Sauce. The beef is tender, the veggies are still crisp and very flavorful, the fries are delicious and that sauce… is just amazing.
Lomo signifies it is steak, but there are also chicken and seafood variations of the dish. Any opportunities we get to go back to LA, we make sure to stop and get a few orders and a large extra side of their delicious, spicy, green aji sauce. Since those trips are few and far in between I have been experimenting with making this delicious dish at home. After four tries…. success!
To make french fries, peel and cut russet potatoes.
Soak them in water for as long as you can. I soaked mine for a couple of hours.
This takes the starch out and allows them to be crispier. Drain, dry and fry.
Season the beef with salt and pepper.
Add soy sauce, vinegar, beef stock and cumin in a bowl together.
Put a pan over very high heat.
Add oil and on very high heat cook half the meat, brown on one side, flip over and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
Remove meat and repeat with second half.
Stir in the onion and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and cook for just a minute. The tomatoes should hold their shape.
Stir in soy sauce mixture.
Add salt and pepper to taste
Turn off the heat, toss with french fries
Add chopped cilantro, green onion and serve with some Perfect Brown Rice and aji sauce.
To make aji sauce, add all ingredients to the food processor and combine until completely smooth. Let sit for a few hours in the fridge if you can. The sauce will begin to separate after a few days, so don’t make too much at once.
Ingredients
- 1 lb sirloin steak , cut in thin slices
- salt and pepper for the meat
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 small red onion , cut in thick slices
- 3 plum tomatoes , cut in thick slices
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1/3 cup beef stock
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- salt and pepper for the cooked meal , before cilantro and fries
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro , coarsely chopped
- 2 green onions , sliced tip to tail [minus the root]
- 2 cups french fries , freshly fried
Aji Sauce
- 1/2 head Iceberg Lettuce , washed, torn and dried
- 1 jalapeno , stem cut off [for less spice, de-seed and de-vein]
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 lemon , juiced
- 1/2 bunch cilantro leaves
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- To make french fries, peel and cut russet potatoes.
- Soak them in water for as long as you can. I soaked mine for a couple of hours.
- This takes the starch out and allows them to be crispier. Drain, dry and fry.
- Season the beef with salt and pepper.
- Add soy sauce, vinegar, beef stock and cumin in a bowl together.
- Put a pan over very high heat.
- Add oil and on very high heat cook half the meat, brown on one side, flip over and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- Remove meat and repeat with second half.
- Stir in the onion and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and cook for just a minute. The tomatoes should hold their shape.
- Stir in soy sauce mixture.
- Add salt and pepper to taste
- Turn off the heat, toss with french fries
- Add chopped cilantro, green onion and serve with brown rice and aji sauce
- To make aji sauce, add the iceberg lettuce, jalapeno, mayonnaise, lemon juice, ½ head of cilantro and ¼ teaspoon salt to the food processor and combine until completely smooth. Let sit for a few hours in the fridge if you can. The sauce will begin to separate after a few days, so don't make too much at once.
Nutrition
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Great recipe, very authentic, been making it for years now!
Thank you Yesenia and thanks so much for the five star review!
Made this recipe and my family loved it
My husband is very picky and he said this is a perfect match to the restaurant. Only comment is that it feeds more like 3 than 6. Just a snack size portion left and its just the 2 of us
My husband has been on several mission trips to work at an orphanage in Peru. He kept talking about this amazing green sauce. I found this recipe one day when doing international dishes as a school assignment with my boys. I decided to give it a try. It has become a family favorite and my husband says it needs to go on a weekly rotation. As soon as he tasted the Aji Sauce he commented that that was it and they had it on everything down there! I have made this several times and my oldest son comes home to get some whenever I make it. It is very delicious! Thank you for sharing!
We love it too.
I have been making this recipe for years! My family always goes crazy for it and it’s always gone in a flash. I also use my wok and make double the amount of the soy sauce mixture because I love how it seeps into the rice and fries!! So good!
Have you tried to copy El Pollo Inka’s Vanitas Pollo?
Oh that looks amazing on the menu. Unfortunately I am not local to EPI anymore 🙁
Amazing!!! So different, everyone loved it!! Thank you for the recipe 🙂
Omg it turned out to be delicious…Thank you so much for this yummy recipe. ?
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
I just made it, it was delicious. We used the wok on the charcoal grill. No changes, but I prefer white rice instead of brown rice. I am keeping this recipe, the sauce was pretty good.
Thanks for the 5 stars, Yoli.
Such a good recipe! I’ve tried to make several other recipes for salsa aji and this has been the best one so far. My Peruvian SO approved! Now we don’t have to drive 30+ mins all the time to our favorite Peruvian restaurant lol!
Thanks so much for coming back to let me know, Diana.
I’m sure this is probably obvious to the more experienced cook/chef, but I’m a novice and I’m not clear on the instructions for step #5 as it seems to relate also to step #11 … in step #5, do you “add” the soy sauce, white vinegar, beef stock and cumin in a bowl WITH the meat, OR keep it separate and only add to the meat as it indicates in step #11 after the tomatoes?
You just want to put those ingredients into a bowl to have ready for when you need the soy sauce mixture. The meat is browned on it’s own (no sauce). Hope this clears things up. Enjoy!
Keeper dinner, fast easy. Frozen french fries in air fryer, back off on salt. Skip the rice side go for a salad with the Aji sauce as dressing
Im peruvian, and lived many years in LA. many times an “El Pollo Inca”, almost weekly, first of all because I´m friend of the family owners, but also to dance “Marinera” McDonald’s Big Mac Sauce national dance of Perú. I´m a cheff, so I have certain changes in the recepy.
The cut of the onion is very especial; only the tree outer layers of the onion, in triangles; the tomatoes are peeled first, and added last; the vinegar used is some dark, and some ligh vinegars; the soy sauce in low sodium; the amount of cuming is Wright; besides, some tomato paste is added and cornstach to make the sauce thick. The fries are no mixed with the saltado, instead are added on the side, so they are not soaked. Finally, I do not use sirloin (which is customary), instead, I use clean Chuck steaks which is flatened with a pond, and then cut in stripes, This provides a lot more flavor; and then, the Green sauce in not make with lettuce; instead use cilantro and “wacatay” (black basil), ají amarillo, and some ricota cheese. Beside theese, the recepy is great.
Do you mind making a guide would definitely like to compare. I am learning.
Hola, amigo mío. Siento haberte molestado, pero he estado intentando encontrar la receta tanto para el pollo a la brasca como para el aji verde durante años. Ya no vivo en California y El Pollo Inka era donde mi padre y yo iremos juntos y es muy especial para mí. Me doy cuenta de que es mucho pedir, pero ¿está dispuesto a decirme las recetas exactas? Significaría mucho para mí y traer muchos recuerdos buenos.
También estoy usando Google para traducir, así que me disculpo por cualquier desafío del idioma. ¡ gracias por tu tiempo!
Gracias por comunicarse conmigo, pero no tengo recetas para ninguno de esos en mi sitio. Permítanme agregarlos a mi lista de investigación y ver qué puedo encontrar.
También estoy usando el traductor de Google, así que espero que esto tenga sentido.
Great Recipe. It was so easy to follow and so precise. I’m not even an experience cook and I made this for a family gathering and everyone loved it ! Thank you !!
I’m glad you decided to give it a try and loved it!
Great recipe! I loved it. Note that you need to reduce the sauce for a minute or two once you add it to the pan – if your wok is hot, this should be no problem.
Lomo Saltado/Pollo Saltado, are definitely on my favorite dish”es” list.
I have not made this dish yet, (Since i wasn’t even looking for it, but it found me!!!) But I know its going to be all that I have dreamed of!!! Making my own Saltado!!! Finally!!!
I am an Iron chef (In my “own” mind) and its guidance like this, that will help me Beat Bobby Flay one day!!! 🙂
Who said just browsing the internet is not healthy!
Thank you Sabrina!!! I have a feeling I will be spending more time in the kitchen.
Love it!!
How many potatoes should we use (or how many did you use) for this dish’s french fries?
Fantastic recipe. This was better than the lomo saltado I ate in Peru. Gracias!
Do you have any other recipes from El Pollo Inka? They made a spicy creamy seafood dish with white rice that is AMAZING ! and also the Papa a la Huancaina! Thank you! This one was very good. I don’t live close to Pollo Inka anymore, but still crave these dishes.
This is the only one I have on the site so far. I will definitely have to work on some more! So glad there’s a fellow fan of it out there!
Another “knock it out of the park” recipe! Thank you!
You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed it!!
SO so so so so delicious!!! We loved this! Our first time making Lomo Saltado and it was a success! We will make it AGAIN! The reason I picked this recipe over others was because it had ingredients we knew we could find at our grocery store! Thanks so much!
Aw, thanks for coming back to let me know! I’m so happy you liked it!
Love ?? it, my family loved it and said was better than Pollo Inka, we don’t live close to pollo inka anymore but were craving for their food, thank you! thank you! for this recipe ?
I really love this recipe. I bravely doubled the recipe and made it for the first time for a dinner party, and it was a big hit. One question though: my version turned out a bit “soupy” and therefore, the fries got soggy. Should I not have doubled the amount of broth/soy/vinegar mix when I doubled the meat?
It sounds like there was a bit too much liquid. You don’t necessarily need to double the sauce ingredients next time, but also if you have it soupy in the future you can always add a small cornstarch slurry to it to thicken up before adding the fries. 🙂 Hope this helps and thanks for the feedback!
Hi Sabrina-
Have you tried this recipe with chicken or seafood? What would substitute the beef stock in that case?
I haven’t tried with chicken or seafood. If you went chicken, I’d sub chicken broth. Let me know if you switch up the proteins and how it turns out.
How long do you cook the meat for?
You want to brown the meat on both sides, typically 2-3 minutes per side on high heat. Make sure to cook in 2 batches, crowding the pan will extend cooking times and make the meat cook unevenly.
So delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
You’re welcome Reese.
Amazing!!! This was phenomenal and greatly reminded me of our dinners at Pollo Inka years ago! Thank you!
I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Divina. Thanks for the 5 stars.
Hi, just wanted to make sure…am I supposed to marinate meat in the soy sauce mixture or does that simply go in at the point mentioned in recipe? Thank you. Can’t wait to give it a whirl.
No need to marinate the meat. You’ll just want to add the soy sauce mixture once it’s all cooked (step 11). Hope this clears it up for you. Enjoy!
Ok, we have been known to drive out of our comfort zone in search of yummy Lomo Saltado. I’m happy to know I no longer have to. This is it right here. If you’re in search of an authentic recipe with tons of flavor, then you’ve come to the right place. Thanks a bunch for sharing! I had attempted to make it once thinking, “how hard can this be” but came short on the sauce and didn’t remove starch from potatoes. Appreciate this detailed version of yours. Thank you again!
Thank you so much!
This was amazing!!! I can’t wait to make it again tonight.
Thanks for coming back to let me know. So glad you enjoyed it!
Great recipe. However, 2 teaspoons of cumin is way too much. I think 1/2 teaspoon is all you need. I also added the cooked meat at the end, since it did not specify when to do it. Moreover, I added 2 garlic cloves mince after the onion. 1 Tbls of aji amarillo paste and cilantro at the end.
Thank you so much for the recipe… Great starting point for a delicious lomo.
Note: way too much cumin
Made this and it was amazing !! Thanks
I have made my own for several years and it was good. Then I found this recipe and I’ve made it many times. It’s perfect! The ratios are just right. Always comes out delicious! Thank you
Thanks for dropping by to let me know! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Between step 8 and step 9, does all of the meat go back in the pan before the onion is added, or does the second half of the meat get removed then added back later?
So sorry for the confusion. You can add all the meat back into the pan before adding the onion. I just didn’t want your pan to be overcrowded when browning the sirloin, that’s why you’ll do it in 2 batches. You want to get a nice crust on it. Hope this helps!
We loved it! Made it tonight for dinner.
I wish I made 2lbs of steak instead of 1lb because it’s already done :(. Even my picky eater children wanted more!
That’s what I call a definite family winner!! Thanks for coming back to let me know how much you all enjoyed it!
I recently traveled to Peru and had a lot of lomo saltado. This recipe is very authentic!
Thanks, Jeff!
Made this last night. Incredible!!! Added poblano and red peppers. Yummy! Will make this a lot!
What are the ingredients for the AJI sauce? You said to make the sauce add all ingredients, but I don’t see the list of what you are using.
The ingredients are listed out in the recipe card. 🙂
Add the iceberg lettuce, jalapeno, mayonnaise, lemon juice, 1/2 head of cilantro and 1/4 teaspoon salt to the food processor and combine until completely smooth. Let sit for a few hours in the fridge if you can. The sauce will begin to separate after a few days, so don’t make too much at once.
Everything was spot on. But it’s actually made with parsley not cilantro. Just a heads up. Been making this dish since I can remember.
My husband is Peruvian and this is the best lomo saltado recipe (and now my go to recipe) that I’ve been able to find that taste like authentic Peruvian lomo saltado. The flavors are amazing!
That’s a huge compliment! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know!!
This looks wonderful! I tasted a dish similar to this at a local grocery store. Can I make it in the crockpot with a cheaper cut of meat?
I’m not really sure this would work so I probably wouldn’t recommend it. You’re not going to want to put the fries in a slow cooker because they won’t crisp up and I’m not sure the other flavors will come through either. Overall, I think the texture would suffer. Sorry.