Recipe · Main course · Lima and criolla cooking, Chifa
Lomo saltado
Beef stir-fried over a high heat with red onion, tomato, ají amarillo, soy sauce and vinegar, served with chips and rice. Serves four, step by step.
- Serves 4
- About 50 minutes (estimate)
- Intermediate
Beef seared in a wok, crisp red onion, tomato, soy sauce and vinegar, with chips and rice: lomo saltado is one of the most widely eaten dishes in Peru, and a good summary of its history.
A criollo dish, a Chinese technique
According to Wikipedia, lomo saltado is both a dish of criollo cooking and a chifa classic: stir-frying over a high heat in a wok, soy sauce (sillao) and onion come from Lima’s Chinese cooks, the chips and rice from the criollo table. PROMPERÚ’s recipe keeps the essentials: meat seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin and vinegar, seared for 3 to 4 minutes, then the onion and tomato, the sillao, the chips and the rice.
The heat, the first difficulty
A domestic burner gets much less hot than a restaurant wok. Three ways round it: very dry meat, a pan heated for a long time, and cooking in several batches, so that the pan does not cool down. Three small, browned batches are better than one big batch that boils.
The order of preparation
The stir-fry takes less than ten minutes: it is done last. The rice is cooked first, then the chips, and everything must be cut and measured before you turn on the wok.
Our version
The active time shown includes the rice and the chips. Prepare everything before turning on the heat: the stir-fry itself only takes a few minutes.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Estimated preparation time
- Active time
- 45 minutes, rice and chips included
- Cooking
- 20 minutes for the rice, 15 to 20 minutes for the chips, 8 minutes of stir-frying
- Total
- About 50 minutes
Techniques: Stir-frying over high heat, Frying.
To serve
Tick off the ingredients as you go: the boxes are remembered on this device.
Useful equipment
- A wok or large steel frying pan (at least 28 cm)
- A saucepan for the rice
- A deep fryer or an oven tray
- Kitchen paper
Method
- Start the rice first: cooked covered for 15 to 20 minutes, it will wait in the warm. Cut the potatoes into chips and cook them (deep fryer in two batches, or oven at 220 °C for 25 minutes, turning them), then keep them warm.
- Meanwhile, dry the strips of beef with kitchen paper: wet meat boils instead of browning. Season them with pepper and cumin.
- Get everything ready by the hob: onion, tomato, ají, garlic, and the soy sauce mixed with the vinegar in a bowl.
- Heat the wok over the highest heat with a spoonful of oil, until it smokes slightly. Sear the beef in three batches, 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds per batch, without stirring it for the first few seconds: it should brown on the outside and stay pink. Set aside on a clean plate.
- Add more oil, stir-fry the onion and the ají for 1 minute: the onion should stay crisp. Add the garlic for 20 seconds.
- Add the tomatoes and the soy-vinegar mixture: 30 seconds, just to heat them without them falling apart.
- Return the beef and its juices, mix for 30 seconds over a high heat, taste and add salt only if needed. Sprinkle with coriander.
- Serve straight away, with the rice and the chips, on the side or mixed into the stir-fry at the last moment.
Signs of success
- The beef is browned on the outside and tender; if it is sitting in grey juice, the pan was not hot enough or was overloaded.
- The onion keeps some crunch and the tomato its shape: it is a stir-fry, not a stew.
- A small amount of glossy sauce coats everything, with no pool at the bottom of the plate.
Precautions
- A wok of very hot oil: keep children away, dry the meat and vegetables well to avoid spattering.
- A clean plate for the seared beef: not the one that held the raw meat.
Allergens identified
Present: soy. Possible: gluten (often present in soy sauce).
Only add salt after tasting: the soy sauce is already salty.
Always check the labels of the products you buy (sauces, stocks, chilli pastes).
Variations and tips
- Tallarín saltado: the same stir-fry mixed with Chinese noodles, instead of the chips and rice.
- Saltado de pollo: with strips of chicken, cooked through.
- Some cooks flambé the stir-fry with pisco; it is not essential and it is risky in a home kitchen.
Reasonable substitutions
- Less tender beef (flank, chuck): cut it very thinly, against the grain; it will stay firmer.
- Oven chips rather than deep-fried: less crisp, easier to organise.
Storage
- Lomo saltado is eaten straight away: reheated, the beef toughens and the chips go soft. Leftovers: in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen.
- Rice: cooled within an hour of cooking, kept in the fridge, eaten within 24 hours, reheated only once to 70 °C at the core for 2 minutes.
Going further
Sources and dates
2 sources
Prices, opening hours and rules change: every piece of information cited links to its source, with the date it was consulted.
Figures and rules cited
- in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen: Cooling and keeping cooked leftovers (United Kingdom) . The same source asks you to thaw food in the fridge and to eat thawed food within 24 hours.
Official source: GOV.UK (Food Standards Agency), cooling, freezing and defrosting food safely (18 December 2017) (new tab) , published on 18 December 2017 · consulted on 3 October 2026 - cooled within an hour of cooking, kept in the fridge, eaten within 24 hours, reheated only once to 70 °C at the core for 2 minutes: Storing cooked rice (United Kingdom)
Official source: NHS, starchy foods and carbohydrates (reviewed on 15 March 2023) (new tab) , published on 15 March 2023 · consulted on 3 October 2026
Sources consulted
- PROMPERÚ, recipe for lomo saltado (beef marinated in vinegar and cumin, sillao, 3 to 4 minutes in the wok) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
- Wikipedia (Spanish), Lomo saltado (criollo and chifa dish, Chinese influence) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
How we choose and date our information: our method. Has something changed? Let us know.