[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":408},["ShallowReactive",2],{"recipe:salvadoran-yuca-con-chicharron":3,"recipe:country:el-salvador":183},{"slug":4,"title":5,"nativeName":6,"pronunciation":7,"countrySlug":8,"region":9,"emoji":10,"summary":11,"intro":12,"story":13,"whyThis":14,"tips":19,"substitutions":26,"variations":39,"serveWith":49,"storage":51,"faq":52,"equipment":68,"baseServings":72,"prepMinutes":73,"cookMinutes":74,"difficulty":75,"course":76,"diet":79,"mainIngredients":82,"ingredients":87,"instructions":137,"nutrition":158,"images":165,"keywords":175,"publishedAt":181,"updatedAt":181,"authorSlug":182},"salvadoran-yuca-con-chicharron","Yuca con Chicharrón (Cassava with Fried Pork)","Yuca con chicharrón","YOO-kah kon chee-chah-RRON","el-salvador","Nationwide, especially town fairs","🐖","Chunks of cassava, boiled soft or fried gold, buried under crackling pork and vinegary curtido, then flooded with thin tomato salsa and eaten off a banana leaf with your fingers.","Yuca con chicharrón is a plate of contrasts assembled in about thirty seconds: starchy cassava underneath, salty fried pork on top, sharp curtido over that, and a ladle of thin, watery tomato salsa poured over everything so it seeps down through the layers. The cassava can be boiled — soft, faintly sweet, slightly waxy — or deep-fried into golden wedges with a shattering crust, and Salvadorans argue about which is correct. The pork is cooked slowly in its own fat until the outside crackles. There is no cutlery involved and no plate in the formal sense; the traditional serving vessel is a square of banana leaf.","This is fairground and festival food. It turns up wherever Salvadorans gather outdoors — town patron-saint fiestas, football matches, the roadside stands on the way to the lake at Coatepeque — sold by women working two pots at once, one of simmering cassava and one of pork bubbling in its own rendered fat. Cassava is one of the oldest cultivated staples in the Americas and predates the arrival of pigs by thousands of years, so the dish as it exists now is a genuinely colonial hybrid: an indigenous root vegetable married to a Spanish-introduced animal, tied together by a slaw that owes its vinegar to Europe and its cabbage to nobody in particular.\n\nThe boiled-versus-fried question splits the country in a friendly way. Yuca salcochada, boiled, is the older and more common version, and its supporters argue that soft cassava soaks up the salsa properly, which is the whole point. Yuca frita is the treat version, cut into wedges and dropped in hot fat until blistered, and it is what most stands sell at fairs because it survives being carried around. Some vendors hedge by serving both on the same leaf.\n\nWhat never varies is the salsa. Salvadoran tomato salsa for yuca is deliberately thin — barely more than blended and simmered tomato with onion, a little oregano and salt, closer to a warm juice than a sauce — because it has to run down into the cassava and season it from the inside. Visitors expecting something thick and spicy are usually confused by it for about a minute and then understand. Alongside it sits pepesca, tiny whole dried fish fried until brittle, which many stands offer instead of or alongside the pork, and which locals eat bones and all.",[15,16,17,18],"Cooks the pork the traditional way, confit-style in its own rendered fat, so the meat stays juicy under a crackling exterior.","Gives the boiled and fried cassava methods side by side, with the doneness signs for each.","Keeps the tomato salsa deliberately thin, which is what makes the plate work rather than a mistake to be corrected.","Warns about the woody core and any bitterness in cassava — the two things that ruin this dish for first-time cooks.",[20,21,22,23,24,25],"Always peel cassava thickly. The pinkish layer under the bark-like skin is where most of the bitterness sits, and it never softens.","Split each peeled piece lengthways and pull out the tough central fibre before cooking; it stays stringy no matter how long you boil.","Boiled cassava is ready when a knife slides in with no resistance but the piece still holds its shape. Push it further and it disintegrates into the water.","For frying, dry the boiled cassava thoroughly and let it steam off for five minutes before it hits the oil, or it will spit violently.","Render the pork belly slowly, starting in a cold pan with a splash of water. Fat that comes out gently leaves crisp skin; fat forced out over high heat leaves it tough.","Make the salsa thin enough to pour from a jug. If it clings to the spoon, let it down with water — it is meant to soak, not to coat.",[27,31,35],{"original":28,"swap":29,"note":30},"Fresh cassava root","Frozen peeled cassava chunks","Frozen cassava is genuinely good, already peeled and cored, and often better than tired fresh roots. Boil it straight from frozen.",{"original":32,"swap":33,"note":34},"Pork belly for chicharrón","Pork shoulder cut into cubes, or ready-made chicharrones from a Latin grocer","Shoulder gives meatier, less fatty chunks — closer to the chicharrón used in pupusa filling than the crackling slabs sold at fairs.",{"original":36,"swap":37,"note":38},"Pepesca (dried whole fish)","Crisp-fried whitebait or small anchovies","A common alternative topping. Fry until brittle enough to eat whole, salt heavily and pile on with the pork.",[40,43,46],{"name":41,"description":42},"Yuca frita","Cassava boiled until just tender, dried, then deep-fried into blistered gold wedges. The fairground version, and the one that travels best in a paper cone.",{"name":44,"description":45},"Yuca con pepesca","Topped with tiny whole dried fish fried until they shatter, instead of pork. Salty, oceanic and eaten bones and all.",{"name":47,"description":48},"Yuca salcochada sencilla","The meat-free everyday plate: boiled cassava with curtido and salsa only, sold as a cheap afternoon snack.",[50],"Curtido, a jug of thin tomato salsa, and cold beer or a tamarind refresco.","Cooked cassava keeps 3 days refrigerated but goes hard and chalky when cold — revive it by steaming or by frying the pieces in a little oil until the edges gold again. Chicharrón is best the day it is made; refrigerated pieces lose their crackle and need 8 minutes in a hot oven or air fryer to come back. The tomato salsa keeps 4 days chilled and the curtido keeps for weeks. Freezing boiled cassava works well; freezing fried cassava does not.",[53,56,59,62,65],{"question":54,"answer":55},"Is cassava safe to eat, and why does everyone warn about it?","The warnings apply to raw cassava, which contains cyanogenic compounds that break down with peeling and thorough cooking. Sweet cassava — the kind sold in supermarkets for eating — is safe once peeled thickly and boiled until soft. Never eat it raw or undercooked, and discard any piece that tastes noticeably bitter or has grey or black streaks running through the flesh.",{"question":57,"answer":58},"Should the cassava be boiled or fried?","Both are traditional and Salvadorans disagree. Boiled cassava, yuca salcochada, is the older everyday version and absorbs the tomato salsa better. Fried cassava is the fairground treat, crisp outside and fluffy inside. If you fry it, boil it first until just tender, then dry it well before it goes into the oil.",{"question":60,"answer":61},"Why is my cassava still hard in the middle after boiling?","Either the pieces were too large or the root was old. Cassava cooks unevenly, so cut it into chunks no longer than 8 cm and test each one separately with a knife tip. Roots that have been sitting for a week develop hard patches that never soften, which is why frozen peeled cassava is often the more reliable option.",{"question":63,"answer":64},"Why is the tomato salsa so watery?","On purpose. Salvadoran salsa for yuca is barely thicker than tomato juice because its job is to run down into the cassava and season it from the inside, not to sit on top. If yours is thick enough to coat a spoon, thin it with water until it pours freely from a jug.",{"question":66,"answer":67},"Can I make the pork ahead of time?","Render and cook the pork up to two days ahead and keep it refrigerated in its own fat, which preserves it well. Crisp it in a hot dry pan or a very hot oven just before serving so the exterior crackles again. Assembled plates do not hold — the salsa turns the crackling soft within minutes.",[69,70,71],"Large pot for boiling","Heavy frying pan or Dutch oven","Blender for the salsa",4,25,75,"medium",[77,78],"main","street-food",[80,81],"gluten-free","dairy-free",[83,84,85,86],"cassava","pork-belly","tomato","cabbage",[88,93,97,102,107,112,116,119,123,127,130,133],{"ref":83,"qty":89,"unit":90,"name":91,"group":92},1,"kg","cassava root, peeled thickly and cored","For the yuca",{"qty":94,"unit":95,"name":96,"group":92},2,"tsp","salt, for the cooking water",{"ref":98,"qty":99,"unit":100,"name":101,"group":92},"garlic",3,"clove","garlic cloves, smashed",{"ref":84,"qty":103,"unit":104,"name":105,"group":106},700,"g","pork belly, skin on, in 4 cm chunks","For the chicharrón",{"qty":108,"unit":109,"name":110,"noScale":111,"group":106},200,"ml","water, to start the rendering",true,{"ref":113,"qty":89,"unit":114,"name":115,"group":106},"lime","piece","lime, juiced",{"qty":117,"unit":95,"name":118,"group":106},1.5,"coarse salt",{"ref":85,"qty":120,"unit":104,"name":121,"group":122},600,"ripe tomatoes","For the salsa",{"ref":124,"qty":125,"unit":114,"name":126,"group":122},"onion",0.5,"small onion",{"ref":128,"qty":89,"unit":95,"name":129,"group":122},"oregano","dried oregano",{"qty":131,"unit":109,"name":132,"group":122},150,"water, to thin the salsa",{"ref":86,"qty":134,"unit":104,"name":135,"group":136},300,"curtido (fermented cabbage slaw), drained","To serve",[138,143,147,152,155],{"title":139,"text":140,"timerSeconds":141,"tip":142},"Prepare and boil the cassava","Peel the cassava down past the pink underlayer, split each piece lengthways and pull out the woody central fibre. Cut into 8 cm chunks and boil in well-salted water with the garlic for 20–30 minutes, until a knife tip slides in with no resistance but the pieces still hold together.",1500,"Test every piece separately — cassava cooks unevenly and one stubborn chunk can sit ten minutes behind the rest.",{"title":144,"text":145,"timerSeconds":146},"Start the pork gently","Toss {qty:pork-belly} of pork belly with the lime juice and salt, then put it in a cold heavy pan with the water. Bring to a simmer and cook uncovered over medium heat until the water has gone and the pork sits in a shallow pool of its own clear rendered fat, about 30 minutes.",1800,{"title":148,"text":149,"timerSeconds":150,"tip":151},"Crisp the chicharrón","Turn the heat up and fry the pork in its own fat for 10–15 minutes, turning the pieces, until the skin blisters and crackles and the meat is deep mahogany at the edges. Lift onto paper and salt again while hot.",900,"It will spit hard once the water is gone — use a splatter guard and stand back.",{"title":153,"text":154},"Make the thin salsa","Blend the tomatoes with the onion until smooth, then simmer with the oregano and a good pinch of salt for 8 minutes. Let it down with the water until it pours freely from a jug — it should be barely thicker than tomato juice.",{"title":156,"text":157},"Assemble on the leaf","Lay the drained cassava on a banana leaf or a wide plate, heap the chicharrón over it, and pile a generous handful of curtido on top. Pour over a full ladle of the warm salsa so it runs down through all three layers, and eat with your fingers while everything is still hot.",{"calories":159,"protein":160,"carbs":161,"fat":162,"fiber":163,"sodium":164,"estimated":111},780,27,62,48,6,960,[166,169,171,173],{"src":167,"alt":168},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fsalvadoran-yuca-con-chicharron\u002Fhero.jpg","Boiled cassava chunks topped with crackling fried pork and curtido on a banana leaf, tomato salsa poured over",{"src":170,"alt":168},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fsalvadoran-yuca-con-chicharron\u002Fhero-16x9.jpg",{"src":172,"alt":168},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fsalvadoran-yuca-con-chicharron\u002Fhero-4x3.jpg",{"src":174,"alt":168},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fsalvadoran-yuca-con-chicharron\u002Fhero-1x1.jpg",[176,83,177,178,179,180],"yuca con chicharron","fried pork","salvadoran street food","curtido","banana 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stew","panela",{"slug":291,"title":292,"nativeName":293,"countrySlug":8,"region":189,"baseServings":163,"prepMinutes":219,"cookMinutes":191,"restMinutes":269,"difficulty":192,"course":294,"diet":296,"mainIngredients":297,"images":300,"keywords":304,"publishedAt":181,"updatedAt":181,"authorSlug":182},"salvadoran-horchata-de-morro","Horchata de Morro (Toasted Morro Seed Drink)","Horchata de morro",[295],"drink",[197,198,80,81],[278,298,200,299,251],"cocoa","peanuts",[301],{"src":302,"alt":303},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fsalvadoran-horchata-de-morro\u002Fhero.jpg","Tall glass of Salvadoran horchata de morro, opaque nutty brown drink over ice with a cinnamon stick",[305,306,307,308,309,310],"horchata de morro","salvadoran drink","morro seeds","toasted seed drink","cacao","agua 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