Yuca Fries or Yuca Frita is a delicious dish popular in Latin American cuisine. In Colombia it's serve as aside dish or appetizer.
Yuca Frita is a very popular dish in Colombia and Latin America. This dish is served by just about every typical Colombian Restaurant in the world.
Yuca Fries are made with cassava a starchy vegetable popular in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. It's a wonderful ingredient to to mash, boil or fry. It can be use the same way you use potatoes.
Ingredients You'll Need
The printable recipe card with exact amounts and cooking directions is below
Yuca: Also known as cassava can be found at your local supermarket at the international aisle. You can use fresh or frozen yuca to make this recipe.
Oil: You can use vegetable, canola or corn oil to fry the yuca.
Salt: To add flavor to the yuca fries.
How to Make Yuca Fries
- In a large pot cover the yuca with water, add salt and bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low and cook about 15 to 20 minutes or until is tender.
- Remove the yuca from the water and pat dry with paper towels. Cut the cooked yuca into ½ – inch strips.
- Fill a large frying pan with enough vegetable oil to 350° F. When the oil is hot, place the yuca into the heated oil carefully. Fry them until golden brown on both sides about 6 to 8 minutes.
- Remove the yuca pieces from the oil using a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and serve.
How to Serve Yuca Fries
I like to serve them as an appetizer with salsa rosada or your favorite dipping sauce. Fried Yuca is also a delicious side dish for grilled meats, poultry and seafood.
Some main dishes to serve with yuca fries are whole fried fish, fish with creole sauce and stuffed meatloaf.
You can customize fried yuca in so many ways by adding different spices, like cumin, paprika or chili powder.
More Yuca Recipes
Yuca Balls Stuffed with Cheese
Cassava with Chorizo and Cheese Sauce
Fried Yuca Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Lb fresh or frozen yuca cassava
- Vegetable oil
- ½ tablespoon salt
Instructions
- In a large pot cover the yuca with water, add salt and bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low and cook about 15 to 20 minutes or until is tender.
- Remove the yuca from the water and pat dry with paper towels. Cut the cooked yuca into ½ – inch strips.
- Fill a large frying pan with enough vegetable oil to 350° F. When the oil is hot, place the yuca into the heated oil carefully. Fry them until golden brown on both sides about 6 to 8 minutes.
- Remove the yuca pieces from the oil using a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and serve.
Smokeydoke
I had some at the farmer's market the other day. Delicious. Can't wait to try it at hom.
Erica
yuca frita makes a great change in the traditional potato fries!
Alan Bowman
They are certainly much better for flavour and have a much lower fat content.
HK Lam
Very much like how we eat them in South East Asia. In Thailand, the cassava are steamed and sweet syrup made of sugar and coconut cream are poured over.
J Van Allen
I had this when I was on a missions Trip to Zambia last summer, I bought a large chunk (about a foot long) with about a half a cup of peanuts for 1000K (at the time about 30 cents Canadian) I had it on a couple of occasions like this and many times after it had been dried, grinded into a powder then made into almost like thick mashed potatoes and eaten with anything they had on hand
I have been craving this for months now, now that I have the recipe I jsut need to see if I can get my hands on some Cassava and I wil be set (I live in a small town so it will be difficult to find, but eventually I will manage)
Thank you for this recipe, it is exactly what I was looking for
Rose Maitland
Thank you, I have always enjoyed yuccatan at Polo Tropical in Florida, I am about to try it. In jamaica, "bammy" is usually made from cassava. Cassava is really eaten in its natural form.
shabina
I am from manchester and wanted to know where I can buy cassava from I had it once in a restraunt ion london where it was made just like this recipe. it was really nice, since then i have been on the look out for it, any ideas?
Anonymous
Asda and indiani supermakets
Laura
Thank you for the recipe! I made it tonight and it was a big hit. My son kept asking for more salty fries! YUMMY!!!!!!!
Angela
Me dieron ganas de yuca!! que rico... suerte que tengo un paquetico en la nevera. 🙂
Gracias!!!
Peru Delights
This recipe is almost identical to Peruvian fried yucca, but we love to serve these with any spicy sauce, being huancaína, aji amarillo, rocoto, or the like. Never thought about salsa Golf, which we use for shrimp or fish fritters... Oh, I´m so hungry!
Sherry
Can you share those sauce recipes with me, please?! Thank you.
claudia brunie
Thank you,thank you...I have been looking for Colombian recipes all over,but none compare to yours.Brings me back to when I used to live in Medellín during my Bachillerato years. Memories of family friends and delicious food. Now I have the recipes.Thank you
Maria
Do you have to boil them first even if you buy the Yuca frozen?
thanks so much for this recipe.. can't wait to try it out 🙂
Jorge
The best result is boiling them first. We lived in the Llanos Orientales and had a farm just outside Villavicencio. My dad had yucca, plantain, topocho (rulo plantain), watermelons, vegetables and fruit trees (best one was Manzana Brasileña -rose apple).
We just got down to the yucca plants, pulled one. Washed, peel, cut 2" long, then in 4 (like a + symbol), washed/dry it, and fried. It's quick and easy, but doesn't compare to boiled/fried yucca. This recipe makes it soft inside/crusty outside. Perfect. Fried only it's too hard inside.
Jorge
By the way, when you see the yucca (peeled off), if you see some dark or green lines, avoid it. It's not good. It tastes a little bad, and it's going to have hard spots.
Javier
Awesome! Just a import tip you should really avoid vegetable oil. Vegetable oils are Loaded With Trans Fats. These fats are highly toxic and are associated with an increased risk of various diseases, like heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. Our family uses lard or avocado oil.
Dollye Schroyer
What is yucca. I know it as a plant we use in landscaping and gets a white flowers. I never knew you ate it.
Mike
Common misspelling, but it's Yuca, not Yucca.
Yuca is the same as tapioca, manioc, mandioca, cassava... it goes by a lot of different names.
Yucca, on the other hand, is that plant with the spikey leaves and white flowers often used in landscaping. It's not edible.
Deb
I have been growing it and selling the plants in tropical north Australia. I have the yellow variety which is absolutey delicious.