Peruvian Street Food – Salchipapas
Posted on | May 12, 2010 | 11 Comments
- Image by Todo nada via Flickr
As McDonalds, KFC and Burger King become more and more ubiquitous throughout Lima, my kids favorite fast food is still the original Peruvian fast food – salchipapas.
Salchipapa gets its name from the ingredients – salchicha (hot dog) and papa (potato). The potatoes are sliced up home fry style, and fried in oil. The hot dogs are sliced in thin, diagonal slices and also fried, then served on top of the potatoes.
The dish comes with a variety of sauces, usually ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard, and frequently with some type of aji or spicy pepper sauce. Salchipapa ‘especial’ has a fried egg on top. There’s also a variation called ‘choripapas’ that’s made using chorizo instead of hot dogs.
You know how when you go to a fast food joint, they always have a kid’s meal – that’s how salchipapas got started. As far as I can tell, they are the original ‘kid’s meal’ at the pollerias – restaurants that serve the Peruvian pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken). But the best way to eat them is from little paper cones from street vendors, with all the sauces dumped on top, and everything’s a big mess. I think messy food always tastes the best.
They’re very easy to make at home, of course, and make a great ‘lonche’ for the boys in the evenings. I asked 13 year old Chino if there’s anything else I should say about salchipapas, and he said to tell you ‘son ricos’ – they’re delicious. 
And if you’d like a recipe for salchipapa sauce, try Golf Sauce.
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11 Responses to “Peruvian Street Food – Salchipapas”
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I got tired of life happening while I made other plans, so I quit my job and came to Peru. I live here with my Peruvian husband, two sons, three dogs and various other family members, depending on the weather.
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May 19th, 2010 @ 19:55
Kelly, I remember my first salchipapas in Peru. It was in 1975, the first year Salchipapas started showing up as a new ‘fast food’. We’ve just watched a movie and saw a Food Cart outside with lots of people in line. There were selling Salchipapas, served in a small paper box, with a toothpick and you could ask for different dipping sauces: Aji, Huancaina or Ocopa Sauce, Tartar (weird?), Mayo and typically mustard (Peruvians did not eat then Ketchup as much as mustard with their French Fries).
I’ve got hooked. The flavor and smell of fried ‘salchichas’ is delicious!
May 19th, 2010 @ 20:11
I’d like them better if they had a better quality hot dog – but throw enough creams on there, and I’ll eat it anyway.
June 14th, 2010 @ 13:26
Looks awesome! I am going to have to make them at home. I love Peru!
August 2nd, 2010 @ 11:27
[...] I wrote a couple weeks ago about salchipapas, I started getting a lot of readers looking for the recipe. I was wondering to myself why [...]
May 14th, 2011 @ 15:47
I loved to read your experience in Peru about the Salchipapas, my kids like a lot salchipapas especialy the weekends, it is easy to make and delicious.
December 27th, 2011 @ 18:20
Hi, I love salchipapas since I was a kid. I remember that we used to eat them with many sauces not just ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, etc. We had special sauces like aceituna, huancaina, huacatay, etc. Very delicious.
Nice blog
April 17th, 2012 @ 02:58
Oh how i miss salchipapas!!!! There was a vender that we used to buy from all the time when I was there, he has a purple sauce….I think it was mayo and black olives mixed. That was the best sauce ever. YUM!
May 16th, 2012 @ 16:39
Yes, my husband loves that aceituna (black olive) sauce on his salchipapas, but none of the rest of us do. I think he gets it just so he won’t have to share his food!
May 30th, 2012 @ 07:19
Hi! I usually do this at home though I use fries! :0) My dip is usually made of tomato ketchup, chili, mayo, and mustard or cheese spread. Yummy!
May 30th, 2012 @ 13:49
I mix mayo, ketchup and Louisiana hot sauce for mine.
July 10th, 2012 @ 13:51
I like mine with fried onoins and peppers in it.