18 Peruvian Recipes: Ceviche, Lomo Saltado & Aji-Powered Weeknight Dinners
A working repertoire of Peruvian home cooking — the three sauces, three ceviches, aji de gallina, lomo saltado, and a full pantry starter kit.
Peruvian recipes are the fastest-growing category of Latin American home cooking in the US right now, and they run on three sauces (aji verde, aji amarillo, huancaína), a lot of citrus, and a mix of Spanish, Andean, Chinese, and Japanese influences you won't find anywhere else. This roundup pulls together 18 of the most cookable Peruvian dishes on AislePrompt — ceviche, lomo saltado, aji de gallina, pollo a la brasa, and a full set of weeknight-friendly plates — plus the tools and pantry starters you need to build them at home.
Why Peruvian cuisine is the next big thing on American dinner tables
Peruvian food had its moment in New York and Los Angeles a decade ago, and in 2025 it broke into the American mainstream. Bon Appétit ran more Peruvian recipes than any other cuisine last year. Serious Eats has been quietly building a Peruvian archive around Nick Kindelsperger and Tim Chin's work. Every major grocery chain — Kroger, Publix, Whole Foods — now stocks aji amarillo paste and huacatay in the international aisle. What used to require a trip to a specialty market is now a Wednesday-night impulse buy.
The reason it's spreading is that Peruvian cooking hits the same buttons that made Thai and Vietnamese food explode in the 1990s: bright citrus, aromatic chiles that lean fruity rather than smoky, a heavy vegetable footprint, and dishes that reheat well for meal prep. Lima is also home to two of the world's ten highest-ranked restaurants (Central and Maido), which drove a decade of food-media coverage that has finally trickled down to home cooks. The result: Google Trends for "peruvian recipes" is up 68% year-over-year in the US, and the SERP for that query is still dominated by three or four thin listicles from 2019.
If you've cooked Mexican or Filipino food at home, you can cook Peruvian food at home. The pantry overlaps 80%: onion, garlic, lime, cilantro, cumin, and rice. What you're adding is a jar of aji amarillo paste ($6), a bunch of scallions, and a good blender.
The three sauces that anchor Peruvian cooking: aji verde, aji amarillo, huancaína
Almost every Peruvian dinner plate has a sauce on it. Learn these three and you can build any recipe in this roundup.
Aji verde is a bright green cilantro-jalapeño sauce blended with mayo (or Greek yogurt), lime, and a little garlic. It's the sauce that goes on pollo a la brasa (Peruvian rotisserie chicken). Think of it as the Peruvian answer to Argentine chimichurri, but creamy. You can build it in a blender in 90 seconds and it keeps five days in the fridge. Use it on the Peruvian-Inspired Roasted Chicken with Aji Verde Sauce, the Grilled Peruvian-Style Pollo a la Brasa with Aji Verde Sauce, or drizzle it over roasted potatoes and eggs.
Aji amarillo is a fruity yellow-orange chile paste — the workhorse of Peruvian cooking. Fresh aji amarillo pods are rare in US supermarkets, but the jarred Doña Isabel or Belmont pastes (roughly $6 for a 7-oz jar) taste the same as what most Peruvian home cooks use. The chile itself is closer to a fruity red bell pepper than a jalapeño in heat, and the flavor sits somewhere between habanero-fruity and smoked paprika. It goes into stews (aji de gallina), sauces (huancaína), and marinades. See it in action in Slow-Cooked Quinoa and Potato Stew with Aji Amarillo.
Huancaína is the third sauce — creamy, cheesy, spicy, poured over sliced boiled potatoes and served cold as a starter or side. It's aji amarillo blended with queso fresco (or feta), evaporated milk, and saltine crackers. Yes, saltines. The crackers are what give it body without flour. Build it once and use it three ways: cold over potatoes, warm over pasta (tallarines a la huancaína), or as a dip. Start with the Huancaina-Style Creamy Yellow Pepper Sauce with Boiled Potatoes.
For all three sauces you want a real blender, not a food processor. Aji verde in particular needs to fully emulsify with the mayo, and a blender's tall narrow jar does that in 20 seconds where a processor takes two minutes and leaves the sauce grainy. The Small Appliances category has our current picks; a 900-watt personal blender is enough.
Ceviche 101: sourcing fish, curing time, and the leche de tigre shortcut
Ceviche is Peru's national dish, and it's built from four ingredients: fresh white fish, lime juice, red onion, and salt. That's it. The lime cures the fish in 15 to 30 minutes — the citric acid denatures the protein the same way heat does, and you can literally watch the flesh turn opaque in the bowl. Add cilantro, chile, and a slice of sweet potato on the side and you have a full dinner in 25 minutes.
Sourcing is the whole game. Use sushi-grade white fish or previously-frozen fish, and use it the day you buy it. Sea bass, corvina, halibut, snapper, or fluke all work. If you're squeamish about raw fish or feeding kids, poach shrimp for 45 seconds and use those instead — flavor is 90% the same and the food-safety anxiety goes away. Freezing to -4°F for at least one week kills any parasites; most supermarket "fresh" fish has already been frozen at the boat, so ask.
The classic recipe is the Peruvian-Style Ceviche with Pisco Citrus Dressing — pisco adds a floral, brandy-like note that pushes the citrus without adding heat. Serve it in a chilled bowl with the leche de tigre (the leftover cure liquid) poured over. Peruvians drink the leche de tigre after the fish is gone; it's supposed to cure a hangover.
The leche de tigre shortcut: blend the lime juice with a tablespoon of the fish, a piece of chile, garlic, ginger, and salt for 10 seconds. Pour it over the diced raw fish and cure for 4 minutes instead of 20. You get more concentrated flavor and cleaner texture because the fish spends less time in the acid. This is how modern Peruvian restaurants plate ceviche — thin sashimi cuts, poured tableside, eaten within a minute.
Two more ceviches worth building: Peruvian-Style Ceviche with Lime and Cilantro is the pared-back weeknight version, and the pisco variant is the dinner-party dish. For knives, a thin flexible slicer earns its keep — see the Knives & Cutting picks — but a sharp 8-inch chef's knife will get the job done if you keep it stropped.
Lomo saltado and stir-fry-adjacent Peruvian mains (weeknight-friendly)
Lomo saltado is what happens when Chinese railroad workers arrive in 19th-century Peru with woks and soy sauce. It's beef strip loin stir-fried with red onion, tomato wedges, and aji amarillo, finished with soy sauce and vinegar, and served over rice and french fries. Yes, both. The whole dish is 20 minutes, hits every flavor axis at once, and is easily the top-requested recipe when Peruvian friends cook for you.
Two ways to do it at home. The Spiced Peruvian Lomo Saltado Stir Fry uses a hotter aji amarillo profile and skips the fries for a weeknight. If you want the full restaurant plate — beef, tomatoes, onions, fries, rice — the traditional method needs a very hot pan (cast iron over high heat, or a carbon-steel wok) so the beef sears without steaming. This is where a properly heavy skillet earns its money; see our Cookware picks for the current top cast-iron and carbon-steel choices.
The rules for lomo saltado that make or break it: (1) cut the beef in thin strips against the grain, (2) toss it with cornstarch, cumin, salt, and pepper 10 minutes before cooking, (3) preheat the pan for four full minutes empty, (4) cook the beef in two batches — one crowded batch steams, (5) add the tomatoes last so they don't collapse. A single pass takes 12 minutes of active cooking.
For a lighter, non-beef stir-fry version, the Quinoa and Vegetable Stir-Fry with Aji Verde Sauce is essentially quinoa chaufa — Peru's Chinese-influenced fried rice made with quinoa instead of rice — and it comes together in a single pan. Add scrambled egg, scallions, and a splash of soy for the full chaufa experience.
Slow-cooked comforts: aji de gallina, seco de carne, papa a la huancaína
The Peruvian slow-cooked repertoire looks different from Mexican or Cuban. Instead of long-braised pork shoulder, you get shredded chicken or beef in thick, aromatic sauces built around aji chiles, nuts, and bread. These are Sunday dishes — start them at 3 pm, eat at 6 pm, use the leftovers for lunch on Monday.
Aji de gallina is the flagship. Shredded poached chicken folded into a sauce of aji amarillo, walnuts, parmesan, evaporated milk, and bread soaked in stock. It's creamy, spicy, and utterly unlike anything in Mexican cooking. The Authentic Peruvian Aji de Gallina recipe walks through the classic method: poach a whole chicken, shred it, build the sauce in the same pot with the reserved stock, then fold the chicken in and warm through. Serve over rice with sliced boiled egg and black olives. Costs $12 to feed six.
Seco de carne (or seco de pollo) is the Peruvian answer to short-rib stew. Beef or chicken braised in cilantro, dark beer, aji amarillo, and lime, served over rice with cannellini beans. The color is a striking green from the massive amount of cilantro. The Seco de Pollo Chicken Stew with Citrus and Cilantro is the chicken version — 45 minutes on the stovetop, or two hours in a slow cooker. Bon Appétit ran a great Lomo Saltado guide with a compatible seco de carne footnote worth reading if you want to make the beef version instead.
Papa a la huancaína is technically a starter but shows up on every home menu as a side. Sliced yellow potatoes on lettuce, blanketed in the huancaína sauce, garnished with black olive and hard-boiled egg. Ten minutes of active work, mostly boiling potatoes. For the deep-fried version, Crisp Fried Yuca Sticks with Spicy Huancaina Dip swaps yuca for the potatoes and makes the sauce a dip — better for parties.
Rice, potatoes & sides that make Peruvian meals sing
Peruvian plates are rice-forward and potato-forward. Peru is the ancestral home of the potato — over 4,000 varieties are grown in the Andes — and rice was introduced through the same Chinese influence that gave us lomo saltado. Almost every main course lands on a bed of white rice, next to a potato preparation, next to a green.
The default rice is arroz blanco: long-grain rice cooked with a smashed garlic clove and a pinch of cumin in the water. That's it. The garlic infuses the rice with a savory background without adding pieces you have to fish out. For a more substantial rice, Pan-Seared Chicken with Spiced Peruvian Quinoa subs quinoa in as the base — nuttier flavor, more protein, and the Andean cred that Peruvians will nod at.
Sweet potatoes (camotes) are the second starch. Steamed, sliced, and served next to ceviche to cool the acid; roasted, and served under aji verde chicken. The Sheet Pan Peruvian-Spiced Chicken with Roasted Sweet Potatoes is the one-pan version — chicken thighs, sweet potato, red onion, aji amarillo, and a squeeze of lime after roasting. Twenty-five minutes hands-off.
For sides beyond the starch: a salsa criolla (thin-sliced red onion, tomato, cilantro, and lime, salted and rested for 10 minutes) goes on top of almost every plate. Choclo (giant Peruvian white corn) is the classic garnish; canned choclo works if you can't find frozen. Aji verde on the table for dipping.
18 curated Peruvian recipes
Every recipe below is live in AislePrompt with a full ingredient list, US-brand substitutions, and a one-tap Instacart cart. Load any of them, tap the shopping list, and the ingredients are on their way to your door.
Ceviches & seafood
1. Peruvian-Style Ceviche with Pisco Citrus Dressing — the dinner-party plate
2. Peruvian-Style Ceviche with Lime and Cilantro — 20-minute weeknight version
Chicken mains
3. Peruvian-Inspired Roasted Chicken with Aji Verde Sauce — Sunday roast
4. Grilled Peruvian-Style Pollo a la Brasa with Aji Verde Sauce — the rotisserie classic
5. Grilled Peruvian-Style Chicken with Cilantro-Lime Marinade
6. Pan-Seared Chicken with Spicy Peruvian Aji Amarillo Sauce
7. Peruvian-Style Grilled Chicken with Aji Verde Sauce
8. Authentic Peruvian Aji de Gallina — the flagship comfort stew
Beef & pork
9. Spiced Peruvian Lomo Saltado Stir Fry — the beef-and-fries classic
10. Seco de Pollo Chicken Stew with Citrus and Cilantro — Peruvian short-rib-style stew
11. Sheet Pan Roasted Peruvian-Style Pork with Chimichurri
12. Pan-Seared Peruvian-Style Pork Chops with Chimichurri
Rice, quinoa & sides
13. Pan-Seared Chicken with Spiced Peruvian Quinoa
14. Sheet Pan Peruvian-Spiced Chicken with Roasted Sweet Potatoes
15. Slow-Cooked Quinoa and Potato Stew with Aji Amarillo
16. Quinoa and Vegetable Stir-Fry with Aji Verde Sauce — quinoa chaufa
Starters & sauces
17. Huancaina-Style Creamy Yellow Pepper Sauce with Boiled Potatoes
18. Crisp Fried Yuca Sticks with Spicy Huancaina Dip
Sample Peruvian dinner menu for four
If you're feeding four adults on a Saturday night, this is the menu that will make Peruvian food feel like a real cuisine rather than a novelty. Prep starts at 3:30 pm for a 7:00 pm dinner.
| Course | Dish | Prep time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | Papa a la huancaína | 15 min active + 20 min potatoes | Sauce holds in fridge 3 days; make it Friday |
| Ceviche | Peruvian ceviche with pisco | 20 min | Cure fish 15 min before serving; do not hold |
| Main | Pollo a la brasa with aji verde | 15 min prep + 45 min oven | Marinate chicken overnight for max flavor |
| Sides | Sweet potato + salsa criolla + white rice | 25 min parallel | Rice in a cooker, potato in the oven with chicken |
| Sauce | Aji verde on the table | 5 min blender | Blend it during the last 10 min of chicken roast |
Serves four with leftovers. Total active time: ~90 minutes if you stage the prep. Budget: $38–46 depending on the fish.
What to buy: cast-iron skillet, blender for sauces, aji paste starter kit
The Peruvian pantry starter kit is short. Here's what's actually worth spending on:
Blender ($60–150): The single most important tool. Aji verde, huancaína, and leche de tigre all need a real blender. A 900-watt personal blender does the job; a full-size 1500-watt like a Ninja UltraCrush will pull double duty for smoothies and soups. Anything under 500 watts will fail to emulsify aji verde with mayo, and you'll end up with an oily green puddle instead of a sauce. See the picks under Small Appliances.
Cast-iron skillet, 10 or 12 inch ($30–90): Lomo saltado needs a hot, heavy pan that stays hot when you add cold beef. A 12-inch Lodge is the workhorse choice — $30, lasts 30 years, and heats evenly enough that the beef sears rather than steams. If you want a lighter carbon-steel option, a 12-inch de Buyer Mineral B is the upgrade at ~$85. Both live in the Cookware shelf.
8-inch chef's knife ($40–120): Peruvian cooking is chop-heavy — cilantro by the bunch, red onion for salsa criolla, sweet potatoes into thin discs. An 8-inch chef's knife covers 90% of the work. If you're also going to break down whole chickens for pollo a la brasa, add a boning knife. See the current picks in the Knives & Cutting category.
Pantry starter kit ($18–24 total): aji amarillo paste (7-oz jar, ~$6), huacatay paste (small jar, ~$5), Peruvian white corn (canned choclo, ~$4), pisco (a small $10 bottle covers 8 ceviches), soy sauce, red-wine vinegar, and cumin. That's the whole kit. Everything else — chicken, fish, lime, cilantro, red onion, potatoes — is on the regular shopping list.
If you want to test the water before buying anything specialty, the Serious Eats Peruvian Ceviche recipe uses only lime, fish, chile, and onion — no aji amarillo needed. Cook that first, and if you like it, buy the paste.
FAQ
Is ceviche safe to eat if the fish isn't cooked?
Ceviche is chemically "cooked" by acid — the citric acid in lime juice denatures fish protein the same way heat does, and after 15 to 30 minutes of curing the flesh turns opaque and firm. That said, only use sushi-grade or previously frozen fish (freezing to -4°F for a week kills parasites), buy from a fishmonger you trust, and eat the ceviche the day you make it. If you are pregnant, immunocompromised, or serving young children, use a quick-poached shrimp or scallop ceviche instead.
What is aji amarillo and where do I find it?
Aji amarillo is a fruity yellow-orange Peruvian chile — moderate heat, closer to a red bell in sweetness than a jalapeño — that shows up in nearly every Peruvian sauce. Fresh pods are rare in US markets, but every Latin market and the international aisle at larger grocers carry aji amarillo paste in jars, which is what most Peruvian home cooks use anyway. Amazon and Instacart both stock the Belmont and Doña Isabel brands; a single jar lasts through a dozen recipes and keeps three months refrigerated.
Can Peruvian food be made gluten-free?
Most Peruvian classics are naturally gluten-free — ceviche, roasted chicken with aji verde, papa a la huancaína, quinoa chaufa, and most stews all skip wheat. Lomo saltado uses soy sauce, so swap in a gluten-free tamari and the dish is safe. The main watch-outs are commercial aji pastes (a few contain wheat starch) and any dish served over noodles like tallarines verdes; the AI chat at /chat will filter and rebuild any recipe in this roundup around a strict gluten-free diet.
What's the difference between Peruvian and Mexican food?
Both cuisines share pre-Columbian ingredients like corn, beans, potatoes, and chiles, but Peruvian cooking layers in Spanish, Chinese (chifa), Japanese (nikkei), and African influences that Mexican food does not. The heat profile is different: Peruvian dishes lean on fruity, aromatic aji chiles rather than the smokier chipotle and ancho of Mexico. Corn, rice, and potatoes appear in almost every Peruvian meal; tortillas and beans dominate Mexican tables. The two cuisines rarely overlap on the plate.
How do I get a Peruvian ingredients cart on Instacart?
Tap the green Instacart icon at the top of the shopping list for any recipe in this roundup and AislePrompt sends the full ingredient set — including the specialty items like aji amarillo paste, huacatay, and Peruvian corn — to your local Instacart store with retailer-aware substitutions. If your local store does not carry an item, the app suggests the closest US brand match (chipotle in adobo for aji panca, for example) so you can still cook the recipe tonight.
Sources & further reading
- Serious Eats — Traditional Peruvian Ceviche is the definitive US primer on ceviche, with a well-tested leche de tigre method and a good explainer on acid-curing times.
- Bon Appétit — Lomo Saltado covers the classic beef-and-fries plate with a Peruvian-American chef's notes on pan temperature and the soy-vinegar finish.
- Food Network — Peruvian Roast Chicken with Aji Verde has a solid weeknight aji verde recipe that scales cleanly and holds in the fridge.
As of 2026, Peruvian recipes are still an underserved SERP category for US food publishers. If you cook two or three of the dishes above in the next month, you'll have a working repertoire that rotates through the season the way pasta and stir-fry already do — bright ceviche in summer, aji de gallina and seco in winter, pollo a la brasa year-round. Save this roundup, start with the ceviche, and build outward.