22 Peruvian Recipes: Ceviche, Lomo Saltado & Aji Amarillo Classics at Home

One jar of aji amarillo paste unlocks the whole cuisine — here's what to cook first, and the 10-minute ceviche cure that separates good from chalky.

Peruvian cooking is easier to pull off on a Tuesday than most people expect. Three dishes carry the whole cuisine at home — ceviche (raw fish "cooked" in lime for 10 minutes), lomo saltado (a soy-and-vinegar beef stir-fry served over rice and fries), and pollo a la brasa (spice-rubbed roast chicken with green sauce). Buy one jar of aji amarillo paste and you can cook all three.

The Peruvian pantry: what to buy once

Peru's kitchen spans coast, Andes, and Amazon, and Peruvian cuisine borrows freely from Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, West African, and Italian immigrants. That sounds intimidating. It isn't — the entire flavor system rests on six ingredients, and four of them are already in your kitchen.

Aji amarillo is the only non-negotiable. It's a Capsicum baccatum cultivar — 30,000–50,000 Scoville, but the heat lands soft and late behind an apricot-like fruitiness. Inca's Food and Doña Isabel are the two brands you'll actually find. A 7.5-oz jar keeps three to four months refrigerated and seasons roughly 15 dinners, which works out to under 50¢ a meal.

The swap that works: blend 2 yellow bell peppers with 1 habanero (seeded), 1 tablespoon lime juice, and ½ teaspoon salt. You get the right color and about 70% of the heat curve. Fruitiness is lower and the sauce is thinner, so reduce it in a dry pan for 5 minutes. The swap that doesn't work: sriracha. Wrong acid, wrong sugar, wrong color.

Coastal and seafood: ceviche, tiradito, and the 10-minute cure

Peru's 1,500-mile Pacific coastline runs cold Humboldt Current water, which is why the fish is firm and why ceviche became the national dish rather than a beach snack. The cure is not a long marinade. Lima's standard is leche de tigre — lime juice, aji, garlic, ginger, salt — poured over cubed fish for 10 to 15 minutes, not two hours. Past 20 minutes the flesh turns opaque and chalky and you have ruined $18 of sea bass.

Start with Peruvian-Style Ceviche with Lime and Cilantro — it's the baseline, and the ratio (1 lb fish : ¾ cup lime juice : 1 tbsp aji paste) is the one to memorize. For a version with more perfume, Peruvian-Inspired Ceviche with Pisco Citrus Dressing adds a splash of pisco to the leche de tigre, which softens the lime's edge. If raw fish isn't your thing, Peruvian Chicken Ceviche uses poached breast and gets you the same bright, oniony hit with zero sourcing anxiety.

Tiradito is ceviche's Japanese-influenced cousin — fish sliced sashimi-thin, sauced at the last second, no onion. Citrus-Cured Fish Salad with Aji Amarillo is the closest thing to it in the catalog and takes about 15 minutes start to finish.

For cooked seafood, Pan-Seared Trout with Aji Amarillo Sauce and Peruvian-Style Grilled Salmon with Lime-Cilantro Sauce both run under 25 minutes and use the same jar of paste you bought for ceviche.

Safety, briefly. Lime juice denatures protein — it does not kill parasites. The FDA's guidance on selecting and serving fresh and frozen seafood safely is the standard here: buy from a counter with high turnover, keep the fish below 40°F right up to the cure, and if you're unsure of the source, freeze it at -4°F for seven days first. Commercial "sushi-grade" fish has usually already been through that freeze.

Highland and hearty: the stews that eat like comfort food

The Andes contribute potatoes (Peru grows over 3,000 varieties), corn, and slow stews thickened with bread or nuts.

Authentic Peruvian Aji de Gallina is the one to cook first. Shredded chicken in a sauce of aji amarillo, milk-soaked bread, walnuts, and parmesan, poured over boiled potatoes and rice with a black olive and half a hard-boiled egg. It reads strange and tastes like the best chicken dish in your rotation. Total time is about 45 minutes if you start from a rotisserie bird.

The Andean-adjacent stews are worth knowing too — Quinoa and Potato Stew with Aji Verde is a vegetarian weeknight one-pot, and Bolivian Potato and Corn Stew with Aji Sauce covers the same highland flavor register.

Lomo saltado: the wok dish that isn't Chinese

Chinese laborers arrived in Peru in the 1850s and their descendants created chifa, Peru's Chinese-Peruvian cuisine. Lomo saltado is its most famous export: sirloin seared hard in a screaming pan with red onion, tomato, soy sauce, and red wine vinegar, then served over rice and french fries in the same bowl. The double starch is the point, not an error.

Three versions worth cooking:

• Spiced Peruvian Lomo Saltado Stir Fry — the straightforward weeknight take, roughly 25 minutes
• Seared Lomo Saltado with Caramelized Onions and Toasted Rice — deeper onion, better rice
• Stir-Fried Sirloin with Aji Amarillo and French Fries — the fries-in-the-bowl version, done properly

Bon Appétit's lomo saltado is a good outside reference if you want to compare ratios before committing.

Pork works too — Spicy Peruvian-Style Pork Stir Fry with Aji Amarillo swaps in shoulder and takes the heat the same way.

The technique that decides the dish: your pan must be at ~500°F and you must cook in two batches. Beef dumped all at once drops the surface temperature, releases water, and steams grey. Sear the meat, pull it, cook the onion and tomato, then return the meat for 30 seconds with the sauce. A 12-inch carbon-steel skillet or a cheap wok both hit the temperature; a warped nonstick will not.

Rotisserie and grill: pollo a la brasa and anticuchos

Pollo a la brasa is Peru's single biggest restaurant category — a whole chicken marinated in soy, cumin, paprika, garlic, and vinegar, then roasted, served with aji verde and fries. At home, a 425°F oven for 55–65 minutes gets you 90% of the way there.

• Grilled Peruvian-Style Pollo a la Brasa with Aji Verde Sauce — the canonical version
• Sheet Pan Peruvian-Style Roasted Chicken with Aji Verde Sauce — one tray, no spatchcocking
• Peruvian-Inspired Roasted Chicken with Aji Verde Sauce — whole-bird, weekend version
• Roasted Peruvian Corn and Aji Amarillo Chicken — adds choclo to the pan

Aji verde is the sauce people actually come back for: mayonnaise, cilantro, jalapeño, lime, garlic, a spoon of aji amarillo, and huacatay if you have it. Blend it, chill it 20 minutes, put it on everything for the next four days.

Anticuchos are skewered marinated beef heart, grilled hard over charcoal, sold on every Lima street corner after dark. Grilled Beef Anticuchos with Aji Amarillo Sauce uses the aji panca marinade; sirloin works if heart isn't available, though you lose some of the minerality. Wikipedia's entry on anticucho has the history if you're curious why beef heart specifically.

Rice, potatoes, and the everyday plates

Spiced Peruvian Chicken with Cilantro-Lime Rice and Pan-Seared Chicken with Spiced Peruvian Quinoa are the 30-minute end of the spectrum — grain, protein, aji, done.

For the potato side of Peru, Crisp Potato and Corn Fritters with Aji Verde works as an appetizer for a dinner party, and Bolivian Chicken Stew with Potatoes and Aji Verde is a solid Sunday one-pot.

Spicy Peruvian-Style Chicken Tacos with Cilantro-Lime Slaw is not traditional, but it's the fastest way to use leftover pollo a la brasa and nobody at the table complains.

Real-world numbers: cost and time per dish

Prices are national US grocery averages as of 2026, for four servings.

Aji de gallina and pollo a la brasa are the cheapest per serving and the most forgiving. Start there if you're cooking for people who've never had Peruvian food.

Common pitfalls

Over-curing the ceviche. Ten to fifteen minutes. Set a timer. If the fish has gone fully white all the way through, the texture is already gone.

Using bottled lime juice. Ceviche is ~40% lime by volume. Bottled juice is cooked, flat, and slightly bitter, and it is instantly detectable in a dish this simple. Nine to twelve fresh limes per pound of fish.

Crowding the pan on lomo saltado. Covered above, and it's the single most common failure. Two batches, always.

Not rinsing the red onion. Peruvian dishes use a lot of raw red onion. Slice it thin, soak it in cold water for 10 minutes, drain. It removes the sulfurous burn and leaves the sweetness.

Treating aji amarillo as a hot sauce. It's a base, not a condiment. Two tablespoons into a sauce for four people is normal. A teaspoon does nothing.

Skipping the huacatay in aji verde. You can make aji verde without it and it'll be a good cilantro-jalapeño sauce. With it, it tastes like the restaurant. It's the one specialty item worth the online order.

A three-recipe Peruvian dinner party

This runs about 2.5 hours of real work spread over a day and feeds six comfortably.

Night before: marinate the chicken for Grilled Peruvian-Style Pollo a la Brasa with Aji Verde Sauce. Make the aji verde and refrigerate.

T-minus 90 min: chicken into a 425°F oven. Slice red onion for the ceviche and set it soaking. Cube potatoes.

T-minus 30 min: make Peruvian-Style Ceviche with Lime and Cilantro — but hold the lime. Cut the fish, keep it cold.

T-minus 12 min: dress the ceviche. Serve immediately as the first course while the chicken rests.

Drinks: Pisco Sour with Fresh Lime and Egg White Foam is the anchor — 3 oz pisco, 1 oz lime, 1 oz simple syrup, one egg white, three drops of Angostura on the foam. Dry-shake first without ice for 15 seconds, then shake with ice. For something fruitier, Mango Pisco Sour Cocktail with Fresh Lime and Egg White Foam is the same build with mango purée.

Wine-wise: a dry albariño or sauvignon blanc for the ceviche, a peppery malbec for the beef and chicken.

When Peruvian food isn't the right call

If you're cooking for a crowd with a low spice tolerance and no advance notice, skip ceviche — the raw fish is a harder sell than the heat. If you can't get to a Latin market and don't want to wait on shipping, cook Pan-Seared Chicken with Peruvian Aji Amarillo Sauce with the bell-pepper-and-habanero substitute and save ceviche for after the paste arrives. And if you're feeding a strictly gluten-free table, note that lomo saltado and pollo a la brasa both use soy sauce — tamari swaps in cleanly, but check before you commit.

Equipment that actually matters

You need three things and you probably own two of them.

A pan that gets and stays hot: carbon steel or cast iron. Browse cookware if your current skillet warps or has a dead nonstick coating. A wok is $25–35 at an Asian market and is genuinely better for saltado and chaufa than anything else.

A sharp knife for the fish. Ceviche is 60% knife work — clean cubes cure evenly, ragged ones go mushy at the edges. See knives if your chef's knife needs replacing, or check cutting-boards if you're prepping raw fish on the same board as everything else.

A blender for aji verde and the aji de gallina sauce. Any blender works; a $30 immersion blender is enough.

The 22-recipe grid

Everything referenced above, in one place.

Coastal / seafood: Peruvian-Style Ceviche with Lime and Cilantro · Peruvian-Inspired Ceviche with Pisco Citrus Dressing · Peruvian Chicken Ceviche · Citrus-Cured Fish Salad with Aji Amarillo · Pan-Seared Trout with Aji Amarillo Sauce · Peruvian-Style Grilled Salmon with Lime-Cilantro Sauce

Highland / hearty: Authentic Peruvian Aji de Gallina · Spiced Peruvian Lomo Saltado Stir Fry · Seared Lomo Saltado with Caramelized Onions and Toasted Rice · Stir-Fried Sirloin with Aji Amarillo and French Fries · Spicy Peruvian-Style Pork Stir Fry with Aji Amarillo · Quinoa and Potato Stew with Aji Verde · Bolivian Potato and Corn Stew with Aji Sauce · Bolivian Chicken Stew with Potatoes and Aji Verde

Rotisserie & grill: Grilled Peruvian-Style Pollo a la Brasa with Aji Verde Sauce · Sheet Pan Peruvian-Style Roasted Chicken with Aji Verde Sauce · Peruvian-Inspired Roasted Chicken with Aji Verde Sauce · Roasted Peruvian Corn and Aji Amarillo Chicken · Grilled Beef Anticuchos with Aji Amarillo Sauce

Rice, potatoes & everyday: Spiced Peruvian Chicken with Cilantro-Lime Rice · Pan-Seared Chicken with Spiced Peruvian Quinoa · Crisp Potato and Corn Fritters with Aji Verde · Spicy Peruvian-Style Chicken Tacos with Cilantro-Lime Slaw · Pan-Seared Chicken with Peruvian Aji Amarillo Sauce

Drinks: Pisco Sour with Fresh Lime and Egg White Foam · Mango Pisco Sour Cocktail with Fresh Lime and Egg White Foam

FAQ

Where can I buy aji amarillo paste in the US?

Most large H-E-B, ShopRite, and Whole Foods stores carry Inca's Food or Doña Isabel paste in the international aisle. If your store doesn't stock it, Amazon and Latin online markets ship it in 7.5-oz jars that last months refrigerated. In a pinch, blend equal parts habanero and yellow bell pepper with a splash of lime — heat is close, sweetness lower, but the color and vibe carry the dish.

Is ceviche safe to make at home?

Yes, when you start with sushi-grade or the freshest saltwater fish your fishmonger has that morning and hold it under 40°F right up to the cure. The lime juice denatures proteins the same way heat does but does not kill parasites, so freeze the fish at -4°F for 7 days first if you're not confident in the source. Serve within 2 hours of dressing; texture goes chalky past that.

What's the difference between lomo saltado and Chinese beef stir-fry?

Lomo saltado is the direct child of Cantonese chifa cooking in Lima — same wok, same high heat, same soy-and-vinegar sear — but Peru added red onion, tomato, and aji amarillo, then broke rules by serving it over both rice AND french fries in the same bowl. That double-starch move is the tell. It's the most-ordered dish in Peruvian restaurants for a reason: it hits like takeout but tastes brighter.

Can I make Peruvian food without a wok?

A 12-inch cast-iron or carbon-steel skillet ripping hot handles lomo saltado, arroz chaufa, and anticuchos better than a warped nonstick, because you need real Maillard char on beef and rice at ~500°F. Preheat the pan 3-4 minutes on high, cook in small batches so nothing steams, and finish with the aji-and-soy sauce off heat. A cheap 14-inch carbon steel wok from an Asian market is $25 and will change your weeknight repertoire.

What should I drink with Peruvian food?

Pisco sour is the anchor — Peruvian pisco, fresh lime, simple syrup, one egg white, and Angostura bitters, shaken hard. For non-alcoholic, chicha morada (purple corn drink) is served everywhere in Peru and tastes like a spiced grape-cinnamon punch. Wine-wise, a dry albariño or sauvignon blanc lifts ceviche; a peppery Argentine malbec matches the beef dishes. Peruvian craft beer is scarce stateside; any pilsner works.

Related reading

If you liked this, the same weeknight-cluster treatment for other cuisines: 25 Mexican Weeknight Dinners, Caribbean Recipes by Island, and Spanish Recipes: Paella, Tapas, Gazpacho.

Want a full Peruvian week built around your grocery store and your schedule? Ask the meal planner — it'll pull from the recipes above and hand you one shopping list.

Sources

• Peruvian cuisine — Wikipedia
• Ceviche — Wikipedia
• Chifa (Chinese-Peruvian cuisine) — Wikipedia
• Capsicum baccatum / aji amarillo — Wikipedia
• Anticucho — Wikipedia
• FDA — Selecting and Serving Fresh and Frozen Seafood Safely
• Bon Appétit — Lomo Saltado

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• en.wikipedia.org
• en.wikipedia.org
• en.wikipedia.org
• en.wikipedia.org
• en.wikipedia.org
• fda.gov
• bonappetit.com