Sort Of An El Pollo Loco Hack

BillN said:

I'm a big fan of El Pollo Loco unfortunately my "Better Half" does not share my enthusiasm. I do believe you nailed it Sako.

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Thanks Bill!

Surprised because they're one of the few half decent fast food joints.

Stingerhook said:

Would you please stop making me hungry Sako.

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Sorry Mart! :mrgreen:

fantomlord said:

looks fantastic! care to share details on the tortillas?

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Thanks fantom!

I hot hooked on these tortillas when I was visiting my bro in New Orleans and he made some carnitas tacos with cassava flour tortillas. He's got ulcerative colitis and one of the many things he can't have is carbs so he's beeing using cassava (Yuca) flour.

I've grown to really liking the way they taste and great substitute for regular tortillas. You eat a ton and you don't get bloated since it's sort of root vegetable flour.

Here's what I bought off of Amazon but apparently there are better ones out there. I guess the key for great cassava flour is no grittiness.



Still playing around but this is the recipe I used:

2 to 2.5 cups cassava flour

About 1tsp salt

1tsp baking soda

1 cup coconut milk (in a can)

1/4 cup oil, melter butter or ghee

1/2 to 1 cup water

Now I mostly eyeballed since cassava flours differ and some require more hydration than others. Basically you're looking for pliable, ice cream-ish consistency.

Hope this pic helps

MisterChrister said:

That looks fantastic, brother! I'm looking forward to trying this; do you think you'll be posting your revised marinade? I've never been to El Pollo Loco, but if it's good enough for you to hack, I'm in!

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Thanks Chris!

Apparently they used yellow food coloring but I used turmeric and saffron to get the yellow color. See below.

Still need tweaking the recipe to dial it in but for about 3-4 lbs of chicken I used



3/8 cup rice vinegar (any vinegar will work I prefer rice as it's mellow)

1/4 cup lime juice

3/4 cup pineapple juice (ones in the cartons from Mexico is what I used JUMEX brand)

6 cloves of minced garlic

A few pinches of saffron (for color)

2 tsp turmeric (for color)

1/2 tsp chile powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp coriander

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

A few juniper berries (I had some laying around so used them :becky



I used ziploc bags and marinated about 4-5 hours and grilled them.


That's it! :mrgreen:

fantomlord said:

yep -- great info, especially with the pic! We use cassava flour quite a bit here (our kids our gluten free) -- it makes an awesome gravy, and does well for breading and frying (dredge, rest 10 mins or so, dredge right before frying).
I really like the Otto's brand cassava flour -- haven't tried the brand you're using yet.

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I'm loving the stuff. I was skeptical first but stuff is awesome. I'm gonna try Otto's next. My bro was using Otto's. I got Anthony's as a tester but you get grittiness here and there and Otto's wasn't like that.

Hoss said:

Those are some Tastee lookin vittles.Have you ever used Sazon? It will give the meat that unique color also.

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Thanks Boss! I was but I went the more natural route with saffron and turmeric.

FLHX said:

not sure about other areas of the country, but here is AZ and northern Mexico, the green salsa at most taco and pollo stands is tomatillo based, not avacado.

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Same here if you're getting salsa verde but El Pollo Loco has an avocado salsa in their salsa bar.