Oven Baked Yuca Fries with Easy Garlic Aioli are so much better then regular old ho-hum boring potato fries. Serve as a side dish with your favorite protein or all by themselves as a tasty snack!
I absolutely LOVE fried yuca. I literally make this recipe of Oven Baked Yuca Fries with Easy Garlic Aioli at least once a week, sometimes twice. My first taste of it was when I was little and I tried them at a downtown Miami Cuban restaurant.
This was a local-only restaurant and it had a buffet style lunch set up for the lunch crowd. I was piling mounds of crispy skin roast pork and sweet plantains onto my plate when I spied some potato-like, fried thick sticks. Intrigued, I put a bunch on my plate I promptly fell in love at first bite.
I'd only had boiled yuca up to that point and was totally blown away with the fried version. Although it's easy to love because who doesn't love fried anything?!
Regarding cooking yuca at home, I'm going to say this once and only once...do yourself a favor, get the frozen variety. You'll save yourself a ton of heartache because fresh yuca is a pain in the ass to deal with. It's selfish. It doesn't care about you. It hides behind a thick skin with a waxy coating and refuses to let you know it's true self until you've spent many precious minutes lovingly peeling it, only it find out it's rotten inside.
I speak from experience. I've gone through many a fresh yuca root, only to end up cutting away ¾ of it because the rest was brown and mushy. All the while I was ignoring the easy and simplified bags of uncooked, fully prepped yuca in my grocery store freezer. But I'm not bitter. In fact, the day I picked up a bag of frozen instead of buying fresh was the best day of my life (well, best day in my yuca life). Farewell, fresh yuca.
The yuca after boiling. Cut in half and remove thick woody membrane in center.
Cut into fries. On the "aioli", I use a good quality mayo and put a little ketchup with fresh lime in it. It's delicious and is J's favorite condiment for these fries.
So try this Oven Baked Yuca Fries with Easy Garlic Aioli instead of regular fries and impress your potato loving family.
Oven Baked Yuca Fries with Easy Garlic Aioli
Ingredients
FOR THE YUCA:
- 2 pounds frozen yuca
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or melted coconut oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
FOR THE EASY GARLIC AIOLI:
- ½ cup all-natural mayonnaise, homemade or store bought
- 2 tablespoons all-natural ketchup, homemade or store bought
- 1 garlic clove, grated or mashed
- squeeze of fresh lime
Instructions
FOR THE YUCA:
- Preheat oven to 450F/232C degrees.
- Place frozen yuca in a large saucepot, cover with water, and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat, cover with a lid, and simmer for 15 minutes or until yuca is fork tender. **Be careful not to overcook because the yuca will be too mushy**
- Remove the cooked yuca from the water and cut each into half. Remove the fibrous center membrane/root and cut each half into thick french fry sticks.
- Place yuca in a large bowl, add the olive oil or coconut oil, salt and pepper, and toss until each piece is lightly coated. Arrange the pieces on a baking sheet, making sure they aren’t touching, and bake for 10-15 minutes.
- Turn pieces over and bake another 10 minutes. Serve the yuca fresh out of the oven with the aioli.
FOR THE EASY GARLIC AIOLI:
- Combine all ingredients for the aioli in small bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour for flavors to blend.
Tina
Do you thaw the yuca before boiling?
Karrie
Hi Tina! No need to thaw first, as you can boil the yuca frozen.