Mofongo con Carne Frita

5 from 7 votes

Mofongo con Carne Frita (Mofongo with Fried Pork Chunks) is a hyper delicious Puerto Rican dish made of a garlic plantain mash, topped with carne frita and a garlic aioli. One of the best dishes you will ever have!

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Total Time1

Course: Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: Puerto Rican

Servings:

Calories: 733kcal

Author: Catherine Arena

Ingredients

Plantains

4 green plantains
8-10 garlic cloves peeled
olive oil
chicharrones (pork cracklings)
salt to taste
vegetable oil for frying

Pork

2 lbs pork shoulder or pork butt rinsed and cut into 1½ inch chunks
1 packet Sazon with Annatto
1 teaspoon Adobo Seasoning (I use Goya Brand)
1 teaspoon oregano
4-6 garlic cloves peeled
3 tablespoon vegetable oil
⅓ cup vinegar
vegetable oil for frying

Garlic Aioli

2 garlic cloves peeled
¼ cup light olive oil

Instructions

Marinate Pork

Add garlic cloves, oregano and 3 tablespoons of oil to a blender. Blend until mixture forms a paste and is smooth. Set aside.
Rinse pork and cut up pork into 1 ½ inch chunks. (Keep the fat on pork as this makes the pork tastier and juicer).
Season pork chunks with adobo, sazon, garlic and oregano puree and vinegar.
Mix pieces with your hands or a spoon.
Marinate covered for 30 minutes in the refrigerator or overnight (especially if using pork shoulder).
Heat a large pan over medium high heat with about 2 inches of oil.
Wait to oil is hot, about 5 minutes.
Carefully add a few pork pieces at a time to the pan being careful not to drop pieces in oil and causing oil to splatter.
Cook the pork chunks on one side for 5-7 minutes and then flip over with a fork.
Cook again for another 5-7 minutes.
Continue cooking on all sides until all sides are beautifully golden brown.
Drain pieces on paper towels to remove excess oil.

Cooking Plantains

Using a knife, cut the ends of the plantains.
Gently score the plantains lengthwise with the knife and cut through the skin without cutting into the flesh.
Gently pry the skin with your finger tip at one end and running it down the banana to peel skin.
Cut the plantains into ½ inch slices.
Place plantain pieces in a bowl with water and add 1 teaspoon of adobo or salt. Let them sit in water while for 15-20 minutes. (*This step is optional and not necessary)
Drain the plantain pieces in a colander. Let plantain pieces sit in colander and continue draining while you prepare the pan with oil.
In a frying pan, over medium heat, add about one cup of vegetable or canola oil.
When oil is hot, gently add a few plantain pieces at a time.
***Be careful when adding the plantain pieces to the oil as the pieces are still a little wet and can cause oil to splatter.
Fry and cook plantain pieces until golden brown.
With a fork, flip the pieces over and cook on the other side until golden brown as well.
Once plantain pieces are cooked, drain on paper towels.
Continue frying plantain pieces until all pieces are fried.
Note: You do not want the plantain pieces to burn or get too dark in color. You want them to simply cook through.

Mashing and Seasoning the Green Plantains

Add all the peeled garlic cloves to the pilon (mortar and pestle).
Add a tablespoon of olive oil.
Start mashing the garlic with the pestle until you have formed a garlic paste.
Remove garlic paste from pilon.
Note: You will divide this garlic paste equally for each mofongo made. About 2 garlic cloves per mofongo. You can add more or less garlic paste to each mofongo if you like.
Add a few pieces of plantain at a time to the pilón (mortar and pestle).
Start mashing the plantain pieces with the pestle to form almost a stiff mash potato base. (Mash while plantain pieces are still hot)
Add some of the garlic paste to the plantain mash and about a tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon butter and mash all together.
Add a few pieces of chicharrones (pork cracklings) and salt to taste, to the plantain mash.
Mash again and mix well.
If you cannot find pork cracklings, use pork fat (tocino). Simply cut into small cubes and fry in a little bit of oil to crisp. Drain on paper towels.
Note: If needed, add more oil. You do not want the mofongo to be too dry but also not to moist.
Now that the first batch of plantain pieces are mashed and seasoned, remove the mash from the pilón and set aside in a bowl.
Repeat the same procedure with the remaining pieces of plantain until they are all mashed and seasoned.
Note: Depending on the size of the plantain, 1 plantain = one serving, so 4 plantains would make 4 mofongos.

Garlic Aioli

Add the ingredients for garlic aioli to a blender or chopper and blend until smooth. Set aside until ready to use.

Forming the Mofongo (1st Option)

Now that the mofongo is done it is time to form the plantain mash into individual mofongos.
Here you will have several options.
First option:
You can divide the mofongo into 4 equal sections.
Place one section at a time to a small bowl and mash plantain down with a spoon to form half moon spheres.
Flip bowl over onto a plate with the plantain mash in the center of the plate.
Repeat procedure with the other sections of plantain mash onto individual plates for servings.
Top or surround mofongos with the carne frita.
Top each with garlic aioli.
Note: You can also form the half moon spheres with your hands.

Option 2

If you have more than one set of pilones (a mortar and pestle), you can serve mofongo right out of each pilón.
To serve mofongo from a pilón, form a half moon inside the pilón pressing down plantain mash with the pestle or spoon.
Using the pestle or spoon form a concave in the center. You will then add the carne frita and top with garlic aioli.
Note: As described and pictured in the post, another option for serving mofongo in a pilón, is too set mofongo over to one side of the pilón as shown in post.
Then fill up the pilón with the carne frita and top with the garlic aioli.
Enjoy!

Nutrition