We’re having friends over tonight so you know what that means: papi gets to cook his super world famous Kiwicha chicken strips. Seriously, kids come from far and away to eat my Kiwicha chicken strips. For full disclosure, they also come over because I serve Mamacita Linda and all the other mamacitas fernet con coca.

Kiwicha, Amaranthus caudatus or Love-lies-bleeding if you prefer is a staple here in the Andes. You people in the industrialized world – at least most of the readers of this fine blog hail from those parts – now call Kiwicha a “super food” but that’s only because you’re so used to eating processed, industrialized food-like substances that anything natural like or milk or honey is now considered a super food up there.

The recipe for my world famous Kiwicha chicken strips? There isn’t a recipe per se because in my kitchen everything is al gusto but the secret is you need 2 bowls: flour in one bowl, with condiments of your choice, and not-too-liquidy liquid in a second bowl. The key to beautiful golden crisp chicken is this: first you roll the chicken in the flour, then dip in the liquid and then back again in the flour. When all the chicken strips are ready, fry 8 or 9 minutes (at 3,400 meters elevation, may be a few minutes less at lower altitudes) and eat!

It works with any kind of flour but I use about 50% Kiwicha and 50% white flour. Sometimes I’ll use 50% Quinoa which works just as well as the Kiwicha. When you use more than half Kiwicha (or any other darker color flour) it’s a bit trickier to obtain the nice golden crisp color. The liquid where the pollitos go “swimming” consists of 50% milk, 50% cerveza, some eggs and a dab of flour. Both bowls get salt, pepper, whatever condiments spin your propeller on any given day.

Fair warning: when you have 2 or 3 kids that “help” you cook, it sometimes gets a wee bit messy. If you do the liquid just right, have a fire hose ready to wash their little hands afterwards.