With a sharp knife or vegetable peeler, remove bark-like peel from fresh yuca. (See: How to Peel Fresh Yuca)
Cut peeled yuca in half horizontally, and soak in a bowl of water for 20 minutes. (This step further removes any remaining linamarin, which will otherwise be eliminated during frying.) Discard water.
If you have a mandoline, put it on the thinnest setting and choose a straight V-blade. Slice peeled yuca into circles, or from top to bottom for long, chips. If you don’t have a mandoline, yuca can be thinly sliced with a vegetable peeler, or very sharp knife. The thinner the slice, the crispier the chip!
Place about an inch of avocado oil on the bottom of a large frying pan and heat on high.
Once hot, place yuca slices into oil - do not overlap. (The oil is hot enough when the first yuca slice sizzles upon entering oil.) It works best to pan fry in batches, as chips cook very quickly. *Be careful not to get splattered by hot oil!
Pan fry for about 1 minute, until yuca begins to brown and curl up at the edges. Depending on the amount of oil in the pan, flipping the chips halfway through may be needed to ensure even browning on both sides. Yuca chips cook very quickly so keep a constant eye on the pan.
Once browned, remove yuca chips using a metal mesh skimmer or slotted spatula, allowing excess oil to drain back into the pan. (The hot oil might melt plastic utensils.)
Place chips on paper towel to absorb excess oil.
Immediately sprinkle with pink Himalayan Sea Salt and a pinch of pepper - to taste.
Variation: Immediately sprinkle with Trader Joe's Onion Salt and pink Himalayan sea salt - to taste.
Enjoy!!
Variations: Sprinkle with Trader Joe's Chile Lime Seasoning, Trader Joe's Onion Salt, or Trader Joe's Lemon Pepper. These chips can be seasoned with any spice that you enjoy - so start experimenting! Comment at the bottom of the post or tag me with your pictures on Instagram @CrazyForYuca to tell me about your perfect chip creation!!
A word on frying: If you are like me, frying is like "a four letter word!" You avoid it as part of your healthy lifestyle. While that is typically true for me, I read a great post by Alton Brown which helped me to make these chips less oily. (See Alton Brown's post Fry Hard Transcript.) In a nutshell, he says the keys to frying without absorbing oil into food are to pat food dry before placing into oil, and to fry just until the sizzle stops. While the sizzling/bubbling is happening, moisture is being expelled from the food. Once bubbling stops, moisture and fat are being absorbed by food. SO INTERESTING!! Also, do not cover pan. Covering causes steam and condensation within pan which will create soggy, oily chips.