🥔 SIDE
Mei Chips (Tongan Fried Breadfruit Chips)
Wedges of firm, mature breadfruit, briefly boiled then deep-fried until golden and crisp outside and fluffy inside, salted and eaten with ketchup like fries.
Tongan · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 25 min
~299 cal · 2g protein · 51g carbs · 12g fat · 9g fiber · 21g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Mei is the Tongan word for , and mei chips are Tonga's answer to potato fries. trees grow in yards, villages and school grounds all over the islands, and when the big green fruit is in season it is fried into chips at home and served beside fish, chicken and burgers at cafés and restaurants from Nukuʻalofa to Vavaʻu.
The fruit is used while it is mature but still firm and starchy, not soft and sweet. The skin is scraped or peeled off, the spongy core cut away, and the pale, bread-like flesh cut into chips. At home they are often simply sliced and fried in a pan; for thick, fluffy chips the wedges are boiled for a few minutes first, then dried and deep-fried until the outside is crisp and golden.
They are salted the moment they come out of the oil and eaten hot, with ketchup. Fresh is hard to find outside the tropics, but frozen pieces from Pacific and Caribbean grocers work well.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
- 1 medium (about 1.2 kg), or 750 g frozen breadfruit pieces mature, firm (mei)
- 1 tsp salt (for the cooking water)
- 1 l vegetable oil, for deep frying
- to taste salt, for sprinkling
- to taste tomato ketchup, to serve
Instructions
- 1Cut the breadfruit into quarters through the stem, cut away the spongy core, and peel off the skin with a knife. Cut the flesh into chips or wedges about 1.5 cm thick.✎ Chef’s noteBreadfruit weeps a sticky white latex when cut. Oil your knife and your hands, and rinse the pieces in water.
- 2Bring a pan of water to the boil with the teaspoon of salt, add the breadfruit and boil for 5 to 8 minutes, until just tender at the edges but still firm. Drain and spread out on a cloth to steam dry and cool.
- 3Heat the oil in a deep pan to 175C (350F). Fry the chips in batches for 5 to 7 minutes, turning, until golden and crisp.✎ Chef’s noteFor thin, crisp chips the way they are often made at home in Tonga, skip the boiling, slice the raw breadfruit thinly and fry it in a pan of hot oil until brown.
- 4Lift out onto paper, sprinkle with salt at once, and serve hot with ketchup.
Tongan home and café tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Tongatapu. The commonest lu here is lu pulu, made with tinned corned beef rather than fresh pork. Imported tins displaced fresh meat in Tongan households from the 1920s and became the festive ingredient, wrapped with coconut cream inside taro leaves and set in the umu.
🗺️
Tonga. The commonest lu is made with tinned corned beef, and that is worth saying plainly rather than hiding: imported tinned meat became part of Pacific cooking in the twentieth century and is now genuinely traditional. Taro leaves are wrapped around it with coconut cream and baked in the umu until the leaves collapse into something silky.
🌍
Oceania. The twentieth century changed the Pacific plate faster than anything before it. White rice, tinned corned beef, mutton flaps, flour and sugar arrived by ship and are now entirely everyday, and the public health consequences are among the most closely studied anywhere. Alongside that, Australian and New Zealand kitchens have taken up Asian technique and Maori and Pasifika cooking in a way they had not before.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Tonga
Lū PuluTaro-leaf parcels of seasoned beef and onion drowned in coconut cream, baked low until silken, Tonga’s Sunday centerpiece.
Keke IsiteTongan fried "yeast cakes", crisp-shelled, fluffy doughnuts eaten warm with tea, a Saturday-morning island tradition.
Faikakai TopaiSoft boiled dumplings drowned in a thick, dark coconut-sugar caramel, a Tongan after-feast sweet.
Browse all Tonga recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Steamer.
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a Tonga meal
'OtaiDrink
Faikakai TopaiDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Mei Chips (Tongan Fried Breadfruit Chips)?
Wedges of firm, mature breadfruit, briefly boiled then deep-fried until golden and crisp outside and fluffy inside, salted and eaten with ketchup like fries.
Where does Mei Chips (Tongan Fried Breadfruit Chips) come from?
Mei Chips (Tongan Fried Breadfruit Chips) is a Tongan dish from Tongatapu, Tonga.
Can Mei Chips (Tongan Fried Breadfruit Chips) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Mei Chips (Tongan Fried Breadfruit Chips) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Mei Chips (Tongan Fried Breadfruit Chips) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Mei Chips (Tongan Fried Breadfruit Chips) take to make?
About 45 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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