Discover the Magic of the Pambazo Torta Sandwich

I had my first pambazo one Sunday evening back in my twenties, at a street stall down in Coyoacan in southern Mexico City and it marred me. From the moment I’d learned of their existence, I’d dreamed of coming across a street stall proffering chile-dipped, crispy-seared buns filled with browned chorizo and potatoes, garnished with crunchy lettuce, thick crema, fresh cheese and spicy salsa verde. What was passed to me that night, wrapped in a napkin, was not that pambazo, but a concoction that had been sitting in a greasy puddle of fat for hours before being garnished with lettuce that was a whisper away from turning to liquid. I developed an aversion to ever stepping back into that street food stream.

One of our chefs in Xoco lives for pambazos. For him, the ideal pambazo is, truly, everything I’d imagined all those years ago, and, so, he set about to erase my pambazo phobia. He slathered the bun with red chile, then sprayed it with oil and baked–rather than fried–it to crispness. He stuffed it with everything fresh–freshly cooked chorizo with potatoes, crunchy lettuce and all the rest. And it was a revelation–or should I say the fulfillment of a long-lost dream? Today, I consider it one of the world’s greatest sandwiches. A sandwich that’s celebrated especially fervently in Mexico during Independence Day or any day in Veracruz (where fillings range well beyond chorizo and potatoes).

Here's the recipe: https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/pa...

Traditionally, the bread is dipped in the chile marinade and then fried. If you go that route, you’ll need oil to a depth of at least ¼ inch (about ¾ cup for an extra large skillet) and you’ll need to fry it for 1 to 1 ½ minutes on each side until it crisps.

A note about bread: if you won’t be making the pambazo rolls, feel free to use teleras (lots of people in Mexico do). I’ve even made pambazos with sturdy hamburger buns and they were great.

00:00 Rick's Intro to Pambazo Compuesta
00:13 Making the Marinade
04:18 Cooking the Chorizo
05:06 Preparing the Potatoes
06:54 A Note on Cooking Chorizo
08:24 Toasting the Pambazo Buns
10:35 Assembling the Torta