Pan con Chicharrón

Fried Pork Sandwich with Salsa Criolla

At least in my family, when your whole family shows up on Sunday, you make pan con chicharrón. It seems there’s never enough of these fried pork belly sandwiches to go around. Somehow, twenty-five people turns into sixty brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews. When I’m back in Lima, it’s usually up to me to figure out how to feed everyone—entirely my fault, as I’m also usually the one who called everyone to announce I was in town. One thing I learned from my mom was how to stretch whatever is on the stove by turning it into a component of something else instead of the main course. A giant, juicy sandwich like pan con chicharrón is always in the running.

The components are simple: braised and fried pork belly, chunks of fried sweet potato, and tangy salsa criolla all stuffed inside a giant hoagielike roll with plenty of mayo. We are lucky that pork belly is an everyday meat in Peru, a very humble cut with crazy flavor. In the United States, the belly can get pricey, so I also make the sandwich with costillas, pork ribs (use the small, meaty baby back ribs, not giant spare ribs). When you are making sandwiches, the meat from two or three racks goes a long way toward feeding a small crowd on a budget.

The pork is usually slowly braised in water for several hours until the liquid almost evaporates and the meat gets super tender; then you slice the pork and quick-fry it until crisp. I like to simmer the pork in a big-flavored stock, so it infuses flavor into the meat, and then fry the pork in olive oil instead of its own fat so you get an almost confitlike flavor. Plus, you’re left with a rich pork stock that you can strain and use for dumpling soup, or just stir in cooked noodles or rice and handful of chopped scallions. So good.

The most important thing with such tender meat is to leave the braised pork alone in the pot to cool once it’s cooked, and then refrigerate it for several hours or overnight. I mean it. ¡No tocar!—do not touch! If you try to fry the warm meat right away, the tender pieces will completely fall apart. Refrigeration helps keep the incredibly tender meat from falling apart as you fry it. Strain the leftover frying oil and use it for frying potatoes or another pot of chicharrón.

I can go on forever when it comes to pan con chicharrón, but one last thing: Since you can braise the pork a day or two ahead, all you have to do when everyone shows up is fry the meat and let them pile up their own sandwich. If you’re making ribs, they’re also good on their own, still on the bone with the mayo as a dipping sauce and salsa criolla on the side. I like a bolder huancaína sauce (page 168) or mayo made from the same serrano-lime dipping sauce I serve with Yuquitas (page 62), but regular mayo is also very good.

Braised Pork

To Assemble

1 Place the pork belly in a very large Dutch oven or tall stockpot. You may need to slice the slab in half and stack the pieces so they fit. If using ribs, cut them into four sections each (don’t peel off the silver skin) and stack them in the pot. Tuck a few of the larger vegetables beneath the pork, and pile the rest of the vegetables and spices on top of the pork. Cover the pork and vegetables with the chicken stock; add water, if needed, to cover the pork completely. Bring the stock to a high boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook the pork at a low boil, uncovered, until super tender when pierced with a knife, a good 3 hours. During the first hour, occasionally skim off the foam that accumulates on top of the stock. Check the pot every half hour or so, and add water if needed so the pork is always completely submerged (always bring the stock back to a low boil).

2 After about 3 hours, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the stove. Allow the pork to cool, untouched, for at least an hour; 2 hours is even better. Gently lift the pork out of the pot with both hands underneath the meat (so it doesn’t break in half), or a giant spoon or spatula; use two spoons or spatulas if the slab of pork belly is large. Put the pork into a 9 x 13-inch baking dish, or whatever you can fit the pieces in without stacking the meat. Strain the pork broth, discarding the vegetables, and reserve the broth for soup or rice. Let the meat cool completely, untouched. Cover and refrigerate the pork for at least 6 hours, or better still, overnight. You can refrigerate the pork for up to 2 days at this point. Let it come to room temperature before using.

3 If using pork belly, slice the meat against the grain into ½-inch-thick pieces (if the pork belly is very large, you can cut the pieces in half to better fit the bread). If using ribs, slice the slabs into individual ribs but leave the meat on the bones.

4 Line a baking sheet with two or three paper towels. In a medium saucepan, heat a good 2 inches of oil over medium-high heat. (You can use canola oil, if you don’t have enough olive oil, or use a deep-fryer, if you’d rather.) When the oil is good and hot, fry a few slices of the pork belly or ribs at a time until golden brown on all sides, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the pieces a few times during cooking so they brown evenly. Transfer the meat to the paper towel–lined baking sheet, and repeat the frying process with the remaining pork belly or ribs.

5 Fry up the yams as directed on page 67 (count on 2 or 3 slices per sandwich) and put out your bread and the huancaína sauce so everyone can assemble their sandwiches. Toss the salsa criolla together at the last minute, and serve it along with the pork with the other condiments for the sandwiches. If you have any leftovers, let the meat cool completely, cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 days. (If serving leftovers, remake fresh salsa criolla; the onions will have become soggy.)