Servings3
Time to Cook15 minutes
Time to Prepare30 minutes
You’ll need some extra napkins for these sandwiches, but the mess will be worth it!
Ingredients
Guajillo Sauce
- 8 guajillo chilies
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 50 g white onion (1/2 cup) coarsely chopped
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 cups water
- 1/4 tsp salt
Salsa Verde with Eggs
- 4 large hard boiled eggs yolks only (save whites for filling) – see note
- 450 g tomatillos husks removed
- 150 g white onion (about 1/2 medium onion) root end left intact (see note)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 serrano pepper stem and seeds removed
- 30 g cilantro (1/2 cup, packed)
- 1/4 tsp salt or to taste
Potato Filling
- 450 g Yukon gold potatoes diced into 1 cm (1/2 inch) cubes
- 150 g onion (about 1/2 medium onion) chopped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp ancho chili powder
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp dried oregano preferably Mexican
- 1/8 tsp black pepper preferably freshly ground
- pinch ground cloves
- pinch cinnamon
- salt
- 2 tbsp guajillo sauce (from above)
- 1/4 cup water
To Assemble and Serve
- 6 Portuguese buns or pan basso buns, if you can find them
- leaf lettuce or iceberg lettuce, shredded
- tomato
- Oaxaca cheese or Mozzarella, shredded (optional)
- hard boiled egg whites (leftover from making salsa verde with eggs)
- refried beans
- 2-3 tbsp vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
Guajillo Sauce
- Use scissors to cut the stems off the chilies. Shake out and discard as many seeds from the inside as you can manage (use a butter knife to break up and separate the membranes/seeds if necessary).
- Heat a dry frying pan over medium heat on the stove top. Add the guajillo chilies and toast for 1-2 minutes, or until they’re somewhat darker in colour and more pliable.
- Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and saute the onions and garlic for 2-3 minutes over medium heat. Add the toasted chilies, salt, and water to the pan and bring to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer. Cook until the chilies are very soft; about 10 minutes.
- Add the cooked mixture to a blender and puree until very smooth. Set aside to cool. Refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 6 months
Salsa Verde with Eggs
- Bring a large pot of water to a gentle boil. Add the eggs and cook for 8 minutes. While the eggs are cooking, prepare an ice bath. When the eggs are done cooking, transfer them to the ice bath and set aside. Keep the water for the next step to save time. Peel the cooled eggs and separate the eggs and whites. The whites can be set aside or refrigerated until serving.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil on the stove top. Add the tomatillos, onion, garlic, and serrano pepper to the water and cook until the tomatillos are soft and pale olive-green (the skins may split – this is normal). Carefully remove the vegetables from the water with a slotted spoon and place them in a blender along with the garlic, onion, and serrano pepper. Add the egg yolks, cilantro, and salt and blend until smooth. Cool the salsa and set it aside. Refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 6 months.
Potato Filling
- Combine the spices and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes and stir to keep them coated in oil and prevent them from sticking. After about 2 minutes, add the onions and garlic and continue to fry, stirring regularly, until the onions are soft and starting to brown a bit.
- Add the spices to the pan and stir to combine. Fry for another minute or so, then add the guajillo sauce and water. Stir to combine again and reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the sauce is fairly dry and the potatoes are tender. If you need to cook the mixture a bit longer, add more water to keep it from scorching. Set aside or refrigerate for up to 3 days.
To Assemble and Serve
- Pour a portion of the guajillo sauce into a shallow bowl. Take a single bun and dunk it in the sauce, turning it over slowly to ensure that it’s evenly covered and soaks up a fair bit of sauce. Set the bun aside on a plate and repeat with the remaining buns, adding more sauce as necessary.
- Heat a small skillet over high heat and add the vegetable oil. Once it’s very hot, add a bun to the oil and fry for about 30 seconds per side. Remove the bun and let it cool (you may want to place them on paper towel to soak up the excess oil). Repeat with the remaining buns. Discard any leftover oil.
- Slice the buns open.
- (Optional) If using Oaxaca/mozzarella cheese, fill the inside of the buns, return them to the pan (with most of the oil removed) and dry-fry them to melt the cheese and crisp up the buns a bit. If you’re omitting cheese or using a crumbled cheese like queso fresco, skip this step.
- Fill the buns with potatoes, refried beans, salsa, lettuce, tomato, chopped egg white, and a few dollops of the guajillo sauce. Grab a ton of napkins and enjoy immediately.
RECIPE NOTES
Onion for the salsa verde – Because you’re cooking the onion in boiling water and then removing it, you want it to stay together as one piece. In order to do this, cut the top off of a whole onion and peel away the skin/outer layer, but DO NOT cut off the root end (do trim it to clean it up and remove any roots, but leave it intact). You can halve the onion through the center (half a medium onion is usually around 150 g) and add it to the pot as is. When it comes out of the pot it should be intact. You can trim away the root end now if you like, but it will be fine if it goes into the blender as is.