East L.A. BLT

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I was at the gym running on the treadmill watching the ABC food show, The Chew, watching chef Michael Symon go through this extremely elaborate process making of pork cracklings for his Pork Lettuce and Tomato (PLT) sandwich.

Suddenly, my Mexican DNA taste buds started to salivate and the voice of my foodie ancestors whispered to me “What about Mexican chicharrón?”

I could pair the chicharrón with a chipotle cream sauce and serve it on a bolillo. And just to pretend it’s not sinful, include a healthy amount of lettuce and tomato. Ok, it’s still sinful but that’s why it tastes awesome. I have christened this sandwich my “East L.A. BLT” and it goes great with a nopal salad.

Salad ingredients – Prepare the salad before the sandwiches.

4 nopal (cactus) paddles, scraped clean of the spines, cut into strips *

1/2 cup thinly sliced white onion

1 clove diced garlic

¼ cup chopped cilantro

1 teaspoon crumbled dried oregano

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon red vinegar

Salt and pepper

Cook the nopales in boiling water for about 10 minutes until tender, then rinse in cold water. Place the nopales in a salad bowl with the onion, garlic and cilantro. Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, oregano and salt and pepper, and pour over all. Toss to blend and set aside to season while you prepare the sandwiches.

Sandwich Ingredients

1 lb Mexican chicharrón con carne (with meat)

1 cup Crema Mexicana

2 or more peppers of canned chipotle adobado

4 bolillos sliced horizontally in half (Mexican roll)

Lettuce leaves cleaned and dried

Tomato slices

Serves 4

Blend the chipotle and crema in a blender until the color is uniform.

Carefully slice the crusty chicharrón pieces in ¾ inch thick slices.

Generously slather (you know it’s going to be good when you hear the word slather) the bottom half of a bolillo with the chipotle crema and then layer with lettuce, tomato and chicharrón. Finish topping with a generous drizzle of chipotle crema and cap the sandwich with the top half of the bolillo.

*Notes You can find fresh or canned nopales, chicharrón, canned chipotle and bollio in your Mexican deli or grocery store.

Buen provecho!