Traditional Uruguayan chivito: the steak, bacon, egg, cheese and ham sandwich that is a national pride

The story is told all over Punta del Este: in the 1940s, an Argentine tourist walked into the restaurant El Mejillón and asked for chivito, kid goat meat, which she ate in the hills of Córdoba. The owner, Antonio Carbonaro, had no goat. He improvised a sandwich with what he had, a thin tenderloin steak, ham and butter in a bun, and named it chivito so as not to disappoint the customer.

The improvisation became the national dish. Over time it gained bacon, cheese, fried egg, tomato, lettuce, bell pepper and mayonnaise, and today it is served on every corner of Montevideo, in a bun or al plato, piled over french fries and Russian salad, without bread.

The only real requirement is the meat: a thin, tender, pounded steak grilled quickly on the griddle. The rest is assembly, generosity and a bun that can take the load.

Recipe card

• Origin: Punta del Este, Uruguay
• Category: Sandwich, main course
• Difficulty: Easy
• Preparation time: 20 minutes
• Cooking time: 20 minutes
• Yield: 4 sandwiches

Ingredients

• 4 thin tenderloin or sirloin steaks (about 120 g each), pounded
• 4 soft hamburger buns or brioche buns
• 8 slices bacon
• 4 slices ham
• 4 generous slices mozzarella cheese
• 4 eggs
• 1 tomato in slices
• 4 lettuce leaves
• 1/2 roasted red bell pepper in strips (optional)
• Mayonnaise to taste
• Butter for the bread
• Olive oil or oil for the griddle
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• French fries to serve

Method

1. Fry the bacon in a skillet until crisp and set aside on paper towels.
2. In the same skillet, fry the eggs with the yolk soft or firm, as you prefer, and set aside.
3. Season the steaks with salt and pepper and grill on a very hot griddle with a drizzle of oil for 1 to 2 minutes per side.
4. Still on the griddle, place a slice of ham and a slice of cheese on each steak and cover for 1 minute to melt.
5. Split the buns, butter them and toast quickly on the griddle.
6. Spread mayonnaise on the bottom bun and assemble: lettuce, tomato, the steak with ham and cheese, the bacon, the egg and the bell pepper.
7. Close with the top bun, secure with a toothpick and serve with french fries.

Tips and variations

• Chivito al plato: skip the bread and pile everything over french fries, with Russian salad (potato, carrot and peas with mayonnaise) on the side.
• The Canadian chivito takes even more bacon; the complete adds olives and beets.
• Pound the steak between two sheets of plastic until very thin: it cooks in seconds and stays tender.
• A mayonnaise with garlic and parsley is the touch of many Montevideo snack bars.
• Hard bread ruins the sandwich: choose a soft one and toast only the inside.
• For the barbecue version, grill the steak and the bread over the coals.
• Serve with a glass of soda or an ice-cold beer, as tradition demands.

Chivito is not a light snack, it is a real meal. Serve it tall, with everything dripping down the bread, and come hungry.