Chivito

Ingredients

• Beef tenderloin — in thin slices500 g
• Buns4
• Ham150 g
• Bacon150 g
• Mozzarella200 g
• Eggs4
• Tomatoes2
• Lettuce100 g
• Green olives60 g
• Mayonnaise100 g
• Vegetable oil30 ml
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Pound the beef under film to four millimetres and season it.

   12 min

2. 2

   Fry the bacon crisp and drain it on paper.

   8 min

3. 3

   Get the pan very hot and sear the steaks forty-five seconds a side.

   6 min

4. 4

   Lay the cheese on the meat in the pan and cover it for thirty seconds so it softens.

   3 min

5. 5

   Fry the eggs with runny yolks and toast the cut buns in a dry pan.

   8 min

6. 6

   Spread mayonnaise on both halves and layer lettuce, tomato, the steak with its cheese, ham, bacon and the egg.

   6 min

7. 7

   Close it, spear it with a cocktail stick and an olive, and serve with chips.

   3 min

About the dish

The steak is beaten to a few millimetres and seared a minute and a half over a fierce heat. A thick piece cannot be bitten through in a sandwich, and long cooking dries it out.

The order of the layers is not arbitrary: mayonnaise on both halves, meat at the bottom, everything else above. That keeps the bread from soaking and lets the hot steak melt the cheese under the ham.

The name means "little goat", though there is no goat in it. The usual story has an Argentine visitor in the 1940s asking for kid, none being available, and the cook assembling a sandwich from what he had.

Worth knowing

• — Toast the bun without fail. A soft one soaks through from the meat juices and the yolk within two minutes.
• — Salt the meat immediately before frying. Salted early it weeps and no crust forms.
• — The plated version, without bread, is called chivito al plato and comes with chips, salad and the egg alongside.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

890 kcal

Protein

52 g

Fat

54 g

Carbs

46 g

More from Uruguay

• Milanesa a la napolitana — A breaded cutlet under tomato sauce, ham and melted cheese.
• Torta frita — Flat rounds made on rendered fat and deep-fried, which Uruguayans make when it rains.
• Buseca — A thick tripe soup with white beans, chorizo and vegetables, Uruguayan winter food.