Pambazos Recipe | Potato and Chorizo Pambazos

Pambazos are counted as among the best sandwiches and streets foods of Mexican cuisine. They are Mexican bread rolls dipped with guajillo salsa and stuffed with chorizo con papas. Topped with shredded lettuce, crema, queso and salsa verde. They are super easy to make at home, and you can easily make vegan and vegetarian versions.

Pambazos

Pambazo (pam-ba-so), or pambazo Mexicano, are what you call this style of torta or Mexican sandwich.

The original name comes from the specific type of bread roll, pan basso, that was used to make these sandwiches. Nowadays people also use bolillos or teleras (both types of Mexican bread rolls) to prepare the pambazo sandwich. You can find them at any Mexican bakery or grocery store.

More Mexican Tortas to Try

• The BEST Torta de Jamón (Made Vegan)
• Fried Chicken Sandwich | Torta de Milanesa de Pollo
• Molletes

Traditional Pambazos

If you’ve never heard of a pambazos I can say that you’ve been seriously missing out!

Though not the lowest in calories, they are definitely high on deliciousness.

To start with the bread roll is brushed with a mild chile guajillo sauce, then it’s lightly fried before being stuffed.

Traditionally these sandwiches are stuffed with Mexican chorizo (made from pork) and potatoes. Of course here we’re going to be using vegan chorizo or soy chorizo also called soyrizo

The toppings are simply shredded lettuce, Mexican sour cream, cheese and a good drizzle of salsa finishes up the dish.

Incredibly simple, yet bursting with flavors.

Ingredients

All of the pambazo ingredients will be easy for you to find at either your Mexican grocery store or Latin food isle at the grocery store. But of course there’s always Amazon too.

• Teleras or Bolillos: These Mexican bread rolls are pretty easy to find and you can use bolillos if you can’t get telera bread. In an emergency you could use even a baguette or any crispy on the outside and tender on the inside bread roll.
• Guajillo Chiles: These are dried, long red chiles that are mild or not hot at all. They’ll need to be stemmed and rehydrated, see instructions below.
• Onion and Garlic: Both used for the salsa
• Oil: This is to fry the bread
• Chorizo con Papas: This is for the filling (click to get my recipe)
• Mexican crema: This is for the topping (make your own vegan crema)
• Cotija cheese: Also for the topping (I love using my vegan almond cotija)
• Lettuce: For the topping
• Salsa: I like to use salsa verde (make my easy salsa verde recipe)

The guajillo chilies if you can’t find them at your grocery store there’s always Amazon.

If you need to substitute the bolillo or telera, make sure it’s a bread roll that isn’t too soft and won’t get soggy.

One tip I’d like to give you, if you live in a humid place like I do, then it’s best to buy your bread rolls the day you make the pambazos. Otherwise they may soften too much and become fragile to handle and eat.

How to Make Pambazos

The process is quite easy, it may take you a little more than 40 minutes but it’s very much well worth it.

STEP #1: PREPARE THE CHORIZO CON PAPAS

The first thing you want to make is the filling of chorizo con papas. You can follow me easy recipe, you’ll find it here on the blog.

STEP #2: MAKE THE GUAJILLO SALSA

The next step involves boiling the stemmed and seeded guajillo chilies with onion and garlic clove in a pot with enough water to cover them. Simmer until everything is soft.

Next place the softened ingredients with 1/2 cup of the boiling broth (or more if needed), and a 1/2 teaspoon salt, in a blender and blend until you have a completely smooth sauce. Then strain into a wide container or large bowl. Discard any leftover bits. Taste for salt and adjust if needed.

STEP #3: PREPARE THE TELERA OR BOILLO

The bread roll is sliced in half going lengthwise. In a large frying pan and over medium heat, warm up about 1/4 cup or up to 1/2 cup heat until hot.

Dip the bread roll into the chile sauce. Make sure the bread is coated on all sides. Then place it in the hot oil.

Fry for about 3 minutes on each side. You want the bread to be a bit crispy on both sides.

STEP #4: FILL THE PAMBAZO

Make sure that your fillings are all ready to go before you proceed. Of course you should have made the chorizo and potato mixture filling first.

Place one bread roll on a serving plate then open it to fill.

Fill with a few tablespoons of the chorizo con papas mix.

Then arrange the shredded lettuce over the chorizo mixture.

Next sprinkle with cotija or vegan cheese, then drizzle with the crema.

Finish off with a good drizzling of salsa. Then serve immediately.

Vegan Pambazos

Of course my version is made using veggie chorizo (or soyrizo) so the sandwich is actually vegan.

The crema I used is my vegan Mexican crema made with almonds. It’s incredibly easy to make and tastes even better than the traditional dairy based one.

From the leftover almond pulp of the almonds from the crema, I use them to make a version of vegan cotija cheese. It works perfectly well and tastes so yummy.

If you are vegetarian you can use regular crema and cotija cheese if you’d like.

How to Serve

In my family we always just serve the pambazos alone. They’re so filling that you really don’t need a side dish.

However you feel like you need one, you could do refried beans on the side.

Pambazo FAQ

Vegan Pambazo Recipe

Ok amigos, you’ll see that this recipe is actually quite easy to make. It’s perfect for weeknight meals or a yummy weekend treat.

You could also serve these for a fiesta, they are a full meal on their own. You can make everything ahead and before serving dip and fry the bolillos.

See how easy it was to make? Once you make it for the first time you’ll want to put pambazos on your meal rotation — also they’re great for game nights.

The only thing you’ll want to make sure that you have plenty of extra napkins because they are a bit messy. You can just pick them up to eat or if you’d like you can use a fork and knife to look a less messy.

Post originally published on 15 November 2016 , updated 14 February 2022