Choripán with Chimichurri
ARGENTINIAN · ARGENTINA

Choripán with Chimichurri

Choripán con chimichurriSnack

A butterflied chorizo grilled hard over coals until the skin blisters and the fat runs, then slammed into crusty bread and drowned in raw garlic-and-parsley chimichurri. Argentina's street-corner sandwich, and nothing about it is polite.

Total
40 min
Heat
2/5
Serves
4

Sign in to see what you already have, what you can swap and what’s missing.

Flavour profile

Heat
Funk
Acid
Richness
Umami
  • Garlicky
  • Herby
  • Smoky
  • Sour

The real deal

Region
Argentina, born at the football grounds and roadside parrillas of Buenos Aires.
Technique
The chorizo is butterflied ('mariposa') so it cooks through and chars on the flat of the grill, never boiled.
We kept
Real chorizo criollo, raw chimichurri, crusty bread, no cheese, no tomato, no lettuce.

Ingredients

4 Serves

grill

  • 4 · fresh raw chorizo criollo, not cured slicing chorizo

serve

  • 1 · or crusty rolls, split and lightly toasted
  • 1 · optional · halved, to squeeze over

chimichurri

  • 30 g · leaves and tender stems, chopped fine
  • 4 cloves · finely chopped, never crushed to paste
  • 1 tbsp · Argentinian oregano if you can find it
  • 1 tsp · ají molido if you have it
  • 4 tbsp
  • 120 ml · mild, not peppery
  • 2 pinches
  • 2 tbsp

Method

  1. Make the chimichurri: stir 30 g , 4 cloves , 1 tbsp , 1 tsp and 2 pinches together in a bowl. Pour in 4 tbsp and 2 tbsp , then whisk in 120 ml until it emulsifies into a loose, glossy sauce. It should taste sharp, garlicky and a little raw. Leave it at room temperature for at least 30 min so the garlic and oregano soften into the oil.

    Do not blend it and do not use a garlic press: crushed garlic turns the sauce bitter and milky. Chopped by hand is the whole point.

  2. Butterfly the chorizos: lay each one flat and split it lengthways with a knife, cutting almost but not quite through, so it opens like a book into one flat slab. You want the inside exposed to the heat and the skin still holding it together.

    If the sausages are twisted into links, cut the casing at the twist first and peel them apart; do not slice through the skin.

  3. Split the bread and grill the cut faces over the coals or in a dry pan until they are dry and lightly marked, about 1 min. They should be crisp enough to hold up to the fat, but still soft inside.

    A wet, flabby roll ruins this sandwich. Give the crumb a hard, dry kiss of heat first.

  4. Get a grill or heavy pan properly hot: high heat. Lay the chorizos open side down and leave them alone for 3 min, until the exposed meat is deeply browned and the edges are crisp. Flip and give the skin side 2 min, until the casing blisters and darkens and the sausages feel springy and firm. If they flare and burn, pull them to a cooler part of the grill.

    Let the fat render and drip into the fire: that smoke is half the flavour. Do not pierce the skin to speed it up, you lose the juice.

  5. Move the chorizos off the direct heat and rest them for 2 min. They firm up as they cool, so they slice and bite cleanly instead of leaking fat everywhere.

  6. Lay a chorizo in each piece of toasted bread, spoon chimichurri generously over the meat and let it run into the crumb. Squeeze over the lemon if you want extra acid, close the sandwich and eat it standing up, with more chimichurri on the side.

    Spoon the chimichurri on late, right before eating: bread sitting in it goes to mush within minutes.

▶ Start cook mode

Make it a meal

What hits hardest next to it.

Versions

No versions yet. Want it hotter, vegetarian, with what you have? Make the first one.

Make it your way

Sign in to make your own version of this recipe.