El Salvadoran Panes con Pavo Recipe
Panes con pavo is a sandwich made with turkey and vegetables from El Salvador. The turkey is prepared in a marinade containing worcestershire sauce and is oven roasted. After roasting, it is sliced then slathered in a relajo sauce and layered into a bread roll along with the vegetables. It is eaten as a main meal.
Relajo is a traditional Salvadoran sauce made from tomatoes, onions, chile peppers and relajo spice mix, which includes chillies, bay leaves, sesame and pumpkin seeds. The vegetables may be fresh, typically cucumbers, water cress and radishes or pickled in vinegar like cabbage, carrots and onions.
Pan con pavo means bread with turkey. It is also called pan con chumpe. Chumpe is slang for turkey. One recipe variation is panes con pollo which uses chicken instead of turkey.
Origin and Cultural Significance
Panes con pavo originates from El Salvador where turkey is prepared for the Christmas holiday season. Panes con pavo is popular during these holidays because they can be made from the leftover turkey.
El Salvadoran Panes con Pavo
Panes con pavo is a sandwich made with turkey and vegetables from El Salvador. The turkey when made especially for this sandwich is prepared in a marinade containing worcestershire sauce and is oven roasted.
Ingredients
- Turkey (whole) - 1
Marinade
- Butter (softened) - ¼ cup
- Worcestershire sauce - ¼ cup
- Yellow mustard - ¼ cup
- Coarse salt - 1 tbsp
- Ground black pepper - 1 ½ tsp
- Adobo (or other favorite savory spice blend) - 1 ½ tsp
Relajo spice mix
- Sesame seeds (raw) - 1/3 cup
- Peanuts (raw) - ¼ cup
- Pumpkin seeds (raw) - ¼ cup
- Chile (dried, destemmed & deseeded) - 1
- Thyme (dried) - 2 tsp
Sauce
- Green peppers (medium) - 2
- Yellow onions (quartered) - 2
- Tomatoes (chopped) - 2 cans
- Tomato and onion mix - 1 can
- Cilantro - 1 bunch
- Flat leaf parsley - 1 bunch
- Celery (chopped) - 2 sticks
- Bay leaves - 3
- Salt and pepper - to taste
- Olives - to taste
Sandwich Assembly
- Rolls (large) - 10
- Romaine lettuce - 10 leaves
- Tomatoes - 30 slices
- Cucumber - 30 slices
- Radishes - to taste
- Watercress - to taste
Instructions
- Rinse the turkey well inside and out, then pat dry.
- Mix all the marinade ingredients together into a runny paste.
- Bathe the turkey in the marinade, inside and out and between the skin of the breast and wings.
- Using a small sharp knife, poke holes all over the turkey.
- Leave to marinate overnight in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Place the marinaded turkey in a deep roaster pan.
- Place in the oven and let it brown, about 30-40 minutes, start to check it after 20 minutes.
- Turn it over to brown the other side.
- Place the sesame seeds, peanuts and pumpkin seeds to a dry frying pan over moderate heat.
- Toast them until fragrant and golden, constantly stirring and shaking the pan.
- When done, put them in a large bowl to cool as the rest of the sauce is prepared
- Put the quartered onions and whole green peppers in a dry pan over high heat and blister them.
- When charred, split the peppers in half and remove the seeds.
- Remove whatever skin peels off easily.
- Add the peppers (in rough chunks) along with the onions into a big bowl with the nuts, seeds, tomatoes, celery, parsley, cilantro, thyme and dried chile. Do not add the bay leaves and olives.
- Blend until smooth.
- Remove the turkey from the oven and quickly cover it with the sauce.
- Add the olives and tuck the bay leaves into the meat folds.
- Lower the heat to 350F and bake the turkey for approximately 3 hours or until tender. If it starts to get too browned at the end, cover with foil.
- Let the turkey cool then slice.
- Slice the rolls open.
- Fill the rolls with layers of sliced turkey, lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, watercress and sauce from the cooked turkey.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 256Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 15mgSodium: 1093mgCarbohydrates: 33gFiber: 6gSugar: 9gProtein: 9g
Nutrition is provided and calculated by Nutritionix. It is for general information purposes and is only a rough estimation.
