Panes con pollo, the Salvadoran version of a chicken sandwich, is a wonderful way to celebrate a party, birthday, holiday or just a regular family cookout.
One thing to note is the type of bread used. Some folks say that pan francés and Mexican bolillo are the same and interchangeable; I say for some things, sure, but not for this Salvadoran dish. This sandwich requires a hollow bread that will hold and absorb a lot of sauce. Bolillo can sometimes be too doughy and its crumb doesn’t absorb liquid very well, so using it would be a travesty. If you cannot find a good pan francés from a Salvadoran bakery, the next available bread will have to suffice, but I am just giving you the facts. Some Salvadoran cooks add curtido, sliced hard-boiled eggs and sliced beets to their panes, but this is optional.
If you’re eating the sandwich and realize that it’s falling apart because of the sauce, that’s okay — it just means you’re doing it right. I’ve been to parties where the bread is soaked and whoever is putting the sandwiches together still says, “Oh, wait, let me spoon more sauce on there.” Once, on Christmas Eve, my brother, my husband and I were making the holiday family rounds, and a tía whom we went to visit was still cooking and cutting the vegetables for the panes. She told us to wait until they were ready. By the time we needed to leave, she was just finishing, but we couldn’t stay to eat them or else we’d fall behind in our carefully planned family Christmas tour. My brother got one pan to go, and let’s just say it’s not a sandwich that travels well. He loved every bite, but he had sauce and crumbs all over him.
