How to make guacamaya, Guanajuato’s spicy street-food sandwich

If you enjoy searching out Mexico’s lesser-known antojitos, guacamaya deserves a place on the list. The sandwich comes from León, Guanajuato, and combines pork cracklings with pickled pork skin inside a bolillo covered in spicy sauce.

Its name does not refer to macaw meat. According to an article from the Government of Guanajuato, the dish dates to 1950. The story says a group of workers stopped for breakfast and bought a bolillo covered in salsa. One day, one of them asked the vendor to add a piece of pork crackling. The sauce proved so hot that the worker began shouting, prompting the vendor to say he looked like a guacamaya.

The sandwich later acquired pickled cueritos and pico de gallo, while some versions also add vegetables such as avocado. The bread should be hot when filled, which helps keep it crisp instead of allowing the sauce to soften it. For that reason, the sandwich is best eaten right away.

To make two guacamayas, prepare 100 grams of pork cracklings, 75 grams of pickled pork skin and two bolillos. The sauce calls for three chiles de árbol, two tomatoes, two limes, one tablespoon of white vinegar, half a teaspoon of cumin, a quarter of an onion and salt.

Remove the chile stems and seeds, then cook the chiles and onion in water for five minutes. Blend them with some of the cooking water, vinegar and cumin. Mix the sauce with chopped tomatoes, lime juice and salt. Cut open the bolillos, remove some of the crumb, fill them with cracklings and cueritos, and add as much sauce as desired. Pico de gallo made with diced tomato, onion and cilantro can be served on the side.