This Chicago street food is a unique regional dish. The Mother-in-law sandwich is made with a Chicago-style tamale in a bun topped with cheese, chili, and onions. The combination may be adapted from the Mexican torta de tamal, a tamale on a bolillo roll, with roots in Chicago's large Hispanic community. Chicago-style tamales are also unique, made of machine-extruded cornmeal and wrapped in paper rather than the more traditional corn husk. Typically cooked in a hot-dog steamer, Chicago-style tamales can be purchased frozen around the country.
Recipe Servings: 4
Prep Time
20 minutes
Cook Time
50 minutes
Total Time
1 hour 10 minutes
Vegetarian
Vegan
Gluten Free
Dairy Free
Kosher
Halal
Ingredients
Chili:
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 1½ lbs ground sirloin
- 1 lb Mexican-style chorizo
- 1 onion, diced
- 1–2 Tbsp chili powder
- 1–2 Tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- Kosher salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 stout beer
- 1 Tbsp hot sauce
- 1 can (14.5 oz) crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup chicken stock
Sandwich:
Directions
- In a large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat.
- Add the beef and chorizo, cooking about 5 minutes and breaking up clumps with a wooden spoon, until the beef is no longer pink.
- Remove the meat from the pot, leaving the fat.
- Add the onions, chili powder, cumin, and paprika and season with salt and pepper.
- Cook for 7–8 minutes, until the onions become soft.
- Deglaze the pan with the beer and cook about 3–4 minutes.
- Add the hot sauce, tomatoes, stock, and reserved meat, and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the consistency has thickened. Adjust seasoning to taste.
- With a steamer basket set over a pot of simmering water, heat the tamales for about 10 minutes, until warmed through.
- In a small bowl, combine the sport peppers with the chopped onion.
- Open the buns and sprinkle some onions and peppers in the bottom over the crease.
- Remove the paper or husks from the tamales and place in the center of the buns.
- Sprinkle with Manchego cheese, then ladle chili over top.
- Top with the remaining sport peppers and onions and sprinkle with crushed corn chips.
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