Bifana — Portuguese Pork Sandwich

Name: Bifana — Portuguese Pork Sandwich
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Portuguese
Ingredients: 500 g Pork loin or leg, sliced very thin; 6 Garlic cloves, crushed; 150 ml Dry white wine; 1 tbsp Sweet paprika; 2 Bay leaves; Piri-piri or chilli paste; 2 tbsp Lard or olive oil; 4 Crusty bread rolls (papo-seco); Salt

Portugal's everyday sandwich: thin pork steaks simmered soft in a garlicky white-wine broth, then piled into a crusty roll that soaks up the juices. Cheap, fast, and eaten standing up all over the country.

Source

Recipe by Portuguese home kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · Everyday cooking of Portuguese households — the plain, produce-led food behind the restaurant classics

Portuguese · traditional street sandwich — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article defines the bifana as a Portuguese sandwich eaten across the country, made from thin pork (chops, steak or loin) simmered with garlic and wine and served in heated bread; it records the north–south variation (shredded, saucier pork in the north versus a lighter-marinated cutlet in the south, with Vendas Novas cited as a likely origin) and the usual condiments of mustard and hot sauce. Quantities and method here are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

Celia Rego Gastro Portugal The Farming Chefs

⏱ 40 min🍽 4 servings🔥 520 kcal🇵🇹 Portugal🌶️

Dairy-freeNut-free

Steps

Mix the crushed garlic, wine, paprika, bay, chilli and a little salt in a bowl and turn the pork slices through it. Leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes, longer if you can.
Lift the pork out of the marinade (keep the liquid). Sear the slices quickly in the hot lard or oil, in batches, just to colour them — a minute a side.
Return all the pork to the pan, pour in the reserved marinade, and simmer for 10–12 minutes until the pork is tender and the liquid has reduced to a glossy, garlicky broth.
💡 Do not let it dry out — the point of a bifana is the juices, which the bread will drink up. Keep a little broth in the pan.
Split the rolls and dip the cut sides briefly in the pan broth. Pile in two or three pork slices per roll and spoon a little more broth over.
Add mustard or a dash of piri-piri to taste, close the roll, and eat while the bread is still soaked and warm.

💡 Tips

North and south disagree: the Porto style shreds the pork and serves it wetter, while the southern (Vendas Novas) style keeps a whole thin cutlet with a lighter marinade. Both are correct — this is a middle path.
A cold beer or a small coffee is the traditional partner. In Portugal a bifana is street and café food, ordered fast and eaten faster.

Photo coming soon

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