The Best Cuban Sandwich
First, comes the sweet buttery bread and then the Best Cuban Sandwich! It's loaded with Cuban pork roast, cheese, ham, and pickles.
Servings 4 Sandwiches
Prevent your screen from going dark
Ingredients
Sandwich
- 4 Cuban Bread
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 lb Cuban Roast Pork
- 8 slices sliced ham (sweet cured or smoked, Serrano, or bolo ham - I used honey ham
- 8 slices Swiss Cheese
- Dill pickle slices
- Mustard optional I used a Dijon but a spicy brown would be great or just yellow too.
- *Sriracha Optional
Cuban Roast Pork (Mojo - Marinated Pork)
- 4 pound Pork shoulder roast (also known as a pork butt)
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 cup sour orange juice I used 2/3 cup 100% orange juice (not from concentrate, 1 lime juiced and 1 lemon juiced)
- 1 cup minced onion
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 cup olive oil Spanish if you have it. I used Italian
Instructions
Cuban Roast Pork
- Mash the garlic, salt and peppercorns into a paste, using a mortar and pestle or a food processor. Stir in sour orange juice, onion and oregano. Let mixture sit for 30 minutes.
- Heat olive oil in a 2 quart saucepan until hot but not frying hot. You'll see some movement in the oil. Remove the oil from the heat and quickly AND CAREFULLY whisk the garlic-orange juice mixture until well blended. Let cool before using as a marinade.
- Pierce the pork roast several times all over with a fork or sharp knife. Place it in a roasting pan and pour garlic mixture (save a little for basting while roasting) over pork. Cover and let sit in the refrigerator for two or three hours.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Remove lid from the pork and roast for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 225°F and roast until the meat is soft and you can pull it apart easily with a fork, about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Baste occasionally while roasting. I roasted mine to an internal temperature of 175°F. Remove from the oven and let rest 10 minutes before slicing.
Sandwich Assembly.
- Butter the inside of the top and bottom of the bread and spread the mustard. Put the pickles on the bread, followed by the roasted pork, ham, and cheese. Be generous!
- Butter a hot griddle or pan. Place the sandwich on the pan and using a heavy skillet, bacon press or foil wrapped brick, or panini press, flatten the sandwich for approximately 3 minutes and then flip to the other side.
- You don't want you pan so hot that your bread burns but it needs to be hot enough to melt your cheese. Cook until the bread is golden brown.
- Slice the sandwich diagonally and serve immediately.
Video
Notes
4 sandwiches only take 1 pound of meat. I freeze what I don't use so we always have Cubanos without having to roast the pork each time.
Cooking time depends on the size of your roast.
The Three Guys from Miami recommend that you let your meat and cheese come to room temperature so the bread so it doesn't get over toasted before the cheese melts.
I recommend that you toast the inside of the bread so the pickles don't make your bread soggy.
* I add a little Sriracha to Dijon mustard. It adds a delicious little kick to the sandwich.
Recipes courtesy of the Three Guys From Miami from their book: "Three Guys From Miami Cook Cuban." Copyright ©2004 All Rights Reserved. Check out their website at: https://icuban.com/food https://icuban.com/food
Nutrition
Calories: 443kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 35g | Fat: 32g | Saturated Fat: 16g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 135mg | Sodium: 858mg | Potassium: 425mg | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 549IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 285mg | Iron: 1mg
This recipe was calculated using the exact brands and measurements I used to make this recipe. If you are following a strict diet please note changing anything will cause the nutritional info to change. My calculations are intended as a guide only.
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