Tamale Sandwiches on Cornbread

You’re going to need a fork for these sandwiches.  They are a different take on pork bbq, using Mexican inspired flavors.  I found a recipe in the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook called Spicy Pork Buns.  The authors of the book explained that they wanted to create a sandwich that has the flavor combination of tamales.  That sounded like a good idea to me.

I altered the recipe in several ways.  First, they put the meat mixture into a yeast type cornbread and baked it with the bread dough wrapped around the meat.  That sounds awesome to eat and time consuming to make, so I decided to use my cornbread recipe instead and serve the meat over the top.  I also made a lot more meat and changed the filling ingredients a bit.

Here’s what you’ll need.   You won’t need the cornstarch that is shown in the photo.  It was in the original recipe, but I decided it wasn’t needed.

• large pork shoulder roast or other cut of beef or pork roast
• 2  28oz cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 4 chilis from a can of chilis in adobo sauce, seeds scraped out and chopped fine
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 recipe of cornbread

Place the roast in a slow cooker.  Sprinkle it with salt and pepper and cook 5-6 hours on high or 7-8 hours on low.  When it is fully cooked, shred the meat with a fork and return it to the slow cooker.  You could also refrigerate or freeze the meat at this point to finish at a later time.

Add the other ingredients to the meat in the slow cooker.  Stir to combine.  Cook on low for another 2-4 hours.  Serve over the cornbread.

This is spicy, but not enough to really set your tongue aflame.  My younger kids found it a bit too spicy for comfort.  Next time, I’ll probably reduce the peppers and use only 3.

This made enough for my family of six to have 3 meals.  I froze the extra, which worked great.