Ingredients:

4 1/2-inch thick filet mignon rounds (about 1 1/3 lb)
4 kaiser rolls
4 (or 8 if small) slices fresh mozzerella cheese
4 tomato slices
4  slices  ham
3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
8 slices thick cut bacon, cooked
1/3 cup roughly chopped green olives
mayonnaise
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Sprinkle both sides of the steak with salt and pepper. Quickly cook on a very hot skillet, turning once. Place each steak on the bottom half of each roll. Top with cheese, bacon, ham, egg, tomato and olives. Spread mayonnaise liberally on the top half of the roll and then close the sandwich.

My thoughts:

When I found out that “Around the World in 80 Plates” will be in Uruguay this week (July 18th, 10/9c) I was excited because I finally had an excuse to make chivito, the national sandwich of Uruguay. Delicously over the top, this is not an every day sandwich! There are several different ways to make a chivito but they all include a thin steak topped by eggs (fried or hard-boiled), bacon, ham, olives (black or green) and mayo. It sounds a bit odd but rest assured, it is a wonderful, incredibly savory sandwich.

The origins of the sandwich are a bit hazy. Apparently someone came into a restaurant asking for a goat sandwich (chivito) and since they didn’t have goat, they made this instead. Not sure why they just didn’t give them a plain steak sandwich but I have to say, this one is much better!