Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Panes con Pollo
Warm baguette rolls stuffed with relajo-spiced chicken, salad, and a savory gravy, El Salvador's festive sandwich.
Salvadoran · medium · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 60 min
~498 cal · 49g protein · 16g carbs · 26g fat · 3g fiber · 7g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Panes con pollo, breads with chicken, are the great celebration sandwiches of El Salvador, made for birthdays, holidays, and church gatherings, often by the dozen. Far more than a simple filled roll, they are a project, and worth it.
The chicken is stewed in a relajo, a toasted blend of seeds, spices, and dried chiles, along with tomato and other vegetables, until it falls apart in a rich, dark sauce. The soft French roll is layered with the shredded chicken, a spoon of the sauce, and a fresh salad of watercress, radish, cucumber, tomato, and pickled vegetables.
Wrapped in paper and eaten with both hands, gravy running down the wrist, it is festive food that Salvadorans abroad crave as the taste of home, more elaborate than any everyday sandwich has a right to be.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
4 French bread rolls
1 1/2 lb chicken pieces
4 tomatoes
3 tbsp relajo spice blend (sesame, pumpkin seed, dried chile)
1 tbsp () powder
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 bunch watercress
2 cups radishes, cucumber, and tomato, sliced
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp mustard
Instructions
1
Toast and grind the relajo, then blend with the tomato, onion, garlic, and achiote into a deep-red sauce.
2
Simmer the chicken in the sauce until very tender, then shred it back into the thickened gravy.
✎ Chef’s note
The relajo is the soul of the dish. Toast the seeds and chiles until fragrant before grinding, so the sauce tastes deep and smoky rather than raw.
3
Split the rolls, spread with a little mayonnaise and mustard, and pile in the saucy chicken.
4
Top with watercress and the sliced salad, spoon over more gravy, and wrap to eat.
Salvadoran celebration tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
San Salvador. Olocuilta, north of the capital, is where people drive for them, and its speciality is the rice-flour pupusa rather than the corn one. Loroco, an edible flower bud with a green almost artichoke taste, is a classic filling alongside cheese, and the curtido on the table has been souring for days.
🗺️
El Salvador. El Salvador is the land of the pupusa, a thick stuffed corn cake griddled and topped with tangy curtido slaw. Corn, beans, and a warm street-food culture anchor its comforting national table.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from El Salvador
Pupusas con CurtidoHand-patted masa cakes stuffed with cheese and beans, griddled until molten, served with tangy cabbage curtido.
Plátanos Fritos con Frijoles y CremaCaramelized fried plantains with thick refried beans and a swirl of crema, the humble Salvadoran típico breakfast.
Quesadilla SalvadoreñaA sweet, dense pound cake made with hard cheese and topped with sesame seeds, El Salvador's coffee-break classic.
Browse all El Salvador recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Blender.
Storing it: Best made to order. Prep the fillings ahead and assemble just before eating so nothing turns soggy.
Make it a El Salvador meal
Horchata de MorroDrink
Quesadilla SalvadoreñaDessert
Sopa de PataDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Panes con Pollo?
Warm baguette rolls stuffed with relajo-spiced chicken, salad, and a savory gravy, El Salvador's festive sandwich.
Where does Panes con Pollo come from?
Panes con Pollo is a Salvadoran dish from San Salvador, El Salvador.
Can Panes con Pollo be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Panes con Pollo recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Panes con Pollo safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Panes con Pollo take to make?
About 90 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 60 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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