There’s a new bagel place in my neighborhood, and it has received a healthy amount of attention online and on social media recently, so I’ve tried to check it out. The restaurant is called El Bagelero, and it’s on the corner of a really busy intersection, just a football field or so in distance away from the Western Blue Line CTA stop.
While they have some interesting bagel sandwich concepts, I’ve only gotten the chance to try one of them (twice). And this blog post is my attempt to try to recreate something similar that you can make at your house if you don’t have a Chicago visit planned any time soon.
If you’re nearby, do check out El Bagelero. I love having interesting sandwich spots nearby, so let’s keep these small businesses busy. I plan to go back soon and try their Cubano-focused bagel next.
This might be obvious to everyone who took more Spanish classes than I did, but El Bagelero means “The Bagel Maker” in Spanish.
What is this bagel sandwich?
This pork sandwich is mostly a copycat or heavily inspired menu item that a local-to-me bagel stand has available. It’s a pulled pork-focused sandwich with tender and slightly crispy pork carnitas and sweet caramelized onions inside of a cheddar and jalapeno-flavored bagel. There’s also a spicy avocado aioli spread on the inside, which brings just a bit of creaminess to complement the fattier bits of the pork.
The slightly spicy bagel is sliced and then toasted, and the pork is chopped a bit finer than you might find it in a carnitas taco, leading to the textural experience of a chewy bagel with a soft interior.
My version of this bagel sandwich is not an exact copycat, because I’m actually adding more of the ingredients than I found in the versions I bought and ate at El Bagelero.
The El Bagelero experience
El Bagelero is fairly busy, and they don’t seem to have an easy way to replenish their bagels throughout the day. From what I can gather, when they sell out, they sell out for the day. They source their bagels from The Onion Roll in nearby Oak Park. Because of this, if you want a sandwich on a specific bagel, you might want to order in advance or just get there early.
If you check out El Bagelero’s website, you’ll find their goal to fuse together bagels with a bit of cultural flair. “Our mission is to bring the authentic taste of New York-style bagels with a delicious Latin American twist.”
That’s why the menu is stocked with items like a riff on a Cubano bagel, a chorizo, jalapeno, and habanero cheese-focused sandwich, the classic, which comes with lox, cream cheese, and pico de gallo, and the bagel we’re covering today, the carnitas. You can also get breakfast tacos and burritos if a bagel isn’t something you’re into at the moment. Since El Bagelero is so close to the CTA, this could be a good stop for business commuters to pick up a coffee and breakfast taco for their train ride.
Note: I have tried the El Bagelero Carnitas bagel sandwich twice, but the second time I got it and planned to take photos of the sandwich, El Bagelero was out of the cheddar and jalapeno bagels for the day, so I had to audible. I ordered the sandwich on an onion bagel instead. This is one of the reasons why you have to get to El Bagelero on the early side.
The El Bagelero carnitas bagel is really good. The pork is savory and tender, and it seems to be chopped into fairly small pieces, so the sandwich holds together pretty well. I was worried that the avocado aioli would make the whole sandwich more slippery, but it didn’t. It seems like, after the paper wrapping process, the avocado and the caramelized onions worked well to support the carnitas and keep the sandwich together. The onions brought sweetness, and the jalapeno in the bagel (when I got a chance to try that version) added just a hint of spice that balanced out the onions. Overall, I am a fan of El Bagelero’s carnitas bagel, and I plan to try more soon.
Now that we know what our sandwich target is, we need to make the outside of the sandwich first. This is how I make cheddar and jalapeno bagels.
Cheddar and jalapeno bagels
I have shared a plain bagel recipe quite a few times at this point, and this is just that same bagel recipe that I added cheddar and jalapeno to. I tested this recipe two different ways: one with additional jalapeno and cheddar inside the bagel, and one with cheddar inside and outside, and just jalapeno on the exterior.
Believe it or not, I liked it better with jalapeno only on the top of the bagel. The thin slices of jalapeno gave a whole lot more spice than I expected, given that they were just confined to the exterior. But I do share both techniques in the full recipe linked below so that you can try them both and experiment with the levels of spice to see which you’d prefer.
I added a refrigeration overnight option to this bagel recipe. It’s not required, so you can go straight from shaping to proofing to boiling and then baking, but I put tips in the notes in case you’d prefer to bake the bagels the following day. This overnight or extended time in the refrigerator should slow the fermentation in the dough, but it won’t kill the yeast. You can remove the dough from the fridge, give it just a short period of time to warm up, and then go straight into the boiling and baking process. This gives you a bit more flexibility in when you’re going to bake if that’s something that your schedule requires.
Warning: bagel dough gets really ugly after the boiling process. They sort of get all wrinkly and pruned like your fingers after a long soak in a tub. Do not get discouraged at this point. The baking process will force the dough to expand and fill in those gross-looking wrinkly bits.
After the boiling process, your bagel dough will appear pruned and very ugly, but it’s now time to cover them with shredded cheddar and jalapeno slices. First, you need an egg wash, which helps the exterior of the bagel brown, but it will also help the toppings to stick to the top. Paint on the egg wash as consistently as you can, and then place 2 or 3 thin jalapeno slices on top of each, and then top each bagel top with some shredded cheddar. Now you’re ready to bake.
Once the bagels have been boiled and then painted with egg wash and covered with jalapeno slices and cheddar, it’s time to bake. In the recipe, I say for 18 to 25 minutes, which is sort of a wide window, but your bagels should be fully cooked by the lower end of that time frame. The only reason to keep going past about 18 minutes is to get to the color of brown that you enjoy in your bagels. Every oven is different, but the bagels you are seeing in these photos went for right around 25 minutes for me. And these are about perfect for what I expect a bagel to look like. If you like them lighter in color, check around 18 minutes and pull them out earlier rather than later.
Cheddar and jalapeno sandwich bagels
These slightly spicy and savory bagels are perfect for a smear of herby cream cheese, a sausage, egg, and cheese, or even a turkey club sandwich. Check the notes below the recipe for tips on the overnight refrigeration process for the dough if you'd prefer to make the dough and bake the next day.
Get RecipeCarnitas-style pork
The word carnitas in Spanish literally translates to “little meats.” This is a dish that typically starts with pork butt or pork shoulder that is braised or simmered in a liquid or broth, and then the meat is crisped up in pork fat or cooking oil until the edges are crispy.
Carnitas is a main course that is cooked slowly, and the resulting meat is tender and flavorful from the cooking process, which typically includes citrus like lime or orange juice, onion, Mexican oregano, and other spices. Carnitas is a dish that comes from central Mexico, and traditionally, it is cooked slowly in hot lard or pork fat until the meat pulls off the bone, and each piece is very tender.
After the collagen and connective tissues have broken down, carnitas isn’t exactly finished. Typically, the meat is then briefly cooked again to make the edges of the meat a bit crispy and give the pork a bit more texture.
I do not have a large amount of lard at my house, and while I could easily purchase some, I don’t really look forward to the process of cleaning and disposing of all of it, so it’s helpful that more than 10 years ago, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt created a simplified version of carnitas for Serious Eats. I borrowed heavily from that recipe to create my own version that I’ve made two or three times at this point, and if you’ve made pulled pork in a slow cooker or in the oven, this carnitas technique will feel really familiar.
Once the meat has been pulled into small pieces, you’re not really done. You can eat it this way, but typically, carnitas has crispier bits because it’s toasted or fried in fat. You can accomplish something similar by using your oven broiler to force heavy heat on top of the meat, which crisps it up while leaving the center tender and juicy.
Here’s my carnitas recipe that’s based on the one from Serious Eats. It’s not traditional, not cooked immersed in lard, but the resulting pork is tender, and after a bit of broiling, there’s a lot of texture in the crispy bits.
Easy carnitas-style pork
This recipe for tender and juicy pulled pork with crispy edges brings big flavor and texture to your next sandwich or taco. This is heavily inspired by the Serious Eats recipe for no-waste tacos de carnitas.
Get RecipeAvocado and cilantro sandwich sauce
I’ve shared this sandwich spread recipe before. It’s not really an aioli, but it’s close. It has egg yolk, Dijon mustard, and oil in the ingredient list, which are some of the main components of homemade mayonnaise. But the introduction of avocado really drives the texture and flavor of this spread.
Everything goes into a blender and is pureed until it’s a smooth, spreadable sandwich sauce. You do need to treat this a bit like homemade guacamole because it will tend to brown where it is exposed to air. I fight this by covering the surface of the spread with a piece of plastic wrap tightly pressed down to keep the surface free of any oxidation exposure.
Here’s my avocado and cilantro sandwich spread recipe. If you don’t want to make this, you can simply spread some avocado slices on the bagel, or you can even buy store-bought guacamole, which would work just fine.
Avocado and cilantro sandwich spread
This creamy and savory spread is perfect for your next sandwich that needs a bit of creaminess. Avocado and cilantro are great friends that create a well-paired sandwich component.
Get RecipeCaramelized onions
Caramelizing onions is easy. It takes a lot of time, though, which means it probably doesn’t appear easy for everyone. For me, though, I can put a pot of onions on the stove and bring my laptop into the kitchen to work while the onions cook and steam themselves. I can usually get 5 to 10 minutes of email time between stirring the pot, and 45 to 60 minutes later, you’ll have a pile of carmel colored, very tender onions that will blow you away with their sweetness.
For this sandwich, and many other applications for caramelized onions, you can cook these onions in advance and quickly warm them when it’s time for sandwiching. That’s what I did. I caramelized 3 onions on Saturday morning, got them in the fridge, and then pulled them out on Sunday when I first made this carnitas bagel.
Caramelized onions
Caramelized onions are a great refrigerator staple when it's time to make flavor combinations. Sweetness and texture additions will complement the savory elements you might already have in your sandwich.
Get RecipeThe sandwich recipe and photos
I took a bunch of photos of the carnitas bagel sandwiches that I made this week. Scroll through to check those out and get the full carnitas bagel sandwich recipe just below.
Carnitas and caramelized onion bagel sandwich
This sandwich recipe attempts to build a savory, spicy, and lightly sweet bagel sandwich with a bit of influence from Mexican cuisine. The carnitas portion of the recipe is heavily inspired by the Serious Eats recipe for no-waste tacos de carnitas.
Ingredients:
Carnitas-style pork- 3 to 4 pounds pork shoulder (boneless is preferred but bone-in works too)
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons salt
- teaspoon ground black pepper
- teaspoon chili powder
- teaspoon cayenne pepper powder
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 large orange, halved and squeezed into stock
- 6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion, peel removed and cut into quarters
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 large yellow onion or Vidalia onions, thinly sliced
- a pinch or more of kosher salt
- water
- 1 cheddar and jalapeno bagel (recipe link)
- avocado and cilantro sandwich spread (recipe link)
- carnitas (from above)
- caramelized onions (from above)
Directions:
Carnitas-style pork: preheat your oven to 275 F (135 C).
Cut the pork into roughly 4-inch cubes. If you bought a shoulder with the bone in it, carefully cut off the large hunks of meat around the bone as best you can and add all the cubes, plus the piece with the bone in it, to an oven-safe pot or baking dish.
Add the chicken stock to the vessel with the pork in it, and then add the spices and bay leaf. Stir the spices around with tongs or your hands, moving the pieces of meat to try to get things spread out a bit. Slice an orange in half, squeeze most of the juice out on top of the pork, and then add the orange halves to the pork. Nestle the onion quarters and garlic in as well. Cover the pot or pan tightly with foil and place it in the oven.
Bake for 3 hours.
After 3 hours, turn off the oven and remove the pot or dish. Allow everything to cool for 10 or 15 minutes, and then, using a strainer, remove all the meat chunks to a bowl and strain off all the liquid into another pot or bowl. Discard the bay leaves, orange halves, onion, garlic, and any large spices. Do not discard the reserved broth/liquid.
Using two forks or your clean fingers if the temperature isn't too hot, pull the pork into small bite-sized pieces and move the pork to a container that can be stored and sealed in the fridge. Add a bit of the reserved liquid and pour it directly into the container with the pork. Reserve the rest of the liquid in its own container in the fridge.
When it's time to sandwich or turn into tacos, remove the amount of pork that you plan to eat and add it to a foil-lined sheet pan. Broil the meat in the oven for 6 minutes, and then, using tongs, toss the meat around to expose a second side and broil for an additional 6 minutes or until all of the edges of the pork start to crisp up. After the meat is broiled, splash a couple of spoons of the reserved liquid over the meat and toss to ensure that each piece of meat is coated in a bit of the reserved fatty broth.
Caramelized onions: add 2 tablespoons of butter to a large pan over medium heat.
When butter is bubbly and frothing, add all of your sliced onions. Add a pinch of salt and stir everything to combine.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook onions, stirring often, for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, your onions should be starting to become lightly tan-colored, but not browned. You might start to see dark brown spots forming on the bottom of the pan, though, and if you do see that, add a tablespoon of water or two to the pan with the onions and use that water to stir the dark parts at the bottom to keep things from burning.
Continue cooking the onions over medium-low heat for another 15 to 25 minutes. Remember: if you see dark spots or dry areas on the pan, add a tablespoon of water. The water should cook off quickly, but it will help to temper the pan temperature and help the onions to cook through without burning.
After the onions are nice and turning brown, remove from the pan to a sealed container, and if not serving immediately, store in the fridge for no more than a week or so.
Sandwich assembly: toast the bagel if desired.
Spread a bit of the avocado and cilantro sandwich spread on the bottom half of the bagel. If you're just using avocado or guacamole, add some on the bottom of the bagel slice.
Top the avocado with a pile of carnitas and then a couple of spoonfuls of caramelized onions. Add more avocado spread to the top piece of the bagel and close to finish the sandwich.
Serve and enjoy.
Check back next week
Next week, we’re digging back into a one-pan sandwich concept that I wrote about for this blog a few years back. But we’ll be doing things differently this time—while hopefully still keeping the ease of sandwiching tactics in place.
