Mother in Law Sandwich

I first learned of the Mother in Law Sandwich from the Food Reddit (see here for the article). This sandwich is to be found at the hot dog carts of the Chicago area and is comprised of many of the same ingredients as the Chicago style hot dog. Instead of a hot dog on the bun there is a corn-roll style tamale. Not too long ago I had ordered a Chicago Hot Dog Condiment pack from the Vienna Beef company and last night I made a batch of the corn-roll tamales. I was all set up to assemble the sandwich.

Begin by putting one of the de-husked tamales on a bun. In Chicago they would have used one a steamed poppy seed bun, but here in Albany, NY I substituted a good ol' Freihofer's bun.



I had previously made some very simple hot dog style chili. You could probably save yourself the time and buy some canned product.



Slather the tamale with a good amount of the chili. Next step is to put on a couple of the Sport Peppers and some onion. I used sauteed onion, raw is traditional, but for some reason I just never can get into raw onion on my hot dogs. I find that I just don't like the texture.

For the cheese I used some Oaxaca that I had picked up.



This is probably another departure from tradition, I don't think too many hot dog carts in Chicago are using Oaxaca, but you have to make a recipe your own, right?

I sliced the sandwich in half before consuming for dramatic affect. Again, I apologize for the generally poor quality of my photos. I am sticking to my guns with the whole only using my iPhone thing. This is due to the fact that I think it is kind of silly to pose food and get all fussy about it (no offense to any more fastidious and professional food bloggers).



I then proceeded to gobble up the Mother in Law Sandwich. You wouldn't think that a tamale on a bun would work, it seems kind of strange. Almost like eating an oatmeal on rye or something like that. However, in this case all of the flavors and textures go together very well. It is exactly the type of food that I expect as an inexpensive lunch from a street cart, i.e., flavorful, filling, and delightfully bad for you. I recommend this heartily to anyone who has the opportunity to consume one during their travels.