Where should I start with this fried green tomatillo sandwich? I had an idea for an avocado toast blog post. I wanted to do something where I offered up 3-4 ideas for awesome avocado toast. It got me thinking that fried tomatillos would make an interesting topping. So that's what I set out to do.
Then I thought, why go to all the work of making the fried tomatillos just for toast. And thus came the plan to make an absolutely fantastic fried green tomatillo sandwich. You might be thinking, wasn't there a movie called Fried Green Tomatillos? Yes, yes there was. Okay, fine, there wasn't. It was called Fried Green Tomatoes and it is a wonderful, tearjerker of a movie that centers around a cafe that makes, you guessed it: fried green tomatoes. That's all wonderful and good, but green tomatoes are elusive. Have you ever seen them in your grocery store? I haven't. But I always see tomatillos. Sooooo....
Tomatillos vs. green tomatoes: what's the deal?
The short story is that green tomatoes are simply unripe red tomatoes and the taste is a bit tart - in a good way. Tomatillos are a Mexican husk tomato and has a sort of delightful lemony undertone to it. Either are a great option to fry for this sandwich. Interestingly, tomatillos are usually pretty small which is why I thought of them for my avocado toast. However, when I went to the store the tomatillos were huge and I knew immediately I also needed to make some kind of sandwich.
Roasted garlic tomatoes on top of fried green tomatillos? What?
In case you haven't noticed, I love making roasted tomatoes. I cannot advocate enough for roasted tomatoes. And, in this case, garlic is added to the mix. It's such an easy way to elevate the flavor profile. Basically, cut them in half, gut the tomatoes, sprinkle garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper - that's it! Cook for one hour in a preheated oven at 400 degrees. That's it! Massive flavor. You can use them for many things, including: Roasted Tomato, Asparagus & Gruyere Quiche, Savory Puff Pastry Two Ways and they make an excellent salad topping!
I go with arugula a lot for a sandwich topping, but for this fried green tomatillo sandwich I switched it up and went with microgreens which I had never actually tried before. What a glorious mix of incredibly fresh greens, a little aruguley-ish (new word here), slightly mustardy and a hint of bitter, but not in an annoying way. Really complemented this flavor profile so give microgreens a chance, okay?
Oh, and if you want to make the sandwich vegetarian just don't use bacon! Or use vegetarian bacon which I think could work.
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Fried Green Tomatillo Sandwich w/Bacon & Dill Sour Cream
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 sandwiches 1x
Description
Fried green tomatillo sandwich topped w/roasted garlic tomatoes, bacon, dill sour cream and microgreens. For serious sandwich eaters only.
Ingredients
- 4-5 large tomatillos (see notes)
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 8 strips of bacon (more if you want)
- 8 slices good quality brown bread (see notes)
- Vegetable oil for frying
- 1 package of microgreens
Roasted garlic tomatoes
- 8 med to large red tomatoes
- 1 clove garlic, finely diced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ cup or so of olive oil
Flour dredge
- 1 cup of flour
- 2 ½ cups of plain panko bread crumbs
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 4 eggs, beaten
Dill sour cream
- 1 ½ cups of sour cream
- 1 ½-2 tablespoons fresh chopped dill
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Make the garlic roasted tomatoes first. They take an hour to cook. Remove the cores from the tomatoes. Cut them in half then remove all the seeds. Finely chop your garlic. Place tomatoes in a baking dish. Sprinkle the garlic onto the tomatoes. Then the salt, pepper and olive oil. Cook in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 1 hour. Depending on your oven it could take longer.
- Cook 8 strips of bacon – more if you want. I allowed for two strips of bacon per sandwich. I always make more than that because I will eat a piece or two while cooking and save a piece or two for a breakfast sandwich the next day. Do what you need to do here. Set bacon aside when done.
- Fry the tomatillos. Peel the husk off tomatillos. They will be sticky so you need to wash them. Slice the tomatillo (about ¼” slices). Put on sheet pan and sprinkle with salt. Set up dredging station. Beat your eggs. Put flour and garlic powder on a plate and mix with fork. Put bread crumbs on a plate or in a bowl.
- I do a double egg dip here. So the flow is egg-flour-egg-bread crumbs. Set all aside on a sheet pan. Heat oil and finger flick some raw egg to see if oil is ready. Put enough oil in pan to coat the bottom and then some. Depends on size of your pan. Cook on low-to-medium heat until golden brown on both sides. Should be 3-4 minute each side. Set aside fried tomatillos and sprinkle with flaky salt if you have, if not, regular salt.
- Make the dill sour cream. Add sour cream, fresh chopped dill and salt to a bowl, mix it together.
- Assemble the sandwich (video shows this well). Spread dill sour cream on top and bottom slice. Place two tomatillos on bread. Place roasted garlic tomatoes on top of that. Add the bacon. Top with microgreens. Put the top piece on sandwich, slice, and chow down!
Notes
- I lucked out and the tomatillos were huge at the supermarket. Normally, they are much smaller so it may take a little extra time to slice, bread and fry if you get the small ones. Alternatively, if you can get green tomatoes at the store that will work too! I don’t see them too often, but it could also depend on where you live. In the summer, you can usually find green tomatoes at local farm stands too so be on the lookout!
- I put the yield at 4 sandwiches but you can probably make more than that or save the extra fried green tomatillos for avocado toast. You can reheat them in your toaster oven. Check out my avocado toast post here.
- You can make the roasted garlic tomatoes ahead of time if you don’t won’t to do everything at once. Same with the bacon. You can cook it the day before, wrap it and nuke it when you’re ready to assemble the sandwiches. That’s what I did!
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