Argentine Grilled Lamb on The Spit: Cordero Patagónico
There are steak sandwiches, and then there is the Argentine lomito.
Walk into a lomitería, roadside restaurant, or neighborhood bar anywhere in Argentina and there is a good chance you will find some version of this sandwich on the menu. It is simple food, but when it is made properly, it has everything you want in one bite: hot beef straight from the grill, crusty bread, fresh tomato and lettuce, a little mayonnaise, and a generous spoonful of chimichurri.
For this recipe, I am making what I consider the perfect chimichurri steak sandwich, based on the Argentine lomito but with one of my favorite additions: a homemade chimichurri made with red wine vinegar.
The important thing is not to think of this as simply putting leftover steak between two pieces of bread and pouring sauce over it. An Argentine lomito has a balance of its own. The steak needs to be thin enough to bite through easily, the bread needs enough structure to handle the juices, and the chimichurri should provide acidity and herbs without overpowering the beef.
If you have watched my Argentine lomito video, this recipe builds on exactly that idea.
If you want the complete ratios and method, use my traditional chimichurri recipe. The important detail for this sandwich is the vinegar.
I have experimented with the vinegars commonly used for chimichurri in Argentina, including alcohol vinegar, apple vinegar, and wine vinegar. For beef, red wine vinegar is my preferred option. It gives you enough acidity to cut through the fat and richness of the meat without producing the harsher character you can sometimes get from alcohol vinegar.
That becomes even more important in a sandwich because we are adding bread and mayonnaise. You need that acidic component to keep the lomito from feeling too heavy.
While chimichurri is the star of this Argentine steak sandwich, there’s another traditional sauce worth trying: salsa criolla. Made with finely diced red and green bell peppers, onion, tomato, olive oil, and red wine vinegar, salsa criolla brings a fresher, slightly crunchier texture that works beautifully with grilled beef. Here in Argentina, both sauces are staples of a good asado, and I often encourage people to experiment with them depending on the flavors they’re looking for. If you want to give your next lomito sandwich a different twist, try replacing the chimichurri with my authentic Argentine salsa criolla recipe. It’s a simple change that adds a completely different dimension to the sandwich without losing its Argentine character.
The lomito belongs to a much bigger Argentine sandwich tradition.
We have the choripán, probably Argentina’s most famous grilled sandwich, where chorizo comes directly from the parrilla and goes into crusty bread, traditionally with chimichurri or salsa criolla. Then there are sandwiches de miga, the almost completely opposite end of the spectrum: thin, delicate sandwiches made with very soft white bread.
The lomito sits somewhere else entirely.
It is Argentina’s answer to the steak sandwich: thin beef cooked quickly over high heat and served in bread with combinations of lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, ham, cheese, peppers, and egg.
There are enormous variations depending on where you are in Argentina. A simple lomito might contain little more than beef, tomato, lettuce, and mayonnaise. A lomito completo can become a serious meal with ham, cheese, and a fried egg added to the equation.
For this version, I want the steak and chimichurri to remain the stars.
Do not underestimate the bread.
I would avoid standard sliced sandwich bread and very soft hamburger-style buns. Between the steak juices, tomato, mayonnaise, and chimichurri, they can become soggy quickly.
In Argentina, I prefer something closer to pan francés: a relatively light roll with a crisp exterior and enough internal structure to absorb some of those juices without collapsing.
Good alternatives include:
I also like to open the bread and toast the cut sides briefly over the parrilla. You are not trying to make toast. You just want enough color to create a slightly crisp surface before adding the sauces and meat.
This is similar to what makes a good Argentine choripán work. The bread is not an afterthought. It is part of the recipe.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make with a steak sandwich is using a steak that is too thick.
That might sound strange coming from someone who loves Argentine beef, but this is not the place for a huge ribeye.
The meat needs to cook quickly and, more importantly, you need to be able to bite through it cleanly. Nothing destroys a steak sandwich faster than taking your first bite and pulling the entire piece of meat out of the bread.
Thin-cut sirloin works very well. You can also use vacío and pound it thinner before cooking. Outside Argentina, skirt steak is another good option.
Aim for approximately 5–10 mm thickness.
If the meat is considerably thicker, place it between two pieces of parchment or plastic wrap and gently pound it until relatively even.
Season simply with salt. The chimichurri is going to bring plenty of additional flavor later.
Get your parrilla, plancha, or cast-iron pan hot. (you can also use the griddle for this one – see the picture below)
This is very different from cooking a thick Argentine steak slowly over moderate embers. Because the beef is thin, we want fast cooking and good browning.
Place the steak onto the hot cooking surface and leave it alone long enough to develop some color. Depending on thickness and heat, it may need only 60–90 seconds per side.
You want browning on the exterior without cooking all the moisture out of such a thin piece of beef.
Once cooked, let it rest briefly while you prepare the bread.
This is where all the individual ingredients finally come together, and the order matters.
Start with the lightly toasted bottom half of your bread. Add a small spoonful of chimichurri directly to the bread and spread it across the surface.
Don’t flood it.
You want some of the red wine vinegar, oil, garlic, and herbs to soak into the warm bread while preserving its texture.
Next, build your sandwich:
Press everything together gently and eat it while the steak is still hot.
That contrast is what makes it work. You have warm, salty beef and toasted bread against cool lettuce and tomato, followed by the creamy mayonnaise and acidic chimichurri.
More is not always better.
I love chimichurri, but an Argentine steak should still taste like beef. The sauce is there to support it.
For one large sandwich, I generally want around 1–2 tablespoons of chimichurri, depending on the size of the bread and steak.
Divide it between two places.
Put a smaller amount directly onto the toasted bread. This lets the vinegar and herb-infused oil penetrate the surface. Then add another spoonful directly over the hot beef.
This is also where the red wine vinegar really earns its place.
A good chimichurri isn’t simply oil with some parsley floating around in it. The acid is fundamental. With a lomito, that acidity cuts through the beef and mayonnaise and keeps you coming back for another bite.
If your chimichurri sandwich tastes oily or excessively heavy, there is a good chance the sauce needs more balance rather than more sauce.
Once you have the basic sandwich right, there are plenty of Argentine variations worth trying.
If you have already got the parrilla running, grill a piece of provoleta until browned on the outside and molten inside, then add it directly over the beef.
This turns the sandwich into something considerably richer, so I would increase the chimichurri slightly to provide more acidity.
In Argentina, serving something a caballo generally means putting fried eggs on top.
Add a fried egg with a slightly runny yolk to your lomito and you have something approaching a lomito completo. It is messy, but that’s part of the point.
Grill red bell pepper over the fire until softened and lightly charred, then cut it into strips and add it above the steak.
This is probably my favorite variation when I want something extra without making the sandwich excessively heavy.
French fries are the obvious Argentine answer, to what you should serve with your argentine steak sandwich.
A lomito with a mountain of papas fritas is classic restaurant food here. But if you are making these at home, you don’t necessarily need anything else.
You could serve your lomito with:
Personally, if I have good bread, properly cooked Argentine beef, and fresh chimichurri, I am perfectly happy eating the sandwich on its own.
Absolutely.
In fact, this is one of my favorite ways to use leftover meat from an asado.
The trick is not reheating the beef aggressively. It is already cooked, and throwing thin slices back onto a ripping-hot grill can dry them out.
Instead, slice your leftover steak thinly against the grain. Warm it briefly in a pan, ideally with a tiny splash of beef stock or its reserved juices, and then build the sandwich exactly as described above.
Cold chimichurri and leftover asado meat also make an excellent quick sandwich straight from the refrigerator the following day, although that is perhaps less of a traditional lomito and more one of the benefits of cooking too much meat at an asado.
Which, in Argentina, is rarely considered a serious problem.
A good chimichurri sandwich doesn’t need dozens of ingredients.
It needs good beef, the right bread, fresh vegetables, enough mayonnaise to bring everything together, and a chimichurri with enough acidity to cut through the richness.
That’s why I keep coming back to red wine vinegar for chimichurri, particularly when serving it with beef. It doesn’t need to dominate the sandwich. It provides the sharpness that lets everything else taste better.
Keep the steak thin. Get some color onto it. Toast your bread. Don’t drown everything in sauce.
Then eat it immediately.
That’s a lomito.
Thin-cut sirloin is an excellent choice, while pounded vacío also works very well. The important factor is thickness rather than using an expensive cut. The steak needs to cook quickly and be tender enough to bite cleanly through without pulling out of the bread. Skirt steak is a good substitute if Argentine cuts are difficult to find.
Both. Spread a small amount over the toasted bread so some of the vinegar and herb-infused oil can soak into the surface, then add a slightly larger spoonful directly over the hot beef. This distributes the chimichurri throughout the sandwich rather than concentrating everything in one wet layer.
I prefer red wine vinegar, particularly when chimichurri is being served with beef. Its acidity cuts through the steak and mayonnaise while complementing the herbs, garlic, and olive oil. Alcohol vinegar and apple vinegar can both be used, but red wine vinegar gives the sauce the balance I want for this recipe.
Yes. Slice leftover asado meat thinly against the grain and warm it gently in a pan with a small splash of beef stock or reserved meat juices. Avoid cooking it for too long because the goal is simply to warm the beef without drying it out.
Both belong to Argentina’s grilled sandwich tradition, but the filling is fundamentally different. A choripán uses grilled chorizo, while a lomito is built around thinly cooked beef. A traditional lomito also commonly includes lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, cheese, ham, or egg, whereas choripán is generally simpler and particularly closely associated with chimichurri and salsa criolla.
Discover the first-ever English-speaking Argentine Asado DIY Building Guide, a digital experience designed to help you build your own authentic Asado grill, master the craft of Argentine grilling, and join our community that lives and breathes fire, food, and tradition.
If you’ve ever enjoyed a traditional Argentine asado, you’ve probably heard of chimichurri. It’s undoubtedly our most internationally recognized sauce, but there’s another sauce that deserves just as much attention: salsa criolla. Salsa criolla is a fresh, colorful Argentine sauce made from finely diced bell peppers, onion, tomato, olive oil, vinegar, and lemon juice. Unlike […]
Key Takeaways There is a particular kind of guilt among people who love Argentine food and live in a flat. No patio, no parrilla, no legal way to burn wood four floors up, and a craving for vacío on a Sunday. The usual advice is to buy a grill pan and make peace with it. […]
KEY TAKEAWAYS For years I treated a frozen steak as a mistake to be corrected. You forgot to plan, so now you stand at the sink running water over a vacuum-sealed brick and hoping for the best. Then I started testing it properly, and the conclusion was uncomfortable: a steak cooked straight from frozen, done […]
