The Guatemalan Shuco

Shuco is a Guatemalan street food. The word itself means “dirty” in Guatemalan Spanish. When it comes to the food, I don’t believe the name “dirty” means that it’s nasty or undesirable, but rather that it’s a real hot mess, a “gimme one with everything” that includes a ton of sauces, spreads, and other condiments.

Generally speaking a shuco will be served on a toasted hot dog bun or similar long, narrow bread roll and contain one or more types of meat–hot dog, other sausages, steak, chicken, etc., along with guacamole, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and a a type of boiled sliced cabbage used as a condiment.

Previously when writing about South American Choripan, I made Ecuadoran style relishes called curtidos, and when researching them I’d found that the main style of curtido was a quick-pickled blanched cabbage used in Salvadoran cuisine. I assumed this condiment was the same, and in fact I was able to find many recipes for Guatemalan curtido. Of the recipes I found, my favorite was included in a post about Guatemalan enchiladas. The recipe used beets, which resulted in a brilliant ruby red condiment that didn’t look anything like what I saw in the many videos about Shucos that I watched. I thought it would photograph nicely though.

For the guacamole, I used a very simple condiment-style recipe, avocados, lime juice, salt, and very finely diced red onion. I leave an avocado pit in the bowl due to an entirely unscientific belief in the old wives’ tale that it helps keep the guac from turning brown quite as fast. Don’t be mad, science. You’re still my boo.

The day I made these sandwiches, the area was enjoying an unseasonably warm weekend immediately after the frigid Polar Vortex passed in the final days of January. I really should have gone outside and cooked these on the grill. I’m lazy though, and I used my electric griddle.

I dry-toasted the hot dog bun on the griddle as I browned the split hot dog itself. As the other side of the hot dog bun was toasting, I spread guacamole on the cut side.

In the examples I’ve seen, sometimes the hot dogs are tiny little stubby ones, only a couple inches long, sometimes they’re full length. Sometimes they’re cut in half lengthwise like this; other times they are cut into coins; still others, they’re left intact. I chose to split the hot dogs lengthwise as that seemed to have the best chance of the least messy Shuco. Clearly, authenticity was not a concern.

Finally, the curtido and the mayo/ketchup/mustard are added to the sandwich.

It’s a colorful mess, alright. The thing is, though, it works. So well.

The curtido is like a mild sauerkraut, adding a slightly salty/sour crunch to the hot dog in much the same way pickle relish would, especially given the slight sweetness the boiled beets granted my homemade condiment. Mayonnaise is not a common condiment on hot dogs in the US, but the mayo/ketchup/mustard combination works, despite my Chicago-born antipathy for putting the sweet red gunk on a sausage.

The real standout though is the guacamole. It was fantastic, and though I’d never have thought of using it on a hot dog, it seems like a natural now. Even Ian, our picky 12 year old who had never before in his life liked guacamole, thought it was the best possible hot dog condiment by the end of this day. (He could have done without the curtido though.)

I tried it again, this time using top-split brioche hot dog bun. I had originally thought these buns might be sturdier but in practice, they don’t open as widely as a regular hot dog bun, so they don’t toast as well on a grill and they can’t fit as many toppings inside. They did make for a neater, more minimalist shuco though.

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I also made Shucos using chorizo and steak, with a larger, sturdier hoagie roll in place of the hot dog bun. The chorizo version may have been the best received of the lot–I used a higher-quality Mexican chorizo than the plastic tubes of reddish grit one normally finds at the grocery store, and the spicy, paprika-forward sausage stood up better to the enormous array of condiments one finds in a Shuco.

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I quite enjoyed the steak version though. While the thin-sliced seared steak was not as strongly flavored as the chorizo, it was substantial, and provided an excellent textural contrast.

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I was right by the way; the curtido photographed very well.

Boots On The Ground

Mindy reminded me while we were sampling these sandwiches that her cousin Michael and his family have been living in Guatemala for a number of years now. I reached out to him on Facebook, and he was kind enough to answer some questions, and even take his family out for shucos to satisfy my curiosity about the sandwich. I’ll share Michael’s words and photos with his permission.

Basically shucos are “dirtys” or sandwiches with all the fixings. Many here are made with hotdogs…

Found a Shuco place! They spelled it with a “k” but that is just for style.

I will interject here to say that in Guatemala, “Mixtas” are sausages or other meats served with all the same condiments as as shuco, but in a tortilla instead of a hot dog bun. That is to say, they are shuco tacos.

I asked for the traditional style since this place is more established than the normal Shuco food carts. It came with a hotdog in a toasted French bun with guacamole, catsup, mustard, mayo, lightly cooked cabbage (boiled I think) and two napkins. We were glad for the napkins since it lived up to it’s name by the time we got to the end!

Oh and the sandwich only cost U.S. $1.30! We concluded that it was good but a little heavy on the sauces.🙂

I appreciate Michael and his family for getting out and showing our audience at the Tribunal the real thing from the home of Shucos, Guatemala!

Of course, it turns out that my curtido was way too fancy, and I may have to make another version some day with simple boiled cabbage. I don’t think I’ll need to twist Ian’s arm to get him to eat hot dogs with guacamole again.