Bifanas with an Air Fryer Shortcut

A bifana is thin pork steak marinated in garlic, white wine and paprika, stuffed into a soft papo seco roll with a squeeze of mustard. It's Portugal's answer to the burger and costs a few euros at any snack bar.

Here's the honest bit: a real bifana isn't fried. The pork simmers in its marinade, sometimes with a spoon of lard, until it's tender and soaked in sauce. So this isn't an "everything in the air fryer" recipe. The air fryer cooks the pork quickly and gives it a bit of colour, while the marinade reduces in a pan. Then you dunk the pork in the sauce, the way the snack bars do.

The recipe

Bifanas with an Air Fryer Shortcut

The Portuguese garlic pork sandwich. Marinate the pork, air fry it fast, then dunk it in the reduced wine sauce, just like the snack bars in Lisbon.

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Prep15 min

Cook15 min

Total30 min

Serves4

Ingredients

MetricUS

Serves

4

½×1×2×3×

• 600 g pork loin, cut into 8 thin steaks
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 200 ml dry white wine
• 1 tbsp sweet paprika
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil, or 1 tbsp lard for the authentic version
• 4 soft white rolls (papo seco, or soft crusty rolls)
• Yellow mustard and piri-piri sauce to serve

Method

1. Place the pork between two sheets of baking paper and pound it to about 5 mm thick.
2. Mix the garlic, wine, paprika, bay leaf and salt. Add the pork and marinate for at least 2 hours, or overnight in the fridge.
3. Lift the pork out of the marinade and pat it dry. Keep the marinade.
4. Brush the pork lightly with oil and air fry at 200 °C for 5–6 minutes, turning once, until just cooked through.
5. While the pork cooks, pour the marinade into a frying pan with the olive oil or lard. Boil for 5–6 minutes until reduced by about half. Remove the bay leaf.
6. Dunk each piece of pork in the hot sauce, turning to coat, and leave it there for a minute.
7. Split the rolls, dip the cut sides in the sauce, add two pieces of pork and finish with mustard and piri-piri.

Notes

Clear ticks

Tap ingredients and steps to tick them off. Scaling changes the quantities at the start of each line; check the rest by eye.

What to drink

In Portugal, a bifana comes with a cold imperial (a small draught beer) or a sumol. Have a pastel de nata for dessert, which you can also make in the air fryer: see our pastéis de nata recipe.

From the shop

What you’ll need

Links go to Amazon, where you can check today’s price. If you buy, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Amazon best seller

Cosori TurboBlaze 6 Qt Air Fryer

One of Amazon's best-selling air fryers. The 6 Qt basket fits a batch of pastéis de bacalhau or chicken thighs for four, and the ceramic coating is PFAS-free.

Tip: Size is what matters for Portuguese cooking: 5.5–6 Qt feeds 2–4 people in one batch.

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Amazon best seller

Alpha Grillers instant-read thermometer

Takes the guesswork out of piri-piri chicken and bifanas: 74 °C in the thickest part and the chicken is done.

Tip: Check the thickest piece, away from the bone.

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Portuguese

Piri-piri chillies from Portugal

Whole dried bird's-eye chillies, the heat behind frango piri-piri and the bottle of chilli oil on every Portuguese table.

Tip: Two packs last a year. Crush them as you need them.

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