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Sometimes You Just Want a Sandwich – Chicken Sandwiches with Cabbage Slaw

For me, anytime can be just the right time to have a sandwich. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night snack – sandwiches can be versatile enough where you can make something for that time of day. This is particularly true in the summer months when it might be too hot to make a two-hour meal in the kitchen with the oven and stovetop going or just for any night of the week where you may not have a lot of effort to put into making a big meal for dinner. The boneless chicken breast, to me, is the ideal vehicle for a sandwich. On its own for dinner it does not carry much in the way of flavor and is easily dried out on the oven. However, mix it together with some nice spices, a bread coating and cook it just right and it can go well with any type of sandwich you can come up with. Sean had asked me to make chicken this week and I decided to go the easy route and make some chicken sandwiches using this recipe from Bon Appetit for chicken sandwiches with cabbage slaw.

Chicken Sandwiches with Cabbage Slaw

¼ red onion, thinly sliced

Kosher salt

¼ head of green or red cabbage, cored, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

4 tablespoons (or more) olive oil, divided

Freshly ground black pepper

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts or thighs

¼ cup cornstarch

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

⅓ cup mayonnaise

8 slices bread, toasted or sandwich rolls

Toss the red onion and a pinch of salt together in a small bowl to coat the onions. Let the onions sit for about 5 minutes to allow the onion to soften slightly. Rinse the onions under running water, then shake off the excess water. Place the onion in a medium bowl and add the cabbage, vinegar, and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Toss the ingredients to combine them and season the slaw with salt and pepper.

Pound the chicken breasts or thighs with a meat mallet or a rolling pin between 2 pieces of plastic wrap until the chicken is about ¼” thick.

Place the cornstarch in a shallow bowl. Whisk the eggs, mustard, and cayenne pepper in another shallow bowl. Place the panko breadcrumbs in a third shallow bowl. Working with 2 pieces of chicken at a time, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken in the cornstarch, shaking off any excess. Dip the chicken in the egg mixture, letting any excess drip back into the bowl, then coat the chicken in panko, shaking off any excess.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Working in batches and adding more oil to the skillet between the batches if needed, cook the chicken until it is golden brown and cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to paper towels to drain.

Spread the mayonnaise over one side of the bread slices and build the sandwiches with the chicken cutlets and the slaw.

You can always get yourself a bag of coleslaw mix and use that instead of dealing with the cabbage and onions on your own if you are looking to save some time. I used chicken breasts because that is what we had, but thighs work well here too and may give you even more flavor and won’t take as long to cook through. The breasts tend to be a little thicker and bigger even after pounding them and you want to make sure they are cooked all the way through without burning the breadcrumb coating. It’s a pretty simple and basic recipe that you can then play with to make your own. You can add other toppings like bacon, avocado, pickles or really anything else that you might like. You can even spice up the coating some more if you like to have a spicier chicken sandwich by adding some Sriracha or hot sauce to the egg mixture for the coating. You end up with a nice, crunchy chicken sandwich that is great for lunch or dinner. I served the sandwiches with some waffle fries to round out an easy meal.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

Save Time and Effort with Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

10 Jul

While the temperature and humidity around here have eased a bit today, it is typical for July around these parts of New York to be very sticky and humid, making it uncomfortable all day long and making you feel like you really do not want to put much effort into dinner. Nights like that for use are usually good for really simple meals that involve little or no cooking at all, which means making things like sandwiches, salads, hot dogs and the like for dinner. Sure you can always get take out or go out if you like, but that gets expensive to do too much and you don’t have control over the ingredients you are eating. You can always compromise somewhere in the middle and buy some pre-cooked items, such as a rotisserie chicken, and make good use of that in a meal for you and your family in a bunch of ways. One thing I recently did was use a rotisserie chicken to make some pulled chicken sandwiches for a meal. You can do this just as easily with leftover chicken and simply shred it yourself and even use your favorite bottled barbecue sauce if you like, but I decided to make my own sauce to get the flavor we really like. The basis of this recipe comes from Ellie Krieger on the Food Network site.

Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14-ounce) can tomato sauce
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
5 tablespoons molasses
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 whole rotisserie chicken, skin removed, meat shredded into thin strips (about 4 to 4 1/2 cups)
6 hamburger rolls
Lettuce leaves, for garnish

Pickle slices, for garnish

Coleslaw, store-bough or homemade, for garnish

Heat the vegetable oil in a large saute pan set over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more until the garlic is fragrant. Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, cider vinegar, molasses, pepper and liquid smoke and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the chopped chicken, return the mixture to a simmer, and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

Split the hamburger rolls. Place a leaf of lettuce on each roll, then pile on 3/4 cup of the chicken mixture onto the roll and top with pickle slices, coleslaw and additional sauce, if desired.

That’s all there is to it and it tastes great. You get a nice barbecue sauce to simmer the chicken in without a lot of work and the liquid smoke adds great aroma and flavor to the sauce. I used the pickleback slaw recipe I have made before as the coleslaw for a topping and we just had the sandwiches with some chips on the side to keep things simple, though they would go well with some potato salad, macaroni salad or even just a simple side salad. You could even make these as sliders if you wanted to use them for a buffet or party and have them done in minutes.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of you day and enjoy your meal!

It’s a Chicken Invasion Part 3 – Fried Chicken Sandwiches

31 Jan

This recipe is actually the first of two chicken sandwiches that I tried this past week. I think they are great simple sandwiches for dinner or for lunch, but they are also great to use for football Sunday if you want something easy that is a great snack alternative. This first recipe is for a fried chicken sandwich recipe that I got from the latest issue of Cook’s Country magazine. it’s a pretty simple one that tries a little bit of a different method for the coating for the chicken, but I think it worked out pretty well.

Fried Chicken Sandwiches

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried sage

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and halved crosswise

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons water

2 egg whites, lightly beaten

2 quarts vegetable oil (I didn’t use this much oil, but the recipe calls for it)

4 sandwich rolls

Combine the salt, paprika, pepper, garlic powder, thyme, sage and cayenne pepper in a bowl. Measure out 1 tablespoon of the spice mixture and set it aside. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Using a meat pounder, gently pound each piece of chicken to about 1/2-inch thickness between two pieces of plastic wrap. Season the chicken all over with the remaining 2 3/4 teaspoons of the spice mixture.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and the reserved 1 tablespoon of the spice mixture together in a large bowl. Add the water to the flour mixture and rub it together with your fingers until the water is evenly incorporated and shaggy pieces form. Place the egg whites in a shallow dish.

Set a wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet. Working with 1 piece of chicken at a time, dip the chicken in the egg whites to thoroughly coat them, letting any excess drip back into the dish, then dredge the chicken in the flour mixture, pressing on the flour to make sure it adheres. Transfer the chicken to the prepared wire rack and refrigerate the pieces for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour.

Add the vegetable oil to a large Dutch oven until it measures about 1 1/2 inches deep and heat the oil over medium-high heat to 375 degrees. Add the chicken to the hot oil. Adjust the burner, if necessary to maintain the oil temperature between 325 and 350 degrees. Fry the chicken, stirring gently to prevent the pieces from sticking together, until the chicken is golden brown and registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 4 to 5 minutes, flipping the chicken pieces halfway through the frying. Transfer the chicken to a clean wire rack and allow the pieces to cool for 5 minutes. Serve on the rolls.

Adding that little bit of liquid to the seasoned flour makes the flour clumpy, which gives it a lot more texture when it has cooked. To me it seemed a lot more like good fried chicken pieces and had better crunch to it than a typical fried chicken sandwich, which was great. As I said, I hate using that much oil for frying and I pretty much cut the amount in half and still got good results. I just don’t like to use that much myself and it is a pain to dispose of, so I try to get away with less when I can but if you want to follow the recipe exactly, go for it. I got good results with less but maybe you get a better fry with more oil. I served the sandwiches with some pickles, lettuce and bacon and some french fries, but some cole slaw would have been great with this. I actually made a cole slaw with the other chicken sandwich I made, so you’ll see that recipe next time :). Overall, I think it was a good recipe with a really crispy crunch, which was great.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another chicken recipe. until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!