As a college student who not only LOVES food, but rarely has the income to buy fine italian pasta over Top Ramen, I find ways to make the meals that I enjoy without costing myself an arm and a leg, and I also appreciate a free meal whenever I can get it. Something to keep in mind when creating your sandwiches is that you're making food for complete strangers, not for you and your friends. With this in mind, you want to make something that is flavorful, but also something that most people would enjoy. It becomes very easy to make a sandwich that is very bland and uninteresting. This recipe is for the same sandwich which
I made that first winter night I hit the streets. The classic and flavorful combination of fresh squeezed lemon juice and garlic make for a tantalizing, tenderizing marinade. You've got the nice crunch of fresh lettuce and the smooth richness of the mayonnaise to cut the acidity of the lemon, while the subtle hints of chipotle pepper add a bit of spice and a nice smokey quality that compliments the chicken. All wrapped up in a nice baguette and you've got yourself one pleasant sandwich. For me, it's really the flavor combination of the smokey chipotle infused mayonnaise with the tangy chicken that makes this a killer sandwich. Now a days regular store bought mayo seems pretty bland when compared to some of it's spinoff brothers. These more exciting brethren range anywhere from Saffron Mayonnaise to Wasabi Mayonnaise, and most of them are extremely easy to make at home. The
way I see it is that condiments like these are the sauce of the sandwich. To reference a book I recently started reading titled "The Saucier's Apprentice" by Raymond Sokolov, and (sorry, it's from the seventies) a slightly sexist analogy from its introduction,"...a great meal without a sauce is like a beautiful woman without clothes. It can provoke and satisfy the appetite, but it lacks the coating of civilization that would arouse our fullest interest." So, with that on your mind, try this recipe out and don't be afraid to make any sorts of annotations and suggestions.
Lemon Garlic Chicken with Chipotle Mayo
[Makes About 15 Sandwiches]
- 5 Baguettes (or any other long loaf you prefer)
- 1 lb thinly sliced cheese ( any type that you prefer, I like to use sharp chedder)
- salt and pepper
Chipotle Mayo
- 15oz container of Hellmann's Mayonnaise (or whatever type you prefer)
- One can of Chipotle Peppers en Adobo, de-seeded and pureed (about 1/4 cups worth)
Lemon Garlic Chicken
- 8 lemons
- 6 cloves of Garlic, finely diced
- 1/2 cup Olive Oil
- 5 large Chicken Breasts
To make the chipotle mayo, simply empty contents of mayo jar into a bowl and fold in the pureed chipotles till fully incorporated. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated. Leftover mayo can be put back into original
mayo container and refrigerated for later use.
Now, for the marinade, squeeze the lemon juice into a bowl, making sure to strain out any seeds. Finely dice the garlic and whisk into the lemon juice along with the olive oil until combined. Place your chicken into any sort of large container, as long as there is enough room to hold both the chicken and marinade. Flat, non-reactive baking pans work well because they help to more evenly distribute the marinade. Place the chicken into the container, rubbing the garlic and juices into the chicken. Cover and let sit in the refrigerator for at least two hours. I like to let my chicken marinade over night, really allowing the chicken to absorb the flavors and to let the citric acid in the lemon juice tenderize the meat. Once you feel that the chicken is done sitting, rub each piece in the remaining marinade and salt and pepper each side. Place the chicken pieces onto a broiling sheet pan or into a baking dish. Broil on high for 10-15 minutes on each side. Remove chicken from oven and let cool before cutting to retain some of the juices.
Using a serrated knife, cut the baguettes in half, but not all the way through, leaving one side connected. This just helps to keep the sandwich together when assembling. Slice the chicken once it has cooled. These cuts should not be too thin, otherwise they will just fall apart. First spread a fairly thin layer of chipotle mayo on the bottom of the baguette. Next, lay down a single layer of chicken and then the cheese. Lastly, add a layer of lettuce, within reason, but you can never have too many greens. Words to live by. While firmly holding the baguette shut, cut into reasonably sized sandwiches. Triple wrap each sandwich with saran wrap and refrigerate until you're ready to distribute.
It's really important that you keep in mind the rules safety guidelines that we wrote about in the "Kitchen Safety" post. When distributing sandwiches it's probably going to be easiest to carry them in a duffel bag or backpacks and you should keep something cold in the bags with the sandwiches, like a bag of ice or ice packs. Obviously this is a very specific sandwich recipe, but it's just meant to be a starting platform. Get creative, make something delicious, and feed some souls!
