I am out of town accompanying my husband on his office trip. We will be returning home today so we decided to check out and I am waiting for him to pick me up at the Destiny USA / Carousel Mall in Syracuse, NY. Already done with the window shopping and now lunching at the Panera Bread with a Napa Almond Chicken Sandwich and plenty of time to kill. No I am not shopping anything for myself, however hard that might be to believe, I am not. We both had been buying stuff a little extravagantly last couple of days telling each other its our Puja shopping but seriously who are we kidding!!!
Anyways my Panera Sandwich reminds me of the post that has been lying in my drafts waiting to be edited and submitted, so I decide to do this right away. No stories today.. no pouring out emotions. Just a quick post on an equally quick recipe. Actually no recipe at all its mainly assembling that needs to be done. On those days when you wanna grab something for a light lunch or dinner without any elaborate preparations/cooking/cleaning – a sandwich can always come to your rescue.
I made this last week and used whatever was available in my fridge. There can be number of alterations / additions to this, so do it your way and make it your signature dish.
The first picture has been edited by my loving husband… he wanted to give it a feel of a restaurant style menu. I loved it and decided to use it as my landing pic for this post.
Ingredients: As required for one sandwich
- Bread – 2 slices; I used white bread, but you can use any variety of your preference.
- Tomato slices – 2 small slices or one big slice
- Lettuce – 1 leaf, washed, dried and folded.
- Onions – 2 rounds or slices
- Chicken Slice – 3-4. I used the this variety from Target – Hormel Natural Choice Sliced Rotisserie Style Deli Chicken Breast. It is cooked and needs minimum preparation. Use any type of chicken / meat you want.
- Any sauce/dressing of your choice – as required. I use either a dash of hot sauce, honey mustard or lemon dill
- Butter or spread for the toast – I like using the Irish butter that is available in BJs.
- Oil / butter.
- Any seasoning of your choice – Salt and Pepper (for sure), sometimes I also add a little of the Cajun spice.
Method:
- Heat a pan on high heat with very little oil/butter. I use the spray oil can for this purpose.
- Add the onion rings/slices and the chicken slices.
- Sprinkle some seasoning and saute on both the sides for a minute or two. This adds flavor to the chicken.
- Meanwhile toast the bread and coat it lightly on one side with butter / spread.
- Assembly: Place the tomato slices on the butter side of one of the bread slice. Top it with the lettuce leaf. Then add the sauteed chicken slices along with the sauteed onions. Add sauce of your choice. Top it with the remaining slice of bread, buttered side down.
- Press the sandwich a bit and slice it in halves. Secure it with a toothpick (optional).
Serve it as a lunch, brunch or even dinner. This time I added some grapes and a mango smoothie to make it a complete lunch meal.
Pam's Cookbook 