My husband rides bicycles with a great group of guys. So when it was time to host a party for the team, we wanted to create a special menu that would feed guests and keep them coming back for seconds. Jason accomplished this with his grilled chicken sandwiches. Everyone loved them and have been asking for the recipe since the party. Back in March, we visited La Note Restaurant in Berkeley for David’s birthday. They had wonderful French dishes and Jason tried their Poulet Grille, which was organic, marinated grilled chicken breast with roasted red peppers, aioli and sun-dried tomato pesto on warm sweet roll. We put our own spin on it and created the following:
- Chicken breasts, cut lengthwise in half, tenderized with a fork – select organic ones where possible
- Italian dressing – we used a bottle of the the Whole Foods Organic Italian dressing
- Soft sandwich buns (or equivalent sandwich rolls) – we used the La Baccia 4×4 roll from La Brea Bakery
- Brie cheese (two thin slices to cover one half of the buns)
- Vegenaise (thin layer to cover the other half of the bun)
- Olive oil
- Grilled tomatoes (beefsteak, slicer or heirloom work best)
- Arugula – we used baby arugula from Organic Girl because it is consistently good and triple washed, so you don’t have to!
- Salt, pepper to taste
1. Take the halved and tenderized chicken breasts and marinate in the Italian dressing overnight. Then grill or bake right before assembling the sandwiches.
2. Before or while grilling the chicken, take the tomatoes, slice them in half horizontally. Place them on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. One option is to bake these at 400 degrees for 20 minutes (until the tomatoes look a bit wilted and squishy). The other option is to throw them on the grill.
3. Take the buns, slice them in half. Then take the bun halves (top or bottom does not matter) and place slices of brie on top. Place on a baking sheet and melt in the oven, but don’t leave it in for too long or you will dry out the buns. An alternative is to place these bun halves with brie on the grill.
4. Take the other half of the buns and spread Vegenaise a top. We switched out mayonnaise for Vegenaise because the later is lighter and healthier.
5. Once the chicken is ready, assemble the sandwich layering the bottom bun with the chicken, then tomato. Lastly, add a layer of arugula and sprinkle with salt/pepper to taste.
Doodles by Mimi 