Grilled Chicken Breast Sandwiches

Cheap Bastid Cooks is about cooking good, simple, inexpensive food.  I’m no chef and if you’re looking for what I call fancy “foo-foo-foodie” food then maybe you’re at the wrong blog.  If you want to cook delicious food without spending a whole bunch of money and without spending all day doing it, then “Cheap Bastid Cooks” might be interesting to you.  Give it a try!

A couple of days ago I was rummaging around the freezer looking for something to take out for dinner.  Have you ever had a rock hard package of frozen chicken breasts fall onto your toe from the freezer?  Dayem!  That hurts.

So to get revenge, I thawed the 2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts and grilled them—to get more revenge, I made them into “paillards” which is a fancy French word for pounding on them.

And since I’ve been trying to learn how to bake bread, I decided to go ahead and make a couple of loaves of French bread to serve them on.  The result was really tasty grilled chicken breast sandwiches on fresh French bread.

For Cheap Bastid’s French Bread Recipe, go here: http://www.cheap-bastid-cooks.com/french-bread-recipe/

A quick word of warning, there aren’t too many pictures here because I didn’t think to take out my camera until I had fully prepped the breasts.

So here’s my Grilled Chicken Breast Sandwich Recipe:

Recipe: Cheap Bastids Grilled Chicken Breast Sandwiches

Summary: There’s 2 secrets to this grilled chicken breast sandwich–make “paillards” and use a good spice blend. Plus, it’s even better with fresh, homemade bread.

Instructions

• Take out a heavy sauce pan and either a 1 gallon freezer bag or plastic wrap. Put one breast in the bag or tear off a long strip of plastic wrap and lay it down on the counter with the breast about 1/3 of the way along the strip. Then pull the rest of the plastic over top of the breast.
• Now you’re going to make a paillard which is a pounded thin piece of breast meat.
•  Take the sauce pan and “whomp” the breast about an inch in from the edge of the pan starting at the middle of the breast and working your way out. Keep whomping until the breast is about 3/8 to ½ inch uniform thickness. Now your breast is ready to cook. It’ll cook evenly and quickly either on the grill or in a skillet on the stove.
• Remove each breast from the plastic or the bag and put it on a platter.
• Next you’re going to do the chipotle mayonnaise. This is incredibly simple. Just take about 3 tablespoons of mayo or “salad dressing” and put it in a small bowl. Now shake some chipotle on it—just a little bit—and stir it up. Taste it! If it’s not hot enough, add some more chipotle powder, stir and taste again. Add some more if necessary. Remember, add it a little at a time. You can always add more, but once the chipotle is in, you can’t take it out. (If you overdo it, add some more mayo). And, if you don’t have chipotle, use cayenne.
• Slice up your tomato and prep your lettuce.
• Then get your rolls, bread or buns ready.
• OK, last you’re going to season the chicken. I like a smoky, fairly hot spice blend. And, like anything, always do it to your taste. And I’ve gotten so that I like a little bit of “sweet” to balance the “heat”.
• Now, put a small drizzle of oil onto your chicken breasts and rub it in with your fingertips or use a small silicone basting brush. Then liberally sprinkle the Sweet Heat on the breast, flip it over and do the other side. You’re ready to cook!
• Grill or sauté until done—about 3-4 minutes per side at medium high heat. (On the grill, medium high would be the ability to hold your hand 3 inches above the grill surface for about 3 seconds).
• Now you can assemble your sandwiches and really enjoy a taste treat. Grilled chicken, a spicy mayonnaise, crunchy lettuce and fresh baked bread.

Preparation time: 15 minute(s)

Cooking time: 15 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 4

Culinary tradition: USA (Southwestern)

My rating 5 stars:  ★★★★★ 1 review(s)

Sweet Heat Spice Blend

• 1 part salt
• 1 ½ part sugar
• 2 parts chili powder or paprika
• 1/2 part ground cumin
• 1 part garlic powder
• ½ part chipotle

(a part is whatever you use—teaspoon, tablespoon, etc.)

Now, stir everything together and taste it.  It should be a little salty, a little sweet, a little aromatic and a little hot.  Yeah, that’s Sweet Heat.  And you can adjust it if you want.  Add a little more of this or a little less of that to YOUR taste.

Enjoy.

Cheap Bastid Test:  How’d we do on cost for this?  Well, this sandwich would set you back anywhere from $5 to $7 minimum at a restaurant.  We made 4 sandwiches on $3 worth of chicken breast.  The tomato was a quarter and there’s about a dime’s worth of lettuce.  Add $1 for the cost of the bread/rolls and another dime each for the chipotle mayo and Sweet Heat ingredients and the total comes to $4.55 for 4 sandwiches or $1.14 each.  That’s good eating, cheap!  Add a can of beans or a quick slaw and you’ve got yourself a good meal—low fat, healthy and inexpensive.

That’s the Cheap   Bastid Way:  Eat Good. Eat Cheap. Be Grateful!