grilled chicken panini with sundried tomato sauce


this is a yummy sandwich recipe to make with the rosemary focaccia recipe i posted last week. (you can use any crusty or artisian bread: french, ciabatta) i put this together one late late night for a last minute dinner. you don't need a panini press, you can press the sandwich using a countertop (george foreman!) grill, or on a stovetop griddle or pan with a weight (heavy skillet, clean brick, 5 pound can of peaches) on top. my hub, a man of few words, had much to say about this sandwich. something about the combination of sundried tomatoes and the rosemary focaccia really did it for him. i found him after dinner using leftover focaccia to clean out the food processor bowl of any remaining specks of the sundried tomato sauce. these panini are simple to make and turn out really delicious.

grilled chicken panini with sundried tomato sauce
an original recipe by rachelle

2 chicken breasts
salt, pepper
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons olive oil
4 slices rosemary focaccia
1/4 cup lettuce
1/4 cup mozzarella

sundried tomato sauce
2 Tablespoons mayonaise
12 sundried tomatoes, packed in oil
1 clove garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

pound chicken breasts to an even thickness. (just use something heavy to pound down that one end, in a ziplock bag to contain any renegade ckn juice.) season chicken liberally with salt, pepper, lemon juice and oil. preheat countertop grill. cook chicken. (my george foreman takes about 8 minutes, but feel free to cook chicken on an outside grill or even in a skillet in a little butter.) set chicken aside.
to make sundried tomato sauce, (which i wanted to call sundried tomato mayo but it is way more tomato-ey than mayo-ey so i went with sauce-)
place garlic in a food processor, process until minced. add mayonnaise and salt and pepper and process. add tomatoes, process to a nice chunky texture. set aside.
cut focaccia in half and place cheese on bottom slice. layer on a chicken breast, lettuce and a plop of sundried tomato sauce. top with bread slice and make the other sandwich. set in preheated grill and grill for about 4 minutes, until bread has a nice crisp texture and cheese is melted.

*i realize that normally you butter or oil the bread for panini, but i don't for this recipe because of how much oil is already on the focaccia. if you are using another style artisian bread, butter or oil outsides of bread that will come in contact with the hot grill. this will give you those gorgeous grill marks and that yummy crunch. also try substituting any meltable white cheese: muenster, provolone, jarlsburg.

5 comments:

  1. yum, yum! cant wait to try this!

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  2. The ciabatta & panini are my favs and after all the sandwiches during the remodel, need something new. This I can do now. I can't wait to try it. bty, love the new look...soo cool, like you!

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  3. drool.

    By the way, I'm giving you the arte y pico award. Come by my blog to get it :)

    perrysplate.blogspot.com

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  4. yum, yumm. Want to be my personal chef??

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  5. This recipe remembers me the school vacations, when dad had grilled these kinds of delicious recipes.
    I Buy Barbeques

    ReplyDelete

 

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