Smoked Chicken Sandwich Recipe

Smoked Chicken Open Sandwich on Health Bread with Lettuce,
Sun-dried Tomato, Fresh Orange Segments,
Wholegrain Mustard Aioli, Sesame Seeds and Citrus Butter

Recipe by Jackie Cameron

The new trend is for smoking your food rather than frying, a blast from the past. Imagine a stylish, healthy, tea-smoked chicken breast sandwich for lunch.

Thinking of what works and what is best, remember how your grandparents used to source and prepare their food. They were the trend setters of all time, to the point that today we are looking back to what they did, and more often than not, we nick ideas from yesteryear.

Yields: 4

Ingredients:

Citrus Butter

60 ml Soft Butter

Flavour with Orange zest (chef’s note: either use a zester to remove coloured and perfumed outer rind or finely grate this off)

Wholegrain Mustard Aioli

6 Egg Yolks

15 ml Wholegrain Mustard

2-3 cloves of Garlic – finely chopped

15 ml warm Water

250 ml Olive Oil

250 ml Sunflower Oil

15 ml Lemon Juice

15 ml warm Water

Sandwiches

4 Skinless Chicken Breasts

6 Rooibos Tea Bags

80 ml Water

8 slices of your favourite bread

1 pkt mixed Lettuce

40 g Sun dried Tomatoes

2 Oranges

60 ml roasted Sesame Seeds

Method:

Citrus Butter

1) Mix the citrus butter ingredients together and put into the fridge

Wholegrain Mustard Aioli (chef’s note: homemade mayonnaise flavoured with garlic)

2) Whisk the egg yolks, mustard, garlic and water very well until thick and creamy in colour.

3) Add both of the oils, to form a permanent emulsion, very slowly. (Chef’s note: This will prevent the Aioli from splitting and will also result in a thick Aioli. A perfect situation is when a spoon can stand up right in the Aioli when finished. A lot of whisking!

4) Finish with lemon juice and warm water and set aside.

Sandwiches

5) Open the tea bags and place the tea and water on the base of a tray with sides. Place a wire wrack (chef’s note: we had a large sieve in the kitchen that we cut to form this wire wrack) from one side of the tray to the other. Top with the chicken breasts – presentation side down. (Chef’s note: the side that the skin would have been on if it wasn’t skinless.) Cover with tin foil. Place this tray onto a medium flame for about 15 minutes or until the chicken breast is cooked.

6) Slice the bread, wash the lettuce, finely slice the sun dried tomatoes, segment the oranges and lightly roast the sesame seeds. Set all items aside.

Plating

7) Butter the bread and place all the prepared items onto the bread to make an interesting and exciting Open Sandwich

Please post your comments and any food-related questions below.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Jackie Cameron
Head Chef
Hartford House
www.hartford.co.za
jackie@hartford.co.za
+27 33 263 2713