Cajun Chicken Smashed Sammies

My Hubsie worked from home today due to the nasty weather out, which is even more fun for me because then I get to make a fun lunch! I usually am just making interesting and fun dinners, but for lunch it's always just leftovers or a can of soup or something. So today I decided to make some chicken sandwiches and potato oven-fries. They were really delicious!!

Cajun Chicken Smashed Sammies

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 slices thick-cut sourdough bread
Cajun seasoning (I use Wild Tree Cajun Blend)
2 slices cheese, whatever you prefer
Mayo

Season the chicken with the cajun spice rub and let sit in refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat a skillet with olive oil over med-high heat. Add chicken top-side down and let brown on that side. Flip chicken over and let brown for a couple minutes. Transfer skillet to oven and let cook for 15-20 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked and juices run clear. Transfer chicken to cutting board and let rest.

Heat another pan over med heat. Cut your thick bread slices and spread butter on one side of each slice. Spread mayo on the other side of 2 pieces. Cut up the chicken into large cubes and place on the bottom piece of bread, butter side out. Add your cheese, I used pepper jack on one sammie and cheddar on the other, and top with bread spread with mayo.

Place sandwich in skillet and place another heavy pan on top to smash it down. Once browned and crispy, flip sandwich over and smash again with the other skillet. Remove sandwich once brown on second side and serve hot!

So...there is this place Melt near us and normally its a 2 hour wait just to be seated and then another hour and a half or so before you even get your food...I think I can totally rival them with my sammiches! I mean, no, they are not Melt, but just as good and made fresh and I think less greasy. And I could have added another slice of cheese and they would have been even better and gooey.

Also, please excuse my photos, the ONE place in my apartment I get the best light and take all my pictures currently has our Christmas tree, so my photos won't be very good for a little bit. But please enjoy the recipes and ideas!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

-BellaRosa

Gorgeous Day for a Picnic and the Best Sammich Ever!

So today was a beautiful, gorgeous day in Cleveland and the hubs was supposed to have a half day, because of Easter, but he decided to take the whole day off and we were going on a picnic! We love going down to Edgewater Park and sitting under a nice tree and having some good eats. The other night I had a "family" dinner with some friends and I picked up some Focaccia Bread from Blackbird Baking. Oh. My. Goodness. This bread is amazing!! It's real simple with just rosemary and some coarse salt on the top, but its so airy and had a nice butteriness to the crust. We just pulled it apart and had chunks with dinner but I thought it would make a great sammich! I always get this sandwich from Panera, the Sierra Turkey, and it comes on an Asiago Focaccia, and it's very good. So I took the idea of using this bread from that sandwich.

I got some Cajun seasoned Turkey from our local store and got some nice Spring Mix lettuce, provolone cheese and a little bit of mayo...and I kid you not...best sammich ever made!!! The bread has the nice saltiness from the coarse salt on top, and the turkey had nice spice and the lettuce was a nice cooling crunch.
This sammich was huge too. I wanted to get a small focaccia but they only had the larger loaf left, so I made a huge sammich for us. I only ate half of mine, gonna take the rest for a nice lunch for work. We made a simple picnic with some deviled eggs (made from the Easter eggs we dyed this morning), Sun Chips (who has a new compostable bag), and Vitamin Water and got some very good brownies from Blackbird as well.

It was a great day! Very relaxing laying on our blanket after our feast and just feeling the wind...so nice. I am thinking I may have to make another one of these sammiches if we go to Blossom for some concerts with my parents...hmmmm :) Hope you all got to enjoy your day too!! Hope your weather was just as nice!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry...and go on a picnic!

Nom.

-BellaRosa

Honey Lemon Marinated Chicken Sammiches

So I found this marinade awhile back from one of the first few Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazines. This marinade is great. Honey, lemon, cumin and oregano...very flavorful, but also light. I think it's a great Spring Time marinade with the citrus flavor and you can always use a new recipe for chicken. So I like marinating my chicken in this and then topping some nice kaiser rolls with the sliced chicken. This time I decided to add some sauteed mushrooms and some provolone cheese to the top. I got the idea for the mushrooms and cheese from my girlie Lynds (Just a Girl Baking). She made us some awesome chicken sammiches the last time we were over and they were delicious!

Honey Lemon Marinated Chicken Sammiches

Marinade:
Zest and Juice of half a lemon, or use more if you wish
1-2 cloves garlic, smashed or grated
1 1/2 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/4 cup olive oilsalt and pepper
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 crimini mushrooms sliced
2-4 kaiser rolls (depending on the size, I got 2 sammiches out of one chicken breast)
lettuce, mayo and provolone cheese

• Whisk together the lemon zest, juice, honey, garlic, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper and olive oil, place in a big zip top baggie and add chicken breasts to the marinade. Seal the bag and mush it around to coat the chicken. Marinate in the refrigerator or 30 minutes, up to 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and place top-side down in the pan and brown. Once brown on that side, flip over and brown this side for a minute. Place whole skillet in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until chicken is fully cooked. Pull chicken out of oven, leave oven on and let rest while you get everything else ready.
• In a small pan cook the mushrooms in butter until just tender, season with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Set aside. Toast the kaiser rolls in the hot oven.
  
• Once chicken has rested slice thinly on a bias and place on the bottom of your rolls. Top with mushrooms and provolone cheese. Place in the oven to melt the cheese and heat everything through. Smear mayo on the roll tops and top with lettuce. Place tops on the sammiches and you are good to eat!

I served these with just a nice salad of red leaf lettuce, but some nice potato chips or corn on the cob would be great too!

These sammiches were so good, my hubsie came in from the other room just to hug me and tell me how good they were...and then he did the dishes and cleaned everything in the kitchen!!! Yeah...you should make them!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

-BellaRosa