Chicken Picatta Sandwich

One of my favorite Italian foods is Chicken Picatta. What makes it my favorite you ask? Capers! They add just the right amount of tangy lemony flavor that I love. When I first had them a long time ago I was afraid they would be disgusting, like olives (sorry olive lovers), but was I wrong. So very, very wrong. I decided to add a twist to the traditional chicken picatta dinner that I was going to make and try to make a slightly sophisticated chicken picatta sandwich with some sides.

Ingredients:

Boneless Chicken Breast (as many pieces as you want sandwiches)
2 Eggs
1 C Flour
Salt & Pepper
2 T Butter
1 1/2 C White Wine (I used White Zinfandel)
Fresh Mozzarella (Cut in slices)
Rolls or Bread (Your choice, but I used Portuguese Rolls)
Olive Oil
1 T Garlic, minced
2 T Fresh Lemon Juice
2 Zucchini
2 Summer Squash
Pasta (Your choice)

The first thing you should do is prepare the zucchini and summer squash. Simply cut the vegetables in half, cutting off the ends, and place in a large bowl with a lid. Drizzle 2 T of olive oil over the veggies and then season with salt and pepper. Cover bowl, shake, and set aside. You can choose to grill these like I did or simply roast them.
To prep chicken you should trim off fat and pound chicken a bit. Dip chicken in an egg/water mixture, then cover both sides in flour. Pour 2 to 3 T Olive Oil and minced garlic in skillet heating up until garlic starts to turn golden. Place chicken in a skillet (I used an electric skillet, a must have kitchen appliance) and cook on both sides until golden, about 4-5 minutes a side. You should boil water and cook pasta once the chicken starts cooking.
While the chicken is cooking you can prepare the lemon caper spread.
Ingredients & Directions:

Lemon Caper Spread
(adapted from here)

1 C Mayonnaise
1/4 C chopped fresh parsley
2 T minced shallot
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T drained capers

Mix first 6 ingredients in processor until pale green and well blended. Transfer to small bowl. Stir in capers. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and chill. (Can be made 1 day ahead.)
Once chicken is finished cooking set aside on a plate covered in a paper towel to soak up some of the olive oil. While chicken is set aside scrape up all the extra bits left in the skillet, leaving oil. Pour wine in skillet, lemon juice, and then butter. Stir until butter is melted and liquid starts to boil a little. Place chicken back in lemon wine sauce. Cook on one side for a minute and then other side for another minute.

Once chicken is completed you can make your sandwich. The lemon caper spread should go on top of bread, add lettuce, and freshly sliced mozzarella. You could always add other ingredients to spice up the sandwich if you'd like, but this is as close to a traditional chicken picatta as possible, in sandwich formation.

I served the sandwich with the grilled veggies and pasta. Not until seeing the pictures I realized that this meal was pretty, but colorless. I am usually cautious about making sure the meal has a wide variety of colors. Next time I will be sure to adding maybe grilled red peppers. What might you add to this meal/sandwich?

The one thing I am definitely going to do is make some of the lemon caper spread and leave it in my refrigerator so I can have it anytime I want.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich with Roasted Sweet Potatoes

One of my favorite snack foods is boneless buffalo chicken fingers without blue cheese (I hate blue cheese). One day while grocery shopping I came across Ken's Steak House Marinade Buffalo Wing Sauce and I bought it hoping it would be delicious; it was more than delicious! I marinated some chicken breast in the sauce and knew I wanted to make a sandwich with it. I love caramelized onions and figured they would add a nice sweetness to this, but I was stumped as to what to put on it for a topping. I hate blue cheese and figured mayonnaise would be too boring, thus buffannaise was born. I like to think that buffannaise is an original concept, but it's probably not. I just mixed some mayonnaise and buffalo sauce with some dill (later I changed it to chives, but both are equally delicious).

I usually just serve this sandwich with french fries, but was feeling adventurous, especially since I downloaded the epicurious app to my iphone. I wanted to serve a starch with this sandwich and for some reason was craving sweet potatoes. I simply looked up sweet potatoes as an ingredient on my iphone and came across the recipe for roasted sweet potatoes with lime syrup and chives.

Ingredients & Directions

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich with Caramelized Onions & Buffannaise

Chicken Breast (one breast per sandwich, 1/2 breast if you want less)
Romaine Lettuce
2 Large Onions
1 T Butter
1 T Olive Oil
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 C Mayonnaise
Ken's Steak House Marinade Buffalo Wing Sauce (My Favorite!)
1/2 T Chives or Dill
Roll or Bread of Choice

Trim the chicken breast and then marinate with the Buffalo Sauce Marinade. Set aside in refrigerator. Peel and Chop onions. In a frying pan on low heat, place onions, olive oil, butter. Mix thoroughly, and then sprinkle sugar. Cook on low heat until golden, stirring frequently. Once the onions have started
to cook you should grill the chicken. Grill chicken on each side for 5 minutes or until cooked all the way through. Set chicken aside. In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, buffalo sauce, and chives. Mix until blended. Cut Romaine Lettuce so it fits bread size. Finally, you need to put the sandwich together. I usually cut the chicken breast in half, spread buffannaise on the top side of the bread, place lettuce on top of chicken, and then finally place caramelized onions on the lettuce and eat!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Lime Syrup and Chives
(via epicurious)

3 1/2 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (10 cups)
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh lime zest
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives

Preheat oven to 450°F. Toss potatoes with butter, salt, and pepper in a bowl until coated well, then spread in 1 layer in 2 shallow baking pans (15 by 10 by 1 inch) and roast, uncovered, switching position of pans halfway through roasting, until potatoes are tender and undersides are browned, 15 to 20 minutes total. While potatoes roast, bring water, sugar, and lime juice to a boil in a very small saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then simmer until reduced to about 3 tablespoons, 3 to 4 minutes. Toss potatoes with syrup and zest in a large bowl, then sprinkle with chives.

Making the lime syrup is fast and easy and I can imagine it going well with many other vegetables.

I love grilling chicken and usually on a med-high heat you can grill a piece of chicken in 10 minutes (5 minutes on each side).


I finally bought a zester!!! You probably don't realize how exciting this is to me.




You can serve the meal with a few pieces of lime and drizzle a little fresh lime juice over the sweet potatoes for an extra kick or just leave it on your plate as a decoration.