Pesto Chicken "Panini"

2024-08-01

Commentary and Notes

This is a simple pesto chicken "panini"/sandwich that's easy to make and even easier to modify. I think I'd want to try adding some crushed gim to the pesto for some salty umami flavour. Adding some chili oil for an added kick would be nice. I specified using slices of plain country loaf for this recipe, but I think a bread studded with some dried cranberries would also taste really nice. It's basically a cliché at this point, but I think adding kimchi would add a fantastic sour pop.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast, skinless
• Pesto (homemade or store-bought is fine)
• 2 slices of nice country loaf bread
• 2 slices of jalapeño jack cheese (or any white cheese with a high moisture content)
• Handful of spinach

Prep

Step 1: Chicken Breast

Prepare your chicken breast for frying. If the breast is unevenly thick (which it almost always is), try to cut it so that it'll lie a bit more evenly on the pan. You can look up instructions on how to butterfly a chicken breast.

Set a pan over medium- to high-heat. Drizzle a bit of oil onto the pan such that it barely shimmers, and place the chicken breast onto the pan. Don't move the chicken around too much, let it get a nice sear on both sides. Remove from the pan when done.

Step 2: Assembly

Wash and dry the spinach. Evenly spread some pesto on both slices of the country loaf. Roughly cube the chicken breast (you want chunky cubes), and layer on one slice of the bread. Top with the two slices of cheese and a fistful (or more) of the spinach.

Step 3: Toast

I fully admit that the title of this recipe is a misnomer. I don't have a panini press at home, nor will I go out and buy one just for one recipe. Plus, it's just one more thing to pack and lug around when I move. Not worth it.

Set a pan over medium- to high-heat. Drop in some butter (the garlic butter in this recipe is pretty good). Drop in the "panini" you've just assembled and let it get toasty. Remove when cheese has melted. Cut "panini" in half (diagonally, into triangles) and serve.

Epilogue

This is another recipe from my UBC days. There's this deli called "The Delly" in the bottom of the student union building at UBC. They serve a variety of pre-made foods, from pastries to small hand pies, to curries, along with sandwiches made-to-order. Aside from being overpriced, like most food on campus, The Delly is actually pretty decent. That said, things started to go downhill toward the end of my last year; the "regular"-sized curry container became the "large," and prices began to creep up even more.

The pesto chicken panini was one of the highlights of their pre-made deli offerings. I suspect it actually wasn't specific to The Delly, since I saw it offered at most of the UBC-owned-and-operated food places on campus. It was a perfect sandwich to grab and eat on-the-go, particularly when you had to get from one end of campus to other in time for your next class. I still have a very vivid memory of the first time I ever tried this. The cheese pulling away from the bread, the perfectly juicy pieces of chicken... not sure why I didn't get it the last time I was on campus.