I make no secret of my cheese skepticism, and a melt is an unlikely choice for me. There’s almost always something else I’d rather try, and trying a sandwich built around cheese runs a high risk. But it’s still a subject worth exploring, so I have this sandwich and two grilled cheeses coming up next week. Here we have two pieces of melted swiss surrounding grilled chicken, romaine lettuce and caesar dressing. I wasn’t expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised by a well balanced sandwich; the dressing helped cut the flavors, the grilled chicken was flavorful and a welcome texture, and the lettuce provided a nice earthy undertone. The bread didn’t wow me, but it was decent enough. I came away satisfied, and sometimes that’s all you can hope for from a sandwich.
Tag Archives: Chicken
Chicken Pesto – Which Wich
Having recently discussed Subway and having recently consumed a Togo’s sandwich not even worth discussing (pictured here for the curious), I thought it was high time to discuss a franchise sandwich eatery that actually does a few things right. Which Wich is a chain of less than 150 locations, with a central gimmick based around a highly customizable sandwich. Upon entering, the consumer selects a brown sandwich bag with a pre-printed menu, choosing from a half dozen categories: chicken, beef, veggie, etc. Then, marking the bag with red pen, the customer selects the type of bread, size, cheese, spreads & mustards, veggies and other accouterments. The menu is lacking in specific sandwiches, just presenting vague archetypes like “Roast Beef” or “Chicken Pesto.” Where in most sandwich shops the roast beef is already explicitly laid out, at Which Wich it’s almost entirely up to the consumer. While I do enjoy seeing what other people put forward as the ideal sandwich, the sheer number of options available make a fine substitute. Eleven cheeses are available, from the standards to feta to cream cheese. You can chose from four mustards, nearly a dozen spreads and sauces, onions three different ways, more than a dozen vegetable options and more. You can only get two types of bread, white or wheat, but the vast number of options available suggest not an establishment hamstrung by limited vision but one bolstered by supreme focus. Rather than hiding behind gimmickry, Which Wich seems an honest attempt to do things well.
For my part I went with the chicken pesto, adding mozzarella cheese, caramelized onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, garlic powder and salt & pepper. It wasn’t a fantastic sandwich, but it was far and above what you might expect from your average franchise affair. I’m reminded of Lenny’s, the quality NYC chain that has been around longer but has a far smaller reach. The bread had a nice crunch to it, nothing in the sandwich was overpowering. The chicken was sliced cold cuts, but better that than a dried, salty chicken breast, no? Altogether, Which Wich puts forth a perfectly competent sandwich. And given the more dreary options on offer from the larger players in the sandwich industry, perfectly competent is as fine a result as one could hope for.
Chicken Torta — Eagle Rock Music Festival, Los Angeles
Street fairs and similar festivals are an interesting time for cuisine, particularly in Los Angeles, where the food truck and the street vendor are at the same time a ubiquitous staple and a hipsterish fad. The recent Eagle Rock Music Festival had the featured food trucks you would expect, as well as the open restaurants and scattered food booths along a jam-packed Colorado Boulevard, but also featured an interesting “food court” down a side street. It was at this food court that I saw a large banner over a crowded stall that proclaimed “SUPER TORTAS.” Whether this was a descriptor of the product, a hyperbolic boast, or simply the name of the proprietary enterprise, I could not ascertain. I was merely certain that I would be ordering a torta.
Following a prolonged and too-complicated ordering process, I was presented with a chicken torta and a pork-and-cheese pupusa. Since this is not “On Pupusas,” I shall restrict my commentary to the former.
As I carried my torta the few blocks home, to enjoy my repaste in comfort at the end of a very long day, I did not have high hopes for the sandwich. Certainly I have an ideal against which all future tortas will be measured, which does a grave disservice to both myself and the unfortunate new torta. The chicken torta from the Music Festival featured minced and grilled chicken, lettuce, and tomato. The grilled roll was given a healthy coat of what appeared to be mayonnaise, and a liberal ladle of salsa was applied to the sandwich just before assembly was completed atop the grill.
To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. By all rights, this sandwich should not have been as good as it was. The chicken was sparse and of low quality. The salsa and grease had soaked through the bottom half of the roll, making it something just this side of “a sloppy mess.” And yet…this torta was absolutely delicious. The marriage of the salsa, mayonnaise, and chicken was approaching sublime. It had far more kick than you would expect from this sandwich, and yet the heat and spice was never overpowering. The bread was of a much higher quality than I expected, and the torta absolutely hit the spot with this weary traveler. My only regret lies in not being able to divine the name of this establishment, so that I may visit their truck or storefront again in the future. Alas.
Tandoori Chicken & Sweet Potato – Made at Home
When I first bit into this sandwich my immediate reaction was one of disappointment. I had thought on this sandwich for months, never getting around to making it and always tinkering with the ingredients, taking a small set towards a more delicious sandwich. By the time I actually made the sandwich it had already been through several revisions, ending up with roasted garlic, red onion, tandoori chicken, sweet potato and pickle relish. Frankly, I knew I had a winner. And despite my disappointment, my first bites into the sandwich validated that confidence. My disappointment, you see, came not from the sandwich I had planned but from a simple poor choice at the market. I picked up a new type of roll that morning, and upon taking them from the package they seemed much sturdier than they had initially seemed. In eating I caught only hints of the sandwich I had made, each bite being overwhelmed with bread. I’m not opposed to a quick bit of on-the-plate surgery when the situation calls for it, though, and I took a knife and hollowed out most of the top half of the roll. That brought things perfectly into line, and the delicious sandwich I had envisioned emerged. This was one of those sandwiches where the ingredients seem to dance, each one stepping forward for one bite and back for another. One bite was mostly chicken and relish, the next garlic and sweet potato. The red onion was raw and brought the strength you expect from such an item, but there was enough going on in the rest of the sandwich that it wasn’t even close to overwhelming. It’s always nice when things come out as you’d hoped they would, and that’s exactly what happened with here. I set out to put together a delicious sandwich, and that’s exactly what I got.
Chicken Fried Chicken Breakfast Sandwich — Black Bear Diner, Bancroft Rd, Walnut Creek, CA
Sometimes, in the service of finding interesting sandwiches, you will find yourself presented with precisely what you ordered, and you will feel a sudden sense of…well, not quite sadness, precisely, but something very near to that. The special promotion at Black Bear Diner at the moment, is a selection of “Chicken-Fried Chicken” items. I loathe the term “chicken-fried chicken,” as it’s redundant at best, and shameless, nonsensical, pandering buzzword-grasping at best. There is such a thing as a chicken-fried steak. That is a steak that is battered and fried in the matter that one would fry a chicken. There does not exist any such beast as chicken-fried chicken. There is merely fried chicken.
Getting past semantics for a moment, let us discuss this creation. Black Bear Diner is a chain of kitschy diners, mostly located in smaller towns throughout Northern and Central California, and their claim to fame is an extensive menu of extremely generous portions at a fair price. The quality of their offerings is, on average, far above your usual chain diner, so it’s a great place for an individual on a budget. The “chicken-fried chicken” breakfast sandwich is a fried chicken filet, scrambled eggs, and gravy served on a biscuit. The biscuits at Black Bear Diner are generally the size of softballs, and not the first thing you would think would make an ideal delivery method for a fried chicken sandwich.
When my plate arrived, I was filled with a strange sense of remorse. I knew exactly what I was getting into when I ordered it, but the reality of the situation seemed extremely daunting. I feared there was no way to eat it without getting a large amount of gravy on my hands, and that fear proved extremely accurate. Nevertheless, it wasn’t the most difficult-to-handle sandwich I’ve ever eaten. It was even easier to eat than the Shrimp Po’ Girl, which was surprising after first glance.
The breakfast sandwich was far too large, which was its first mistake. It would have been far better served on toast or on a roll, which would have eliminated one of the only two elements which made it a breakfast sandwich in the first place. The other breakfast element, the scrambled eggs, were mostly lost in the doughiness of the biscuit, the crunch of the breading, and the creaminess of the gravy. this is a sandwich that would have been far better served with a few strips of thick bacon rather than a couple whisked eggs.
Overall, the sandwich was not entirely objectionable, and certainly very unique, but not at all worth revisiting. It was far too much food, and far too gimmicky, from its ridiculous name to its being forced into the breakfast sandwich role.
One final note: this may be a sandwich that many people would be too “embarrassed” to order, or would feel shameful upon consuming or being observed while consuming. This sandwich blog is delightfully free of any unnecessary societal taboos like embarrassment or shame. We exist for the pursuit of the sandwich, whichever form it may take. We recommend you do the same. You will find this attitude quite preferable to the alternative.
Pulled Chicken Sandwich — Made At Home
I admit that this is something of a cheat…two cheats, actually. The first cheat is that this coda to our Pulled Porkstravaganza is actually the second pulled chicken sandwich to be featured during the celebration. The second cheat is that, although this sandwich was technically made at home, it was assembled from bought parts.
Inspiration struck at Whole Foods, when I noticed that they were not only selling fresh-made barbecue pulled chicken alongside the soups on offer, but they were also peddling pretzel baguettes, in the same vein as the pretzel roll I had enjoyed so long ago. On the spot, I decided to create something of a simple “greatest hits” sandwich.
I sliced the pretzel baguette and heaped on the pulled chicken, then smeared the top half of the bread liberally with the incomparable Philippe’s mustard. The end result was simple, elegant, and as pleasing as I’d hoped. The chicken was fresh and tender, yet firm, which was key, as it complemented the pretzel roll. I fear that, had the pretzel roll been paired with pulled pork, the pork would not have the weight needed to counteract the very unique bread. The sauce on the chicken was just enough, but the mustard really set the whole thing off. The Philippe’s mustard has a well-earned attitude that cut through the sauce nicely and added zing to the enterprise. (By contrast, I tried a tiny version of this sandwich with Beaver brand Sweet Hot mustard, and it didn’t stand up nearly as well. Beaver is a fine mustard, but didn’t cut through the sauce like Philippe’s.)
In essence, this is a fine sandwich that you can build for yourself if you have access to a Whole Foods. I highly recommend it.
Pulled Porkstravaganza — The Duck Deli, Duck, NC
We here at On Sandwiches have never made any bones about our deep and abiding lovefor the pulled pork sandwich. In August, we are showcasing some of our recent pulled pork experiences and seeing how they stack up against one another, and against our idea of what a pulled pork sandwich should be.
Today’s pulled pork sandwich is a bit of a departure, since it does not feature pork. The Duck Deli, located in the minuscule town of Duck in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, is locally famous for its in-house smoked meats. Said meats can be fashioned into meals or platters for in-house or takeaway dining, or you can simply opt to carry out an entire chicken or side of beef or whatever you desire.
I had gone into the Duck Deli with my eye on the Chopped Texas Beef Brisket Sandwich, but was informed that they were fresh out of brisket. Looking over the remaining sandwich options, I felt compelled to opt for the Pulled Chicken over the pulled pork option. Chicken that comes with a smoke ring is a rare occurrence (or at least, rarer than it ought to be).
The pulled chicken came as most pulled pork sandwiches often do: meat and sauce on a bun. No need for putting on airs. The chicken was indeed quite good and flavorful, and the sauce was just fine. The only real downside was that the bread was a bit too spongy. Good for soaking up sauce and containing a potentially messy sandwich, but bad for chewing and swallowing.
This was a slightly above-average sandwich, but showed the pulled meat genre often stands on its own. You needn’t add bells and whistles to have a satisfying sandwich. If the meat is the star of the sandwich, you oughtn’t drown it in a gimmicky sauce. One needs to have confidence in the ingredients. You’ll find, more often than not, that they will sort out the rest.
Lazy Chicken — The Coffee Table Bistro, Colorado Boulevard, Los Angeles
It’s rare that one encounters a sandwich that lives up to its name in a most unfortunate way. The “Big Nasty” was indeed big, and nasty-looking, but tasted great. The Lazy Chicken, I can only assume, is named after the care with which it was dreamed up, assembled, and presented.
It’s also rare that you’ll find me complain about a sandwich being given too plentiful a portion of its key ingredient. The Lazy Chicken consisted of grilled chicken breast, avocado, swiss, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and herb mayo on an onion roll. The picture does not tell the tale, but the chicken breast was simply enormous, spilling out at either end and probably an inch thick. just a giant chicken breast, slapped haphazardly onto a bun that could neither contain it nor hold up to the act of eating.
All main elements here were disappointing. The chicken was flavorless and a chore to eat. The bacon was burnt — burnt! — and the roll was overtoasted, dry, and the overall effect of such a lousy roll paired with such a massive slab of bland meat made the meal arduous rather than satisfying. File the Lazy Chicken under the “truth in advertising” file, and stay far, far away from this one.
Chopped Chicken Liver Sandwich – Guther’s Restaurant, Meridian Ave, San Jose, CA
As I mentioned last week, I could not stop thinking about the Reuben from Canter’s. I’m an east coast transplant. Great, classic delis are are somewhat sparse in California, so one like Canter’s is going to stick with me for a while. Returning from Los Angeles to the Bay Area, I decided to keep things going by seeking out more classic deli cuisine. I feared that another Reuben would only skew the feeling I carried from Canter’s, so something different was in order. Gunter’s Restaurant is not a deli, it’s a pretty standard German restaurant, but their menu is full of what I might find at the eastern chrome counters I so love.
The sandwich was a fine example of chopped chicken liver. Depending on your perspective that makes it a delight or a horror. I fall into the former camp and so I was delighted by the light, smooth sandwich. It needed a bit more mustard, but that’s nothing I couldn’t remedy on my own. The bread wasn’t grilled or toasted, which seemed to me to be a rather substantial missed opportunity. The sandwich was otherwise outstanding, though, making it a very good sandwich overall. I make it back east only occasionally, so it’s always nice to find the spots close to home where I might find culinary comfort.
Savory Chicken Delight – The Garret, Bascom Ave, Campbell, CA
The Savory Chicken Delight is a hell of a name for a sandwich. It’s a lofty claim, an unmistakable boast thrown right at the opening. This isn’t a chicken sandwich, where italicized menu text informs you that it’s a savory chicken breast, grilled to juicy perfection, an instant delight. This isn’t a savory, delightful chicken sandwich. It’s a sandwich so savory, so delightful that it could bear no other name than Savory Chicken Delight.
That was the claim, anyway. The Garret is a menu board sort of establishment, and there was no description of any of the sandwiches. But Savory Chicken Delight, I figured that had to be impressive. When I ordered this sandwich, the person working the counter asked me if I wanted everything on it. Everything, they told me, entailed lettuce, tomato, and mayo. When I got the sandwich I was taken aback, and wondered what on earth I would have gotten had I passed on “everything.” Would it have just been a bun with a bit of chicken on it? In another restaurant, with another sandwich, something like that might be a kind of inspired minimalism. This was just mediocre. A bland piece of chicken on a bland roll, with a few slices of unspectacular tomato and obligatory lettuce. It wasn’t savory, and it surely wasn’t delightful. I’ve had bad sandwiches, but this wasn’t even bad. It wasn’t anything. A sandwich that aims high and misses the mark is an understandable failure. Being reckless with bold flavors is no mortal sin. But why on earth would you bill a sandwich as a savory delight and then serve something so uninspired. It was boring, and boring is a sin I cannot forgive.
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