Tag Archives: Chicken

Chicken & Cheese – Philly Diner, Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA

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Chicken & Cheese - Philadelphia

An associate of mine has very strong opinions about cheese on sandwiches, which is to say that he doesn’t approve. It is a virtual categorical prohibition with him, not due to lactose intolerance or any other allergy but simply because he sees it as unnecessary. It is a dominating ingredient, drowning out more subtle notes and far too often the cheeses used in the sandwich world are fairly common in flavor. I sympathized with him but had long held that cheese, like any other bold ingredient, had its place. Cheese, I thought, simply needed a skilled hand.

This sandwich caused me to revisit everything I thought I knew about cheese. A grilled chicken breast and sauteed mushrooms drowned in American cheese between two pieces of toasted white bread. “Well there’s your problem,” I can hear you saying, “try something a little less pedestrian next time and you’ll find yourself doing all right.” I will give you that point but I have to wonder about the larger issues, especially as found in restaurants. Sure, while at home you can carefully incorporate just the right amount of fine goat cheese but what about when out in the world? There are ingredients in sandwiches that one should stay away from in most shops, such as fried foods, but cheese can hardly be avoided. It is ever present in restaurant sandwiches from the lowest franchise ‘eatery’ to the most rarefied sandwich shops and I fear the day where America’s love for plenty overwhelms its good sense.

Chicken & Cheese on a Croissant – Made at Home

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chickencroissant

This sandwich, made for my by an associate, falls into the popular “tasty but lacking” category. It was a simple combination of grilled chicken, tomato and muenster cheese on a croissant, topped with a bit of garlic mustard. The flavors played nicely together though I feel they all could have stood to be a bit louder. But these are minor quibbles, as I said the sandwich was tasty. The only real problem was the croissant. Holding a grilled chicken sandwich together is a bit much to ask of a croissant. It’s flaky and delicious but it’s not quite substantial enough, falling apart as you try to hold it together. Still, with a different choice of bread and a bit more garlic I get the feeling this could be a very good sandwich.

Chipotle Chicken Sandwich on Artisan French – Panera Bread, San Jose, CA

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panerafinal

It is one thing to sit down and eat 1000 calories in one sitting, without a side dish in sight. Any individual serious about food will do it at one point or another. It is another thing entirely to do it for this sandwich. I didn’t want this review to turn out like this. I wanted to be fair. I’m okay with being a snob, but I didn’t want to be a strict “This sandwich chain’s sandwich is HORRIBLE! This independent cafe’s sandwich is TREMENDOUS!” sort of snob. However the Chipotle Chicken Sandwich on Artisan French happens to be the first Franchise Sandwich I reviewed, and so here we are. This is not a good sandwich. The cheese dominates the entire thing, layered heavily and smothering all flavors. With the taste lost to the cheese the bacon adds nothing except additional cost. The best that can be said about the chicken is that it is inoffensive, in both portion size and flavor. The bread, and I was honestly surprised at this given the name of the establishment, the bread is barely there. It lacks body and flavor, more a container than an ingredient. You only get to eat so much in this life. There’s no reason to waste 1000 calories on this sandwich. I could go on, but in the end why dwell on a lousy sandwich? Here’s hoping for better things next time, friends.

Bistro Club – Safeway Deli, Santa Clara, CA

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Bistro Club from Safeway

“Life,” I was once told, “Is simply a matter of basics and details. Rely heavily on one, hope the other comes together and you should be all right.” In sandwiches, as we have seen time and time again, as in life.

The Safeway Bistro Club is a sandwich that gets the basics right. The sandwich is an herbed focaccia bread bread with a hearty layer of chicken, a few slices of bacon, an avocado spread and a piece of lettuce. Chicken is the building block of a great many sandwiches, and far too often at fast food establishments it does not measure up. It is cold and tough, long ago chopped up and parceled out into the portion for one sandwich, regardless of the type. The Bistro Club, however, features large chunks of tender chicken, specifically selected for how well they would fit on my sandwich. It was put in the oven for a full minute, ensuring everything was heated through. I was so impressed with the quality of the chicken that I enquired as to whether it had been grilled on site, and I was surprised when I was told it wasn’t.

As well as the most important element of the sandwich is done, the details are not all there. The avocado, smooth and creamy, is a nice presence but has little in the sandwich to play off of. The avocado is a fine, fine ingredient for a sandwich and it saddens me when I see it merely included, instead of featured. The sandwich resists the urge to pile on extraneous ingredients, but I cannot help but wonder what the avocado might have been. In spite of this, well executed basics carry what is a surprisingly good sandwich.

Grilled Jerk Chicken Sandwich – Primo Patio, Townsend St, San Francisco, CA

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Jerk Chicken Sandwich

Before I get to the sandwich, I’d like to talk about Jerk for a moment. Jerk seems to me to be terribly underrepresented in America’s ethnic cuisine scene. Chinese food is of course ubiquitous, with Japanese restaurants doing their best to keep up. Italian and Mexican are both big time players, with enterprises ranging from your finest neighborhood Taqueria to the Olive Garden. Indian food is the little guy, but any area with any real population density is sure to feature its fair share of Indian restaurants. The same cannot be said of Jerk. Jerk is not going to present itself to you; Jerk must be sought out.

Jerk is a matter of balance. All cuisines are a matter of both ingredients and technique, but rarely are both halves so equally important. The jerk rub is a thick brown paste of allspice, peppers, garlic, cloves, cinnamon, brown sugar and ginger. The mix is too robust to be called delicate, but I assure you too far in the direction of either heat (Scotch Bonnet peppers are no small matter) or sweetness will ruin everything. The cooking must be equally nuanced, with the meat grilled over low, indirect heat, with as much smoke as one can muster. Calling it grilled is almost a misnomer. The smoke mellows the rub, slowly coaxing out the layered flavor and bringing the sweetness and the heat to their perfect meeting point.

You can find Jerk marinades in any supermarket. I have tried them. They are….they are not so good. They contain things like corn syrup, and even if you grill your meat at home, your grill is going to be too hot and not smoky enough. That much sugar and that much heat is the Jerk equivalent of treating a high wire like a diving board. It makes a big mess and it’s going to ruin every one’s appetite. It’s best to leave Jerk to the professionals.

Primo Patio understands Jerk. The chicken sandwich fell apart as I ate it, the connective tissue having been eaten away by the steady but careful application of heat. The flavor was aggressive, the allspice so-very-close to overpowering, brought back by the brown sugar and the cinnamon. It was not as spicy as some rubs, but the peppers let you know they were there. The roll was soft, which ends up being rather important. A hard or even crusty roll would not serve the tenderness of the meat. No one wants to grind away at a roll while the meat is long since gone. This was jerk done right; When one orders a jerk sandwich one runs the risk of getting something that just sits in a marinade before going over a gas grill for 4 minutes a side, and I cannot tell you how pleased I was that this was not the case. Primo Patio gets it, the investment required for proper jerk, the equal parts that must be weighed, considered, and laid in their proper roles. This is a fine sandwich.