Chicken Paprikash Samwich (Paprikás Csirke Szendvics)

As much as I love food- making it, eating it, playing around with new recipes- I'm not very good at coming up with new recipes of my own very often (hence the long times in between updates here). So I love it when a new, and really good, recipe practically hands itself to me, like this one did.

The other day at work I noticed we had some really beautiful red bell peppers that were perfect for roasting. Right away I knew I wanted to make a batch of my Muhammara so the staff could try it and maybe we could figure out a way to utilize it in a special of some sort. It was popular with everyone who tried it, but nobody, including me, had any immediate ideas of how exactly we'd be using it. There was still a little left after a couple days though, and I wanted to get it all used up so it wouldn't get tossed, so I thought I'd make some sort of pita sandwich with it. I didn't really have anything specific in mind, but I figured chicken would be good in it. Ok, but chicken and what else? And how to prepare it? Paprika popped into my head, so I started thinking of ways to cook it with that. Got a basic outline of what I wanted, then I did a search for "Paprika Chicken" and came across a bunch of recipes for what's commonly known as Chicken Paprikash. I kind of blended the two together and ended up with my Chicken Paprikash Samwich. And even though I could barely taste it due to some sinus and lack of sense of smell issues I've been having lately, I'm really proud of it. It looks good, and it went over really, really well with my taste-testers. We'll definitely be doing it as a special soon.


Don't be put off by the number of ingredients or the length of the recipe- the Muhammara probably takes the longest to make, due to the roasting and peeling of the peppers (you could always just buy jarred roasted red peppers, but... Why would you do that?), but once that's done it all goes together pretty quickly.

What you'll need-

For the sandwich proper-

Muhammara (can be made up to a few days in advance)
Pita bread or naan (I have a good recipe here)
Baby spinach
Kalamata olives*
Goat cheese*
Toasted walnuts
Pomegranate molasses**

For the Paprikash- 

1/2-3/4 c olive oil
1/4 c smoked paprika
1/4 c regular paprika (Hungarian is preferred for this, but I used Spanish and it turned out great too)
2 t cumin
1/2 t kosher salt
1/2 t black pepper
1/2 t lemon juice
Dash of cayenne

***

Chicken (breast or thigh, cut into strips or cubes)
1-2 c water
1/2 c sour cream
1 T flour
Diced tomatoes
Julienned onions

Montreal Chicken Seasoning
Kosher salt/pepper
Splash of red wine vinegar or lemon juice


Ok, let me break down my process a little for you. I had initially planned on cooking the chicken in some sort of olive oil/paprika mixture, so I came up with the first half of the Paprikash recipe above. I think I used a total of 1 c olive oil, which proved to be too much, though it didn't affect the overall quality outcome of the sandwich. For this recipe I'd start with 1/2 c and add up to 1/4 c more if you feel like it needs it, though I don't think it will. This is the part where I looked up Chicken Paprika recipes and came across the Chicken Paprikash recipe. I used the one here at No Recipes as a guide.

Their recipe called for chicken stock. I didn't happen to have any on hand at the moment, so I improvised as best I could- Montreal Chicken Seasoning (I think it was McCormick brand, though I'm not sure it matters all that much), salt, pepper, water. Maybe a little Italian seasoning, I can't remember. Chicken stock may well have been better; chicken stock with added Montreal chicken seasoning may well have been better yet, I don't know. I do know, based on what my taste testers told me, that this particular iteration worked really well. As for how much Montreal seasoning/salt/pepper to use, I can't really say at this point- due to the aforementioned sinus issues, I couldn't taste it anyway, so I just eyeballed it. I'd start with a small amount and add more according to your tastes.

Mix up the first half of the Paprikash recipe and add to a medium saucepan. Add in the water/Montreal Chicken Seasoning/salt/pepper/ and bring to a simmer. Mix the sour cream and flour thoroughly and slowly temper it into the mix. Hard sear the chicken in a sauté pan with a mix of olive oil and butter. When you reach your desired level of color/carmelization, add it to the Paprikash mix to finish cooking. Deglaze the pan with a splash of red wine vinegar.

(Note: based on a lot of personal experience, my preferred way to sear chicken in a pan is as follows- heat the pan on high, dry- no oil/spray - until the pan is smoking, or pretty darn close to it. Add the chicken, let it set for a few seconds, then stir a couple times, then add your oil/butter. You don't want to add the fat at the beginning because it will burn before the pan gets hot enough, and also there's the risk of splashing hot oil when you add the chicken. Trust me, the extreme heat of the pan will prevent the chicken from sticking, then you can finish it off with the oil/butter with no worries of burnt/splashing oil. But it has to be hot, Hot, HOT for it to work. If the chicken sticks to the pan to the point where the it tears- the pan wasn't hot enough. You'll want to turn on your overhead fan for sure. If in doubt, nervous, or if you don't have a good vent system, you'll want to just do it normally over medium heat or whatever. This is just my personal preferred way to do it, having learned it back in my early days in the restaurant biz. It works great and is faster than just heating the pan to medium/med-high and then adding the chicken.)


After deglazing the pan, sauté a handful of julienned onions and add those to the pot. Deglaze again with a handful of diced tomatoes, preferably ones heavy with juice. Add those to the pot and simmer until the chicken is fully cooked.

Now for the tasty part. Spread a generous layer of Muhammara on your warmed flatbread and sprinkle on some baby spinach. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, spread as much of the chicken/tomato/onion mix as you can fit over that. Add kalamatas, toasted walnuts, goat cheese. Finish with a drizzle of pomegranate molasses.

maybe garnish with rose buds, if you got 'em

*In place of kalamatas and goat cheese, regular black olives and feta work very well too. I use goat cheese with kalamatas because they offset each other; I think kalamatas and feta together would be too salty, but feel free to try it out.


**Pomegranate molasses- basically just super concentrated pomegranate juice. You can find it at a lot of grocery stores nowadays, most Asian stores, and definitely any Middle Eastern store, as well as online, but if for some reason you can't get any, you can always just buy some 100% pomegranate juice and simmer it down until it's nice and thick (which is exactly what I did in this case).

*Update* - I actually now recommend buying 100% pomegranate juice and simmering it until it's concentrated, instead of buying the commercial kind. (Unless you can find a commercial brand that's just 100% pomegranate juice.) I recently shopped around for some and found a couple popular brands that had added sugar and citric acid. I don't have a problem with either of those two, but it definitely didn't taste as good as the stuff I made from 100% juice. So yeah, the homemade stuff is a little more expensive, but if you want the highest quality pomegranate molasses, it's definitely the better choice.

My most favoritest chicken sammich ever.

Oh hell yeah...



You see that? That's what a chicken sandwich should look like. Or a burger, for that matter. Pretty much any kind of sandwich. In fact, that's what a real sandwich does look like- messy; falling over; sesame seeds falling off; toppings spilling out. Not all perfect and cookie-cutter like the pics in chain restaurant menus and on tv. But whatever, we all know this already. So, let's talk about this sammich, shall we? I'm not sure who came up with it. But it's what we tend to eat at work most days. In fact, I eat it- on average- 4 days a week for lunch, and have been for at least the past year, and I'm not the least bit tired of it. Not even close. It's dead simple, too. So simple, in fact, that it doesn't even sound all that exciting or praise-worthy, or even worthy of a blog post. It almost sounds like an average chicken sandwich, albeit one with a little kick to it.

But it's not.

Ignore it at your peril. It's your loss if you do.


(check out that homemade bun action!)

But if you're interested, read on...


So like I said, I've been eating it an average of 4 days a week for lunch for at least the past year and am not the slightest bit bored with it. It's just so damn good. (Worth firing up the grill in the wintertime for, that's for sure!) And fairly quick and easy to make. All the ingredients are pretty much available anywhere. Homemade-bun-action is not necessary (I don't bother at work, but I've made them at home a couple times- I plan on doing a post on them here at some point). Ingredients are as follows-

Chicken breast
Lettuce, Tomato, Onion (LTO, as we say at work)
Nacho-sliced pickled jalapeños
Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
Mayonnaise
Hamburger bun (Duh, right? But I've used plain old white bread before- a 'decent' quality, of course- when I didn't have any buns, and I have plans to use hoagie buns next. Mostly because I need to use them before I have to toss them.)
American cheese

And that's it. Now, I know a lot of folks turn their nose up at the lowly American cheese. And I know that it's sort of 'ghetto' in the foodie world. But it really works on this sandwich. It really does. Don't believe me? Go on, then. Try it and see. You'll be surprised. (C'mon, one time won't hurt. You know you want to.) Oh, and full disclosure here, the cheese used on the sandwich in these particular photos was Muenster. Muenster is one of my favorites (you should totally try it on pizza instead of Mozzarella!) but in the case of this sandwich, I actually prefer the American, I must say. I just used Muenster because I had it, and didn't have any American. Muenster rocks the grilled cheese sandwich, but for this sandwich, trust me- use American. Ok, let's put it all together...

First things first, though. You should really marinate the chicken in some sort of marinade, or at least brine it to help keep it tender and juicy. As far as a marinade goes, I really like this one, even though it was originally meant for steak. I tried it once with steak and didn't think it lived up to its name, but then again, I'm not much of a red meat eater anymore. Most of the meat I eat nowadays is chicken, so I tried it on that and liked it very much. But if you don't want to bother with making that up, then a simple brine of sugar/salt water does wonders. I usually dissolve 4-6 T each of sugar and salt (kosher, of course) per gallon of water and allow the chicken to soak in that for about an hour. Now when it comes to cooking, the chicken is really best grilled. Grilled over an open flame, that is, be it gas or charcoal. But if you don't have a grill, or if it's wintertime where you live (as it is here) and you don't feel motivated to fire the thing up, I have cooked the chicken under the broiler in my oven, as well as on one of those indoor electric grills (though not the 'Foreman' type- a review is planned for the future). Both worked sufficiently well, though grilling over open flame is definitely preferred.

While the chicken is cooking, make up some delicious chipotle mayo (if you don't already have some. It keeps for quite awhile in the fridge, so can be made well in advance). Although there really is no specific 'recipe' for chipotle mayo- you basically just chop up the can of chipotles (or run through the food processor/blender) and mix with mayo until it tastes the way you want- the general ratio I use is one can of chipotles (~ 7 oz./200 grams) to 4 cups mayo. You can throw the whole mix in the food processor and mix it all that way, if you like, but I've found that mayo doesn't stand up to a blender very well. It tends to un-emulsify. Lately, I've just been using a knife to chop the peppers by hand, and mix them into the mayo with a wire whip.

Before I go any further, I just want to point out the obvious- not all brands of chipotle in adobo/jalapeño slices are created equal. Not by a long shot. At work, we use Casa Fiesta chipotles, and Pasado (or El Pasado, I can't remember which it is) jalapeños, both of which are excellent, but neither of which I've seen in stores around here. So these are my picks, based on what I've found around my area-



San Marcos jalapeños are excellent, as are La Costeña chipotles. However- and this to me is very weird- San Marcos chipotles are not so good (I'd use them if I couldn't find something else I liked) and La Costeña jalapeños are downright yucky. Totally mushy, no crunch at all. I took one bite and threw the can away. (I would not use them if I couldn't find something else I liked.) Other brands I've tried that suck are Mrs. Renfro's, and Bakers and Chefs (Sam's Club). No offense to either of those brands, I have no doubt they make other quality products, but their jalapeño slices are just plain yucky. If you're not sure, it's best to try different brands until you find something you like. Just buy the smallest size available, one or two brands at a time until you hit the jackpot. I like the San Marcos jalapeños so much that I went out and bought one of those #10 size cans of them (around 4 lbs./1.8 kg, I think).

***


Mmmmm.... homemade hamburger buns!

I'm trying out different recipes for homemade burger buns. This one was pretty good, but I've only tried it once or twice. I want to make it at least one more time, as well as try out some of the others I've found before posting a review about them.


There's really not much else to say here- melt the cheese on the chicken, spread a generous amount of chipotle mayo on the bun (preferably homemade) add the jalapeños, lettuce, tomato, and onion, and prepare for a flavor explosion.

Southwest Steak Sammich

Mmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about this. It's super tasty! (Of course it is, otherwise I wouldn't post it.) Not surprisingly, it's also made with our old friend the guajillo. I think of the guajillo as the Hugely Underrated Actor of the chile world. Think Jeff Daniels, John C. Reilly, or Bill Pullman, or whoever else you think is awesome but not nearly as famous as they should be. That's the guajillo. I think I've mentioned before that I think it's going to explode on the scene in a big way, though. Pace has come up with a salsa that uses them. However, I've been told it's not as good as mine. No surprise there. They really should have consulted me for advice first. No surprise there, either, though; nobody ever listens to me.

Anyway, let's get this Sammich show on the road, shall we?

This came about as a result of one of those happy accidents. I was experimenting at work, trying to come up with I-don't-know-what; something. I ended up with a sort of salsa. It wasn't bad by itself, but not good enough to use solely as a salsa. It needed some support. So I had this idea that I'd marinate some steak in it overnight and make sort of a Philly cheesesteak sandwich. Which I did, and it was excellent. The original was just the marinated steak, onions, mushrooms, mayo, and mozzarella on a hoagie bun, but with some input from some of my coworkers, it evolved slightly into what it is today. You're going to love it, trust me. There is a little bit of prep involved, namely the marinade, so it's not like you can just throw this together in ten minutes, but it's super easy to do, and you can make up the marinade in bulk and freeze it, and once that step is out of the way, it will take about 10 minutes to do! I've only tried this with steak, but I'm sure it will go well with any other meat, and maybe even tofu, if you're the vegetablearian type.

On to the marinade!

I do have a recipe for this, just not with me right now, and even though I know you don't need one because you've been reading this blog and you know that recipes are for jerks, I'll come back and post it in a day or two anyway. If I don't forget.

But for now...

bunch of guajillos, stemmed
salt
brown sugar
lime juice
water

That's it! Just chop them up roughly and cover with a couple inches of water. The chopping part isn't exactly necessary, I just do it so they'll sit better in the pan- Guajillos are kind of long and tend to stick out of the water in all sorts of different directions if you leave them whole. Add a couple pinches of salt, a small handful of brown sugar, and the juice of one or two limes. Once the salt and sugar are dissolved it should have sort of a raisin-y taste to it. Adjust as necessary. Then just cook until you think it's done. I usually reduce it by about half. Next, blend it in your blender, or in the pot with your handy-dandy immersion blender. (If you don't have one of those things, you need one. Trust me.) Sometimes at this point, I'll throw in a jalapeno or two, but it's your sammich today- make it however you like! Now your marinade is done! Make sure it's cooled down (actually, you might want to do that before you add it to the blender- could end up with a big mess, otherwise.) and add the protein. This stuff goes a looooong way, though- 2 Tbs will easily cover a pound of meat. Let it marinate overnight, or at least 6 hours, and then gather up the following players-

Hoagie bun
onions
mushrooms
colby-jack cheese
chipotle mayo
anything else you think would go good on a Philly-style sandwich

First off, about the chipotle mayo- I'm sure they sell commercial stuff, but I wouldn't waste my money. It's too easy to make on your own (not to mention most likely cheaper) using your favorite regular mayo and a can of chipotle peppers. Simply take one can of chipotles in adobo sauce and add to 4 cups regular mayo. You can chop up the peppers by hand with a knife and then add to the mayo, or just blend the whole thing in a food processor. I'd avoid using a blender- it can easily break down the mayo into oil. At least, that's what happens to us at work. Then again, our blender only has two speeds- super fast, and supersonic. I'd still avoid the blender. Also, I found a recipe for chipotle mayo from scratch awhile back, but haven't gotten around to trying it yet, so I won't post it here right now, but it might be worth looking into. A quick search on the Food Network's website should turn something up. Even if you don't want to bother with all that, just using a good quality regular mayo, mixed with the chipotles is really, really good. I used to really not like the flavor of chipotle at all, until The Amigos at work started making this stuff and one day just for the heck of it I tried it. Now I love the stuff.

Break out the fry pan, melt some butter, add the steak and veggies and a pinch of salt and pepper and cook until done. (Normally I don't like well-done steak, but in this case med-rare doesn't seem to cut it for some reason.) Toast your bread, slather on the chipotle mayo, add the meat and veggies and cover liberally with cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. Then pop the whole thing in a hot oven for a few minutes to melt said cheese. Alternately, you can just add the cheese to the steak/veggies mix while it's in the fry pan. We do that a lot at work, and it works well. Except we cook ours on a flat-top, not in the fry pan, but you get the idea.

It's quite messy, so have plenty of napkins handy.



I kind of like to eat mine with a knife and fork. However you choose to do it, I think you'll agree...


this one rises far above the level of "sandwich".


Truly, once you've had this one, you've had yourself a Sammich.