Burger-Style Chicken Sandwich
Chicken Meat Dishes Sandwiches
A simple sandwich, made playfully to surprise my husband, but with a result that made us both smile at the first bite. It's a combination of the comfort of a sandwich and the flavors of a burger.
Ingredients
2 homemade pita breads (or store-bought buns; or Lebanese flatbreads)
3 boneless chicken thighs
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt, black pepper, chili flakes
Burger Salad
1/4 small white cabbage (about 150g when sliced)
1 ripe tomato
1/2 medium red onion
2 small gherkins (cornichons; I used brined ones)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt, black pepper
Burger Sauce
2 tablespoons mayonnaise (homemade or store-bought)
1 tablespoon Sriracha (I used Tomi Sriracha; if you don't want spicy sauce you can use sweet ketchup instead)
1 teaspoon mustard
1-2 tablespoons gherkin brine
salt, black pepper
How to prepare burger-style chicken sandwich
- For the salad, finely shred the cabbage into thin strips. Sprinkle with a little salt and knead for 1 minute, until it softens and feels moist. Grind black pepper over the cabbage, add the oil and mix well.
- Dice the tomato, onion and gherkins and add them to the cabbage. Mix everything together and adjust the salt, but the gherkins are usually salty enough.
- For the burger sauce, mix the mayonnaise, Sriracha and mustard in a small bowl. Grind black pepper and mix again. Then gradually add the gherkin brine, so the sauce becomes smooth and flows slowly off the spoon, but isn't too runny (depends on the mayonnaise consistency). Adjust the sauce for salt.
* the sauce can be prepared ahead and keeps well in the fridge; you'll have more sauce than needed for 2 sandwiches - Cut the chicken thighs into bite-sized cubes and season generously with salt, freshly ground black pepper and chili flakes (I like to use piment d'Espelette). Drizzle with 1 teaspoon of oil and mix everything well.
- Cook the chicken cubes in an Air Fryer at 200C for 10 minutes, stirring once after 6 minutes. They should be golden brown at the end. If you don't have an Air Fryer, saute them in a hot non-stick pan until browned all over.
- If using pita breads or buns, cut them in half. Drizzle with a little oil and toast them in a grill pan, cut side down, until they have nice grill marks, but don't let them get too crispy. Use flatbreads as they are.
- Place a generous portion of salad on the bottom half of the pita breads or on one side of the flatbreads. Then add half of the chicken on each. Drizzle as much sauce as you like over the chicken (2 teaspoons seems enough to me). Place the top half of the pita breads over the chicken and press down. Roll the flatbreads tightly, folding up the opposite edges.
