Chicken salad sandwich and a nice glass of wine
My husband’s daughter named Amy came to visit us for four days from New York. On one of the days I prepared for lunch a chicken salad sandwich. They devoured the sandwich, raving about its flavours. Amy wanted to know the ingredients I had included.
Wine complements a whole array of chicken sandwiches that can be served for lunch or for dinner.
I made for them a chicken salad sandwich prepared with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and a teaspoon of Herbes de Provence seasoned with freshly grated black pepper and garlic salt to taste. The chicken salad can be served on gluten-free bread grilled under the Panini press or any bread of your choice. Because of the saltiness in the cheese and seasoning, this sandwich can work with white wine with refreshing acidity. The acidity offsets the saltiness.
Santa Carolina Reserva Chardonnay, (CSPC 304022), $11.95, Chile, has lots of viscosity (weight and creaminess) to pair nicely with the mayo and cheese, all the while having enough acidity to offset the saltiness in the sandwich. This is a delicious wine with tropical fruit on the nose and palate, followed by just a hint of smokiness in the after taste. It is a decent quaffer worth its price, and certainly an ideally priced wine for a chicken sandwich.
Years ago, when I was single, my friends and I would go dancing in Yorkville (Toronto), and then end up at this 24 hour restaurant that served the most amazing grilled chicken sandwich. None of us could figure out what the green sauce was that tasted so divine on this toasty sandwich.
Whenever I asked the servers, they told me the sauce was a secret. One night after a couple of glasses of wine I snuck into restaurant kitchen and asked the chef, raving about his sandwich.
Like most chefs, this one was eager to share his recipe.
Using a blender he prepared a heated sauce for the chicken. This sauce combined homemade mayo (well worth the work) with lots of raw garlic, and fresh parsley. The sauce was bright green. He blended the ingredients together and then heated the green sauce in a pot on the stove.
This green sauce was then thickly smothered on the bread, followed by slices of cooked chicken breast. Under the Panini press the chicken sandwich went, then served hot with homemade fries. This Yorkville sandwich is downright delicious!
With its parsley and garlic mayo this sandwich would also be most completed by Santa Carolina Chardonnay Reserva.
Have you ever made a Chicken Waldorf Sandwich?
Place 1 cup of cooked chicken cubes, 2 sticks of thinly sliced celery, 1 small apple coarsely chopped, half a cup of toasted walnuts, one third a cup of mayonnaise and 1 tablespoon of tarragon in a food processor. Process the mixture until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Spread your favourite bread with “real” butter. Top half the slices with the chicken mixture and then the remaining bread slices. Add fresh radicchio. Serve fresh or Panini press grilled. The nuts add so much substance that this sandwich requires a big white and with a hint of sweetness to complement the fresh apple flavour. Off-dry Riesling is the best choice. The sweetness of the apple nicely offsets the bitterness and astringency of the walnuts.
Wayne Gretzky No. 99 Riesling VQA has all the elements you want to pair with your Waldorf sandwich. The wine has lots of peach and floral notes on the nose and palate with crisp acidity and a hint of sweetness to harmonize with the fresh apple in the sandwich.