CHICKEN, BACON AND AVOCADO SANDWICHES
Serves 4
We preferred the bread toasted; you can do this while the bacon’s in the pan. If you can’t find thin chicken cutlets, buy 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves that are on the small side; cut them in half horizontally.
Serve with baked sweet potato fries. Adapted from “The Essential Diabetes Cookbook: Good Healthy Eating From Around the World,” by Antony Worrall Thompson with Louise Blair (Kyle, 2010).
4 slices thick-cut bacon (5 ounces total)
8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast cutlets (may substitute 2 chicken breast halves; see headnote)
Kosher salt
7 ounces (half a can) no-salt-added chickpeas
Leaves from 2 stems fresh flat-leaf parsley or cilantro, plus a few sprigs for garnish
1 ripe avocado
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 lime
2 Campari or Kumato tomatoes
4 slices whole-grain or multigrain country-style bread (5 1/2 ounces total; see headnote)
Line a plate with paper towels. Cut each bacon slice crosswise in half. Arrange in a large nonstick skillet. Cook over medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes, until crisped. Drain on the plate.
Season the chicken lightly with salt and immediately place in the same pan; cook (medium heat) for about 3 minutes on each side, until lightly browned and cooked through. Transfer to a plate.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then place in a mixing bowl. Coarsely chop the parsley or cilantro leaves; add to the bowl. Peel, pit the avocado; add to the same bowl, along with the cumin, a pinch each of the salt and crushed red pepper flakes, and the juice of the lime half. Use a potato masher or large fork to mash the mixture into a chunky paste. Taste, and add more salt and/or crushed red pepper flakes, as needed.
Cut the tomatoes into 1/4-inch slices, and season them lightly with salt. Let them sit for 5 minutes, then begin to build the sandwiches: Spread equal amounts of the avocado-chickpea mash on each piece of bread, then a few tomato slices. Next, the bacon and then the chicken. Top with parsley or cilantro sprigs.
Nutrition | Per serving: 450 calories, 26 g protein, 35 g carbohydrates, 23 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 65 mg cholesterol, 470 mg sodium, 8 g dietary fiber, 5 g sugar