Chicken Caesar Sandwich

It’s been a long time since I last blogged!  Following the birth of my twins, I’ve been waiting for the right moment to return and last night I finally felt inclined to take some pictures of the food knowing I had a bit of free time this morning to write about it!  I thought this recipe would link in well with my previous post of Chicken Caesar Salad and would give me the chance to test an alternative caesar dressing.

This one didn’t use mustard but lemon juice and worcester sauce instead (full ingredients at the bottom of the post) and overall I’m not really sure which one I prefer.  Both have their merits.  This one was more runny for sure so made the eating a bit messier.  But taste wise, both are good!

I started by cooking the chicken breast on 180 C for 20 mins and then prepared the caesar sauce in the meantime.  I mixed all the sauce ingredients together well and added half to some chopped lettuce leaves.  Then I toasted the ciabatta for a couple of minutes, placed the cooked chicken on top, then the dressed lettuce, ham and added some more caesar sauce and Parmesan shavings.

In terms of overall recipe I would say I preferred the Caesar salad as it is easier to eat (a knife and fork help!) but this was a tasty alternative and a great, fast homemade snack albeit not the healthiest!  Life with twins has definitely led to repeating more of the same meals over and over so this made a welcome change last night 🙂

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

1 chicken breast

2 pieces of cooked ham/parma ham torn into small pieces

Mixed lettuce leaves

2 ciabattas

6 tablespoons of mayonnaise

6 tablespoons of lemon juice

Sprinkling of worcester sauce

Salt and pepper

Quiche with ham, leek, mushroom and cheese

In my recent quest to do relatively simple recipes that are favourite dishes but I’ve never made myself before, I decided upon quiche.  The timing worked quite well as we bought a replacement motor for our blender so this saved me some mixing of the pastry.

I found inspiration in one of my favourite cooking books; Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo.  She has a nice recipe for Quiche Lorraine which this was intended to be until I found I had no lardons or bacon in the fridge!  This item is a usual staple in our fridge so an indicator of time to go shopping!

I started the recipe by mixing 90g of butter with 1 teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt in the blender until it was quite creamy.

Then I added in 180g of plain flour followed by 2 eggs yolks and 2 tablespoons of ice cold water.

I blended this mixture some more until the dough came together.  I then took it out of the blender and rolled into a ball with my hands, wrapped in cling film and put in the fridge for about 1.5 hours (you can do this from 1 hour – overnight though).

Then, upon the discovery of the lack of lardons/bacon, I chopped some cheddar cheese and tore up the remaining piece of ham I had in the fridge.

I also softened a leek with a few mushrooms to supplement the ingredients.

I took the dough from the fridge and placed between two pieces of baking paper and rolled out as close to the size of the baking tray as I could (25cm).

For the remainder of the filling, I beat 4 eggs with 2 egg yolks, adding about 100ml of creme fraiche and 200ml of double cream and mixed together with a teaspoon of salt and a little bit of ground pepper.

I then lined the baking tin as best I could and used the remaining 2 egg whites to coat the pastry.  If I’d rolled the pastry for longer I suspect I could have filled the sides a little bit better (it is also quite a high baking tin!) but I was getting quite tired and my hope was that the filling would cover the sides well….

I then added my improvised ingredients before pouring the egg and cream mixture over the top and putting in the oven for 35 mins on 180 degrees.

Having just eaten a sample I can say the taste is good; nice and simple!  I like the combinations of ingredients and the thing I’m most pleased with is the pastry.  I hardly ever make it, it’s something that always scares me a little but it turned out well cooked and thin 🙂

I think if I would change one thing it would be to add more herbs or maybe some more black pepper to give it a bit more flavour.  Otherwise more cheese!  Everything tastes better with more cheese!!!