When I originally lived in Albuquerque in the 90s there was a sandwich shop down by the university that served strange sandwiches, two of which have become favorites of mine. Both were made with baguettes with one end cut off, the bready guts pulled out and crammed with ingredients. The first was a turkey sandwich that had cranberry sauce, stuffing and gravy. Pretty simple, and easy to duplicate — just jam your Thanksgiving leftovers into a baguette.
The second was curried chicken salad. It’s since cropped up on the menu at other places, and I’ve seen some stores carry it in the deli section, but it’s not as good. I prefer to make my own, which isn’t that hard to do.
Caveat: I’m a wing-it cook. I don’t measure things, I just eyeball the amount of ingredients or add to taste. If you like more of something, or less of something, adjust as needed.
This version makes about four sandwiches, or two stuffed baguettes.
I start with two good sized boneless, skinless chicken breasts. When I buy fresh, they’re usually about the right size. When I use frozen ones, you may get some small ones or some huge ones mixed in the same bag. It’s all going to get chopped up, so just get enough to equal two average chicken breasts. Baking them is what I typically do. Spray a baking sheet or a casserole dish, stick them in the over for 45 minutes at 350, make sure they’re cooked all the way through.
Sometimes I boil them — yes, boil them. When I’m not making chicken for presentation, when I’m not going to plate it so it has to look pretty, when I just need chicken for an ingredient in something else, I will boil it. Take a shallow pan, put about an inch and a half of water in it, drop frozen (yup, frozen) chicken breasts into it, turn the heat on high and slap a lid on it. When it starts to boil, turn the heat down just enough so it keep rolling but doesn’t boil over. After 8 to 10 minutes, flip the chicken over and give it another 5-7 minutes. Pull it out, slice it open to make sure it’s cooked through, voila!
My recommendation is to make the chicken well ahead of time and refrigerate it. You’re going to be working with mayonnaise, and adding hot chicken to mayo is bad. If you’re making chicken salad to be served right away, prepare an ice bath for the chicken. Get a bowl, fill it with cool water, throw in a tray full of ice cubes. When the chicken’s done boiling, drop it in the ice water and go prep the other ingredients. By the time you get back to the chicken it’ll be cool.
Dice up a half cup of red onion. Put it in a bowl with a half cup of raisins, half cup of mayonnaise, and two tablespoons of yellow curry powder. Mix it together gently with a fork until it’s a consistent color. Dice or shred the chicken (your choice) and mix it in. If you can make it a day ahead of time and let it sit in the fridge, it’s even better, but you can eat it right away.
This started out with me talking about hollowed-out baguettes, and you can do that. You can use regular bread, but I recommend toasting it for extra texture. I’ve grown fond of putting this on toasted ciabatta bread.
If you try the recipe, or come up with any variations, let me know in the comments!
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