(Indoor) Italian Smoked Chicken Sandwich

"My cooking is fabulous, even if the smoke alarm is cheering me on."

That's an appropriate start to this recipe as I've just discovered the Breville Indoor Smoker.

This chicken sandwich has an Italian flare, and may be one of the best chicken sandwiches I've ever eaten.

I've used a few kitchen tools to make the chicken, but you could prepare the chicken however you know best (stove top, oven, grill).

You'll continue to see my love for a sous vide. It would be the one kitchen tool that I would recommend anyone to invest in. It makes cooking simple and "fool-proof."

At 4:30PM I decided on this recipe so I pulled 2 chicken breast out of the freezer, dropped them in a zip-lock bag, and placed them in a sous vide bath at 145 degrees for 2 hours.

Typically meat takes at-least one hour to prepare in the sous vide, however if frozen you want to make sure you give it at-least 2 to come to temperature.

While the chicken was cooking, I poured a glass of Phantom Cabernet (a Trader Joes gem), turned on Spotify, and started to make the sun-dried tomato aioli (recipe below).

About a year ago, I was traveling in Boston for work and ate at a restaurant in the middle of Harvard's campus that was known for their burger. This was one of the best burger's I've ever eaten, so I made my colleague at the table break down each flavor of what made it so good with me. We came to discover that the burger had Parmesan crisps on it in replacement of a slice of cheese which made the cheese more potent and crunchy. I tried the Parmesan crisps here, and they were fantastic.

I prepared an Italian salad to pair with the chicken sandwich; mixed greens, red onion, cherry tomatoes, banana peppers, croutons and olive oil with vinegar for dressing.

Once the chicken reached temperature in the sous vide, I patted it dry, seasoned with Himalayan salt, Pepper, and Italian Seasoning and seared in the cast iron which had been sprinkled in olive oil on medium-high heat for 10 minutes until the chicken came to temperature at 165 degrees.

The FINAL step, which I've just discovered, was to smoke the chicken for extra flavor with my Breville Indoor Smoker. I infused the chicken with applewood smoke for 3 minutes before transferring to the sandwich. It's incredible, in 3-minutes, the extra flavor this can provide.

(You could accomplish the same flavor, of course, by smoking on a Big Green Egg or equivalent.)

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Recipe

Serving Size, 2

Sandwich:

• Buns - I opted for Brioche Hamburger Buns (Publix Deli)

• Butter for toasting the bun (I use "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray")

• Chicken Breast (2)

• Parmesan Crisps

• Salt

• Pepper

• Italian Seasoning

Sun-dried Tomato Aioli

• 2 TBSP Sun-dried Tomato (in oil), diced

• 1/2 TBSP fresh basil, diced

• 1 clove of garlic, minced

• 2 TBSP of mayo

• Dash of sea salt

Instructions:

1. Place frozen chicken breast in a vacuum sealed bag, or ziplock bag in sous vide bath at 145 degrees - if dethawed place in sous vide for one to 4 hours

2. If not seasoned before sous vide bath, once done, pat the chicken dry and season with a generous amount of salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning

3. Sear in a cast iron skillet in one TBSP of olive oil for 10 minutes or until it's reached 165 degrees

4. (Optional) if you have a smoking option, or the Breville Smoking Gun, I smoked with Applewood chips for 3 minutes under the smoking cloak

5. While the chicken is cooking, prepare the sun-dried tomato aioli by mixing all ingredients in a bowl

6. Toast bun, spread aioli, stack Parmesan crisps, add chicken

Enjoy!