Lord, Jesus. This past weekend I made one of the best versions of a BLT that my mouth has ever laid teeth on. It’s a chicken BLT. We are continuing work to finish the upstairs room in our house which we so lovingly call the “man cave”. The old wood panels in this room were basically put together with hammer and nail. A few months ago we started tearing down the panels and rebuilding this room from the frame work on up: new panels, new molding, new paint, new carpet, and a new TV! It will be one of the biggest projects we ever do to this house, and it’s been a fun one at that. Saturday we were working on the trim and floor boards. So for a quick “manly lunch”, I thought I would make one of the all-time classic sandwiches but with my own spin on it. A BLT sandwich with rotisserie chicken.
The best part about making this sandwich was shopping for its ingredients. I decided to pass the ole super market and drive to Fresh Market. Fresh Market makes me happy to go grocery shopping. It’s all about the experience. First of all, you walk in and the store is set up like a market place. There are fresh flowers in buckets towards the front and a plethora of fresh fruits and produce to the side. To the back of the store are fresh baked goods and loaves of bread, alongside fresh cuts of meat and seafood. Then you have the entire front half of the store devoted to fresh candies, chocolate and granola. You can mix your own batch, or buy them in presorted bags. All the while, Fresh Market is playing classical music. Who knew that grocery shopping to a classical string quartet could make you feel so chic?
For this chicken BLT, a sourdough baguette was my bread of choice. Baguettes are my favorite to eat with a sandwich, and you can really sink your teeth into a sourdough baguette. Instead of using iceberg lettuce, I went with a spring mix of greens. The colors are much prettier to dress up your sandwich presentation, and the nutritional value is better too. Use thick slices of bacon and bright, red tomatoes. The colors in this sandwich are aesthetically pleasing to the eye. All you need now is a classic rotisserie chicken breast to top it off. A little kosher salt, a little cracked pepper to taste, and you’re good to go.
But don’t forget the dressing! This is where I decided to step outside the box. You can stick to the classic BLT recipe and use mayonnaise, but I added Thousand Island dressing to my sandwich and it was a-maz-ing. Thousand Island dressing already has mayonnaise as a base ingredient. So when you add in the ketchup, Tabasco sauce and finely chopped vegetables (pickles and bell pepper) in the Thousand Island dressing, it gives your taste buds a tangy kick. I will certainly make these again. The nice thing about this sandwich is you can switch up the specific components to match your mood. For instance, try using a fresh loaf of toasted wheat bread instead of the sourdough. Or top the sandwich off with Russian dressing instead of Thousand Island. You can’t go wrong when there’s bacon and chicken involved.
This chicken, bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich was a fab four combination. Just like another musically famous fab four, The Beatles. Their song Obla di Obla da is a favorite, and it simply puts me in a good mood much like this sandwich does.
1 comment:
this looks DELISH!!
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