Sometimes I hit upon a great sandwich on the first try, and other times...well, it goes the way it went this past weekend. I started with dreams of a relatively easy chicken sandwich, incorporating flavor combinations I've loved in various appetizers - chicken and apples, apples and brie. But as I'm discovering, once some of these flavors are grilled and melted together between two pieces of bread the final dish can be fantastic OR it can be a disaster. I'll tell you what, if it weren't for this blog I'd probably give up on some of these ideas after a few tries. But where would be the fun in that? With your entertainment (and eventual recipe interest) in mind, I perservere! Fortunately, I eventually arrive at some tasty results. Want to skip ahead? Click here for the final recipe.

Chicken, Apple & Brie Panini - Attempt #1

• Bread: French sandwich roll
• Condiment: None
• Meat: Rotisserie chicken
• Cheese: Brie
• "Goodies": Granny Smith apples

THE INSPIRATION: I really don't buy rotisserie chickens often enough. They're inexpensive, readily available and generally taste pretty good (owing to the much greater amount of salt than I would have been able to justify using). This "instant chicken" has made it possible for me to prepare a number of great mid-week meals in no time. So it seemed to me that there must be a good role for rotisserie chicken in panini-making. That was the impetus. From there, I brainstormed flavors that taste good with chicken and I came up on apples, like in some chicken salads. And then from apples my mind went to brie, another great combo. And so Attempt #1 became an experiment in combining rotisserie chicken, apples and brie.

THE PREPARATION: Pulling chicken meat from its carcass feels barbaric...and somehow gratifying. Fresh from the grocery store, it's still hot and slippery through your fingers. That's one way of looking at it - the other is that it's kind of a mess. I must credit Ms. Rachael Ray for her popularization of a "GB" (aka, garbage bowl) - it saves my countertops every time.

Next, I sliced up my brie into 1/4" slices. I had some concerns about its sharpness being too overpowering - I don't think I've had a sandwich with brie yet from which I didn't have to scrape off half the cheese to make it edible. Still, I wanted cheese to bind this sandwich and brie was my chosen adhesive.

For apples, I went with Granny Smith for their tartness and dense consistency - after the Apple Turnover Panini, I knew they'd stand up well to the heat without becoming mushy. I cut up my apple into 16 pieces and squeezed lemon on them to prevent oxidization.

THE CONSTRUCTION: Onto a French sandwich roll, I layered 2 small slices of brie, my rotisserie chicken meat (a good balance of light and dark meat), 4 slices of apple, and another 2 slices of brie.

This sandwich didn't even make it to the grill - it was immediately apparent that there was no way its tubular shape would allow it to remain upright. Now, I have since learned of a great trick to mitigate this problem - turning the bread inside out so that the round sides are facing in - but I was not aware of this at the time. So I made the switch to sliced sourdough (an upside to writing this blog is that I have no shortage of breads and cheeses in my kitchen these days!), brushing a little olive oil on top for a crostini effect. I grilled the sandwich at 350 degrees for 6 minutes.

THE RESULTS: Yuck. The brie was way too strong. Maybe it was the brand I bought, I don't know. The chicken and the apples were fine and I loved how the bread, with the olive oil, came out so nice and crispy. But what's panini without good cheese? I was going to need to revisit this.

Chicken, Apple & Asiago Panini - Attempt #2

Brie was too strong, how about something a little milder like asiago? I had some leftover from the Inaugural Experiment and I thought that, too, is usually a great accompaniment to chicken and apples. So I swapped in asiago in place of the brie and kept the rest of the sandwich the same.

THE RESULTS: Much better! With the brie gone, I could actually taste the chicken and apples this time. I could even pick up a little of the lemon juice I'd used to keep the apples from browning. But it was a touch dry and more bland than I'd hoped. I realized I didn't have any condiments on the sandwich - just meat, cheese and a "goodie" (the apples). At first I considered adding cranberry sauce, but insofar as Thanksgiving was months ago I didn't quite have any on hand! I did, however, have some raspberry preserves from the Chocolate Raspberry Croissant Panini for Two. Might that give the moisture and sweetness I was looking for?

Chicken, Apple & Raspberry Panini - Attempt #3

Instead of using asiago on the inside of both pieces of bread, I substituted a layer of raspberry preserves on the bottom half...and crossed my fingers!

THE RESULTS: WINNER! Yes, it was sweet but not too sweet. It was just what the sandwich needed to balance out the saltiness of the chicken and the asiago and the tartness of the apples.

This recipe definitely took a meandering path, but after a little perserverance I'm proud to say I've come up with a relatively easy chicken sandwich with unexpected - yet delicious - flavors.

With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, I wanted to come up with a panini recipe that would be perfect for watching the big game (or the commercials, for some of us). Buffalo chicken jumped immediately to mind as "game food" that is not only super-flavorful but also might translate well into a grilled sandwich. Want to skip ahead? Click here for the final recipe.


Super Bowl Buffalo Chicken Panini - Attempt #1

• Bread: Pita
• Condiment: Buffalo chicken sauce
• Meat: Chicken thighs
• Cheese: Blue cheese
• "Goodies": Caramelized red onions

THE INSPIRATION: Buffalo wings! If you're not familiar with them, they're named after Buffalo, New York where they originated. According to Wikipedia, chicken wings are traditionally deep fried and then coated in a spicy sauce comprised of cayenne pepper hot sauce and butter or margarine. They're typically served with celery and carrot sticks and blue cheese dressing. For my Super Bowl Buffalo Chicken Panini, I kept the chicken, sauce and blue cheese and added caramelized red onions for sweetness and pita bread for a toasty "envelope" to hold everything together.

THE PREPARATION: To ensure tender chicken for the sandwich, I decided to go with dark meat - chicken thighs. I sliced 1-1/2 lbs. of thighs into 1/2" strips. Next, I wanted to simmer the strips in Buffalo chicken sauce. I had originally planned to make my own sauce, but when I saw so many bottled Buffalo chicken sauces in the grocery store I thought, what the heck. I went with the Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing sauce which, according to the bottle and Wikipedia, contains the original hot sauce from Buffalo. So I put the chicken and sauce in a large saute pan over medium-high heat, brought it to a boil and then covered and simmered for 15 minutes. I tested a few pieces and they seemed done enough - the cayenne flavor was fantastic!

While my chicken was simmering, I got to work on caramelizing my red onions. I sliced 1 large red onion into thin rings and sauteed them with 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat for what wound up being about 13 minutes. I stirred in 2 teaspoons of sugar to help with the caramelization and sauteed the onions for another 10 minutes at which point they were soft and brown.

THE CONSTRUCTION: When it came time to assemble the panini, an issue immediately arose - the pita breads were not very flexible. First of all, the only pita I could find in my grocery store were the perforated kind, which did not help things. Naturally, when I folded a pita along the perforation it separated (what it was designed to do!). When I tried folding another pita in the other direction it still broke. So I tried the old tortilla trick of microwaving a 3rd pita for 10 seconds and that did seem to make the bread a bit more malleable. Not malleable enough as this one did break a little as well! Oh well, I decided to go ahead and continue with constructing the sandwich.

On one half of the slightly broken pita I layered some of the caramelized red onions, then the chicken (I used a slotted spoon to drain most of the excess sauce, allowing just a little onto the sandwich), and lastly a few tablespoons of blue cheese. I carefully folded the pita over, transferred the sandwich to the panini press and grilled it at a medium-high grill height at 350 degrees for 5 minutes.

THE RESULTS: It wasn't much to look at, due to the broken pita, but the taste and texture was terrific. And I'm not even a huge blue cheese fan. The pita bread toasted extremely well and came out nice and crispy. The filling, with the melted blue cheese and Buffalo chicken sauce, was a little bit messy - but hey, it's Buffalo chicken! The caramelized onions added just the right amount of sweetness to balance the tangy-ness of the hot sauce and creamy pungency of the blue cheese. If only I could get the pita to stay intact.

Super Bowl Buffalo Chicken Panini - Attempt #2

On a whim I decided to give the microwaving trick another try, this time increasing the cook time to 15 seconds - it worked! The pita came out nice and malleable, but I could tell I only had a short window of time before it cooled down and became stiff again. So I quickly assembled the sandwich and got it on the panini grill.

THE RESULTS: Yes! It had all the characteristics I was going for - tender, flavorful chicken, a good melt on the blue cheese, onions to balance it all out. That was one good sandwich.

Click here for the final recipe!

Looking for more great Super Bowl recipes? Check out the roundup at Simply Recipes!