Tuesday 3 April 2012

Chicken Sandwich with Homemade Mayonnaise

I used to love the little chicken sandwiches we used to get for tea at the old colonial hotels, and at home while grandmothers were still around. I never got around to getting the recipe from mine, so I sent out a Facebook SOS for it a few weeks back.


Because food is soul, especially soul-food like the delights of granny's table.

Sweet mustard, mayonnaise and chicken pâté, between hot buttered toast :-)

Anyway, plenty of people responded with their versions of the simple chicken sandwich, but nothing was quite what I was so keenly missing... till Sue turned up with her's. I tinkered with it a little, true, but it's a brilliant recipe, perfect in its simplicity, and absolutely delicious. Here's the picture-book.

 Chicken, marinated for half an hour in lemon juice and minced half a small onion and garlic.

Heat two teaspoons of mildly-flavoured oil (sunflower, canola) over a medium flame, and toss the chicken and the marinade in. The lemon juice might sizzle a bit, so be careful.

When the chicken turns golden, pour two cups of water, and simmer covered. Cook till the chicken comes apart easily when prodded with a fork.

Then, take it off the flames and let cool in a plate.

 While it's still warm, take it apart with a fork, and mash it with salt, pepper, and a little butter.

And now, for the mayonnaise. Take a couple of eggs. Actually, if you worried what you eat, just take one. Then, use a spoon (I'm using a daal-er haata) to scoop out the yolk.

Pour it into a separate bowl.

Now, take half a teaspoon of red and black mustard seeds, a large pinch of salt, and a quarter teaspoon of sugar. Grind into a paste with a little water. Of course, one could use prepared mustard, but I prefer the seeds.

That's the mortar-and-pestle at work.

Add the mustard to the yolk(s). Whisk together very, very well, preferably with an electronic whisk (since I haven't enough muscle-power to make a proper whisked mix).

Now, alternate adding oil and water+vinegar (or lime juice) to the eggs, and blending it into the mixture. Do this till half a cup of oil and half a cup of water is all whisked in.

 Cut the crusts off sliced bread. Because I'm delicate and they hurt the insides of my mouth. If you like, you can toast and butter them lightly before layering on a little of the chicken pâté. 

Lightly coat the other piece with the mayonnaise. Or slather it on. Personally, I'm fond of the slather :-)
 Club them together, and cut diagonally across. Make a whole plate of them. Incidentally, if you don't toast them before, I strongly recommend toasting them after.

 With the leftover egg white, make a white-only omelette. Put it on a sandwich.

 Put another sandwich on top of it. And you have a chicken-omelette-mayonnaise club :-)

Trust me, it's delicious. Deeeelicious. Try it with a pot of tea, and soon!

10 comments:

Dea-chan said...

Ooh how tasty looking!

Rimi darling -- I have to roast a lamb leg in two weeks. Suggestions? T wants spices that won't overpower the lamb, but will "go with the flavor". Which has me completely confused.

Rimi said...

Oh, I have a very good idea indeed! I'd say about five to eight cloves of garlic, depending how large your leg of lamb is, plus half your average supermarket bunch of oregano, plus the juice of one lemon/half an orange/one small tangerine, plus a little bit of the sun-dried (or lightly toasted) peel of said lemon/orange, grated -- but taste this before adding to make sure it isn't bitter -- and some salt, olive oil, and black pepper.

Personally, I like rubbing in a little pureed or plain chopped tomato myself, but you'll have to decide whether you like tomatoes in the mix. Someone once told me adding some de-seeded, diced olives to the roasting mix is also a great idea, but I've never tried this myself. The basic trick lies in the citrus juice, garlic, oregano, and oil, and in making enough incisions all over the lamb and really rubbing the spices in. If you manage to do that, you're set :-)

Let me know how it goes!

Anonymous said...

this is entirely too much work for a sandwich. sigh. i wish i could order this somewhere, but i am yet to find a place that doesn't serve giant lunch sized sammiches.

Joychaser said...

why am i anon?

incidentally wordcaptcha: tatva twokipi

hahaha

Rimi said...

Haha, that IS amusing.

I'll be very happy to make you these if you ever stop by :-)

Magically Bored said...

On an irrelevant note, I love how yellow the yolk looks. And we have those same bowls at home. :)

Dea-chan said...

It turned out delicious Rimi! I now have a post about easter.

gluten free foods said...

You can prepare your chicken with a different marinade, but keep an eye on sodium and sugar amounts in the marinades. Look for low sodium/ low sugar versions and add your own salt free herbs and spices.

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