Grilled Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Sandwiches with Fontina Cheese

[hrk]

DH and I made this last night and it was delicious.
Changes to the recipe:
I marinated the chicken for 24 hours, simply because I don't have time during the week to let something marinate for 2 hours, I used only 1/2 tsp ground fennel instead of 3/4 because neither DH or I are big on fennel and I used plain foccacia since that was all I could find.
This recipe was a cinch to put together and took no time at all to prepare or cook.
This sandwich was delicious. It had a great mix of flavors and a little bite to it from the crushed red pepper. I imagine the rosemary focaccia would have enhanced the flavors even more. This is a great grilled dish and would be something great to serve to company or as smaller finger foods at a party as you make the sandwich as a whole loaf and then cut it up.
Overall a 9/10 and looking forward to leftovers tonight.
Heather

[cinnamon_queen]

Thanks for the review. I already have this recipe marked to try so it's good to hear that someone enjoyed it!

[rosie_one]

Thanks for the review on this. It's on the menu for tonight so I'm glad to see you enjoyed it. Making my foccacia in the breadmaker as we speak. I'll check back in and let you know how it went. :)

[kristalsnow7]

Thanks for the review, Heather! I'm really looking forward to trying this one soon.

[RunnerKim]

I agree that this is an excellent sandwich! Yum! We marinated the chicken in the morning. Used extra roasted red peppers as our jar was 12 oz. but we did have extra onion/pepper mixture. DH and I like fennel (used appropriately and judiciously) and I used the amount hte recipe called for. I made the rosemary foccacia in my bread machine (shaped and baked in the oven) and i think the rosemary does add another dimension to this sandwich. We grilled "potato fries" to go with it. I'll see how the leftovers are for lunch today.

Kim

[sweetpea]

Yummy!! I made this for dinner as written but had to omit the fennel seed (not for lack of searching my spice racks for about 10 min. though!) and used provolone b/c it's what i had on hand. I made the foccacia earlier in the day and while grilling the sandwich on my grill pan i put a piece of foil on it then smashed it down with my stack of cast iron pans--DH took one look at it in the pan with all the cheese/chicken and good stuff running out and he said "so what are you eating?" I got a grin, a pat on the leg and a kiss after dinner for it so that HAS to be good! Next is the Pressed Cubano...I am loving this sandwich feature!

[rosie_one]

This is a real winner, yum!

We loved it too. Chalk up another really good review. Now I'm after the best breadmaker foccacia. Ours was tasty, but not tall enough to slice horizontally so I had to use two chunks to make each sandwich. If you have a good recipe, please post it?

[sneezles]

Originally posted by rosie_one
If you have a good recipe, please post it?

I'm making this for tonight's dinner and using a recipe for focaccia that you can use either rosemary or sage. I'm using sage since DH refers to rosemary as "cedar". Will let you know if it's tall enough!

[sneezles]

rosie_one,
The bread came out of the oven and it's a nice 2" tall! Smells wonderful! Baked in 25 minutes and my only problem was forgetting to dust the pan with cornmeal. It would have helped tremndously when removing the bread from the pan since the sides are so much higher than a baking sheet.
Here's the recipe I used (in my bread machine) which I found on this site: Nick Malgieri (http://www.nickmalgieri.com/bio.html)

Rosemary Focaccia

This wonderful Italian flatbread is among the easiest of all breads to prepare. Vary the flavoring with other fresh or dried herbs if you wish.

Makes 1 11-x-17-inch focaccia



5 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh or dried rosemary
1 envelope active dry yeast
8 tablespoons olive oil, divided (I did not use 8 tbs! I used the 3 in the dough but but only used another 2 to oil the pan. Actually, I poured it in the pan the oiled my hands to remove the dough from the machine; flipped the dough over to cover all surfaces with oil.)
1 teaspoon Kosher or coarse salt

1 11-x-17-inch jelly roll pan



1. In a mixing bowl combine flour, salt and rosemary.

2. Pour 2 cups tepid water into another bowl and whisk in the yeast, then 3 tablespoons of the oil. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir the yeast mixture into the flour mixture until all the flour is evenly moistened, then beat vigorously for 1 minute. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

3. Oil the jelly roll pan with the remaining 3 tablespoons oil. Scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto the pan and pat and press the dough into the pan to fill it completely. If the dough resists, wait a few minutes and continue. Poke holes in the dough at 2-inch intervals with your fingertips and drizzle with the remaining oil. Sprinkle on the salt.

4. Allow the dough to rise again until doubled in bulk. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 450 degrees and set a rack in the lower third.

5. When the dough has risen, bake until deep golden, about 25 minutes. Check the bottom about halfway through the baking time by lifting the side of the focaccia with a spatula or pancake turner. If it is coloring deeply, slide the original pan onto another pan to insulate the bottom.

6. Slide the focaccia off the pan or a rack to cool. Serve narrow slices, or cut into squares _ and split horizontally for sandwiches.

Variations:

Onion Focaccia: Omit rosemary from dough. Slice 3 medium onions and cook in 2 tablespoons olive oil in a covered pan until wilted. Season with salt, pepper and oregano. Spread evenly on dough instead of the salt and rosemary.

Sage Focaccia: Replace rosemary with fresh sage.

Tomato and Olive Focaccia: Omit rosemary from dough. Cover focaccia with 1 cup chopped and drained canned tomatoes, 1/2 cup halved and pitted black olives, 3 thinly sliced garlic cloves, 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, salt and pepper.

[sneezles]

Well, it's beginning to look like I'm having a conversation with myself about the recipe...
We all loved it!!! I did use orange and yllow roasted peppers (roasted them myself) since I really don't care for red ones. The boys did not have the veggies on theirs, still picky eaters about some things :rolleyes: !
DH's comment was that it was a bit hard to eat...guess my foccacia was too tall! I didn't think it was difficult at all!

And that foccacia was incredible! The sage was so good! It was almost like there was cheese in the bread! I only used half for the sandwiches and took the other half (and some good olive oil, fresh basil and freshly grated parmesan) to the dance last night.

[Laurielee]

made this last night with a few substitutions. It was good, but on the bland side, probably because I forgot to add the vinagar. but I would make it again and wont foget to add the vinagar

I used precooked rotisserie chicken and sliced french bread. Next time I make it I would add the chicken to the pepper/onion suace so some of those flavors get mixed in the chicken and I want to make the rosemary sneezles posted.

[Kerri]

I also made this recipe last weekend. I will agree that it tasted pretty good, but it was really messy. Not sure if it was worth it in the long run. Probably will not make again.

[tuff2000]

Thumbs up here. We loved it! Served with freshly steamed broccoli to make a complete meal.:)Highly recommend:D

[Jill W]

Sneezles-
Thanks so much for posting that flatbread recipe. Do you think there would be any possibility that the salt could be decreased in it?
Thnaks!
Jill

[sneezles]

Originally posted by Jill W
Sneezles-
Thanks so much for posting that flatbread recipe. Do you think there would be any possibility that the salt could be decreased in it?
Thnaks!
Jill

I'm no bread expert but I would think you could reduce it by half. I don't I'd go anymore than that the first time. doesn't salt play a role in the rise? If you try it let me know if it worked!

[Jill W]

Thanks for your quick response Sneezles! We had these sandwiches over the weekend and didn't have the right kind of bread or the right kind of cheese. We used asiago cheese and it was delicious! The bread was OK, nothing spectacular but the sandwich was still wonderful!

[Kathy F]

Made this for dinner last night and thought it was really yummy! I just finished the one leftover piece tonight (reheated it in the toaster oven, which seemed to work well). I did make a couple changes, like leaving out the mustard and the mayonnaise. I couldn't find rosemary focaccia, or any focaccia at all, actually, so for bread I used a loaf of La Brea Bakery's Pain Rustique, which is a flat bread kind of like ciabatta. Since it didn't have rosemary in it, I added 1/4 tsp. of rosemary to the onion/pepper mixture instead. I really, really liked the onion/pepper part, and the fontina cheese, of course! :) We served the sandwich with sweet potato oven fries (the WW recipe, which I found on this board). I would definitely make both again.

Kathy

[memartha]

It seems like all of the grilled sandwiches from that section are getting great reviews. We seem to be having a sandwich of some sort for dinner weekly, which we never did before. It's a tasty way to start the summer, I think!

[Searcher]

We finally tried this on Monday and we LOVED it. Everything just went so well together. The marinade was wonderful, I'm going to use that just for grilled chicken.
I bought two focaccias at Panera Bread, one Asiago cheese and one Rosmary Onion. Both were delicious but the rosemary does add to the dish. I cooked three chicken breast halves, used a small wedge of Fontina and a large and a small jar of roasted red peppers, plus a medium sized Vidalia onion. The round focaccias were easy to turn on the grill and just tasted so good. We had more than enough, with oven fries, for dinner plus several lunches. Yum! I love sandwich nights.

[stacy7272]

This is a really good sandwich! This is the best homemade sandwich that I've ever had. It tasted like something you'd get in a restaurant.

I loved the roasted red pepper and the fennel seed. I was also surprised at how well I could taste the fontina cheese.

ONE POUND of chicken?! I didn't need a whole pound of chicken for my sandwich and I did use the 12 oz foccacia that was called for.

[Searcher]

I used three chicken breast halves and two probably 8 or 8-inch focaccias.

[Pony]

We had this at my mother's house earlier in the week and enjoyed it.

We agree with Searcher about using the marinade for grilled chicken. My mom and I loved the chicken on its own and actually thought we could not taste the great flavor of the chicken in the sandwich. It was competing with other great flavors, fontina, red bell peppers, etc.

My mom cut down on the fennel, but left the crushed red pepper the same. It had a kick to it and I would cut down on the red pepper next time, b/c I think that took away from the other flavors. I wanted to taste the fontina, chicken, bread and vege's more. It still was very good.

Michelle

[SusanMac]

Does this sandwich travel well, and is it equally good at room temp? I need to make sanwiches for a Sat lunch w/DFIL and would love to have something impressive to serve.

[Pony]

I think if you make it like Amanda (sweetpea) and press it, it might travel better than if you grill like the recipe states. It was a bit messy for us, b/c the bread wasn't pressed.

I would prefer this sandwich warm, b/c I just love warm melted cheese. I think it would taste fine if you brougt it for a lunch...are you going on a picnic? If you are going to be near a kitchen, then you can press it like Amanda.

Enjoy.

[Pony]

bump!