Someone just informed me that it’s finally summer, so we’re headed out to the grill to whip up a sandwich that is inspired by something I read about on the internet. No, it’s not one of those trendy, viral things that I’ve written about before. It’s a sandwich that doesn’t seem like it was very popular, so it disappeared from the menus where it was added within a year.
That probably doesn’t sound great, but I can promise you that the base sandwich concept is a good one, and using some tips and strategies, we can turn it into a fantastic and fairly easy sandwich to make at home on the outdoor grill or even inside on a grill pan (or cast iron pan) in your kitchen.
What is this sandwich?
I was inspired to write about this sandwich by a fantastic account on Bluesky called Discontinued Foods! This account shares posts about fast food or commercially produced food items that were limited-time offerings or simply discontinued over the years. I’ve embedded the post that inspired this sandwich just below. Longtime readers may remember I recreated a sandwich that Discontinued Foods! shared once before with the French Toastwich.
Anyway, back to the sandwich at hand.
Apparently, one of the corporate chefs at McDonald’s was trying to think outside the burger box in 2018 when they added a creation to the “Signature Crafted” line of sandwiches and/or burgers. Two of the sandwiches in that lineup were almost identical, except for the choice of meat preparation.
They were both considered to be mushroom and Swiss chicken sandwiches with “melted Swiss cheese, seasoned mushrooms, onion straws, and a creamy bistro aioli inside of an artisan bun.” The customer was only left with the choice of “buttermilk crispy” or grilled chicken, aka a fried chicken sandwich or a not-fried chicken sandwich.
McDonald's Mushroom and Swiss Chicken Sandwich (2018-2019): Part of the "Signature Crafted" lineup, these sandwiches were available in buttermilk crispy or grilled chicken, with melted swiss cheese, seasoned mushrooms, onion straws, and "creamy bistro aioli" on an "artisan bun"
— Discontinued Foods! (@discontinuedfoods.bsky.social) October 17, 2024 at 2:20 PM
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Signature Crafted History
At some point around 2016, McDonald’s in the United States launched their “Signature Crafted” line of sandwiches. It seems like that ran until around 2019, and it was basically an attempt to elevate the level of their burgers or chicken sandwiches with flavor upgrades in the form of components like guacamole, Vidalia onion BBQ sauce, or maple bacon dijon. The whole point seemed to be giving customers a more gourmet option at McDonald’s. You can still see some of the ads created during this time on YouTube. It seems like they also expanded this concept and changed the name slightly for the rest of the world’s McDonald’s because you can also find ads for the “Signature Collection” in other parts of the world.
Mushrooms and cheese are a pretty popular combo in the cheeseburger world, so why wouldn’t it work with chicken? If you (like me) are a mushroom and cheese fan, you can also read about a Cincinnati-style hoagie with mushroom gravy and melty mozzarella, and I’ve also covered the Polish Zapiekanka, which is sort of a mushroom-focused, open-faced French bread pizza with melted Edam cheese on top. Last but definitely not least, don’t forget the Alice Springs chicken sandwich I created with mushrooms, melty cheese, and bacon inside of a honey wheat black bread bun.
Mushroom and Swiss burger content
I love the combination of mushrooms and Swiss cheese and have written about it before when I covered the Hardee’s Frisco burger (which I probably need to revisit in the future) (direct link to mushroom n’ swiss content).
Just in case that Bluesky post above ever goes away, here are the McDonald’s marketing images of their Signature Crafted mushroom and Swiss chicken sandwiches. The one on the left is the fried chicken version, but today the sandwich I’m creating is inspired by the grilled chicken version on the right.
The sandwich I’m writing about in this blog post is not meant to be a copycat version of the McDonald’s sandwich because I never actually got a chance to try it, but it’s inspired by the idea of the Signature Crafted sandwich with a couple of alterations and shortcuts that will help us make a better sandwich in our own kitchen (or backyard grill).
First, we need some buns, and mine are definitely “artisan.”
Honey wheat sandwich buns
This is the bun that is requested by my wife whenever I decide to foist a new sandwich project into our dinner plans. We’re both fans of grilled chicken sandwiches, Swiss cheese, and mushrooms, so I got her involved, which also happens to lighten any responsibilities that she might feel in procuring dinner ingredients or coming up with dinner ideas. So when I come through with a sandwich we’d both like, she typically is excited about letting me take control.
When I asked her which bun would go best with grilled chicken, mushroom, and Swiss, she immediately said my honey wheat sandwich bun, so that’s what I baked up.
This bun recipe churns out 6 buns that have a nice sweetness and a bit of a slight chewy texture, which holds up to pretty much any grilled chicken sandwich or even a cheeseburger.
The process of proofing, shaping, and baking them is pretty much the same as other buns, but I have found that adding a percentage of whole wheat flour will cause the proofing and rising stages of bread or buns like this to take a bit longer.
Once the buns are fully baked, I typically paint on some melted butter, which helps to soften the exterior of the buns, but it’s optional. You can do as you please, but I have made these burgers with and without a melted butter glaze and you’ll enjoy them much better if you paint that butter on just after the bake.
Honey wheat sandwich buns
This bun introduces extra honey sweetness to a soft, but still chewy wheat bun. Squishy and flavorful, it's perfect for your next grilled chicken sandwich.
Get RecipeThe sandwich concepts and components
The primary focus of this sandwich will be grilled chicken breast. This component will be cooked last, along with some Swiss cheese that we will be melting on top. The next important component will be sautéed mushrooms. You can sauté these mushrooms well in advance to help speed up the cooking process when it’s time to sandwich. Another component of this sandwich will be a caramelized onion mayonnaise that definitely should be made in advance. I used a shortcut and just added caramelized onions to store-bought mayonnaise, but you can use homemade mayonnaise as well. I will try to explain all that I did in the following sandwich component sections.
Sauteed mushrooms
For this sandwich, I sautéed some mushrooms and stored them in a sealed container so that they’d be ready for use when I was ready to build the sandwich. You can do this well in advance to make sure that the sandwich-making process goes smoothly.
This mushroom recipe is fairly simple and works great as a side dish for steak or a topping for your next burger night. The mushrooms get sauteed in butter and olive oil with a bit of salt and black pepper. Then, an optional ingredient that I typically will add is Marsala wine, which adds a little bit of flavor to the party, but it’s not required if you just want to add mushrooms to a sandwich. Marsala lasts for quite a while after opening, so using just a little in a recipe doesn’t mean you’ll have to throw the rest away.
Caramelized onion mayonnaise
The original “Signature Crafted” sandwich from McDonald’s that inspired this blog post had “creamy bistro aioli,” which just seems like three words mushed together. I don’t know what that sauce is, so instead, I created something that’s probably a lot better.
I learned when writing my original Frisco Burger blog post that the Frisco burgers (including the mushroom n’ swiss version) had an onion mayonnaise on them. Someone in the comment section of the recipe used to work at Hardee’s also corrected me about that, and I have been wanting to make an onion-focused mayo ever since.
This caramelized onion mayonnaise is probably not anything like the onion mayo that Hardee’s was serving, but it adds a ton of sweet and oniony flavor to this grilled chicken sandwich, and it would go great on a burger.
Caramelized onions are a bit of a labor of love. Most of the work to create them is hands off, but it will take at least 45 minutes to get them dark enough for me and I don’t even go as dark as a lot of people do. Basically, the onions cook in a pan over medium heat, getting stirred about every 4 or 5 minutes until they have an even color of brown, which has made the onions even sweeter than they were when you bought them.
Once the onions are caramelized, add them to a blender or food processor and blitz them until they are small bits, and mix them into regular mayonnaise to create a slightly sweet onion sandwich spread.
I used store-bought Duke’s brand mayonnaise, but you can easily create your own mayonnaise to use or just buy what you like. The onions will change the flavor a bit, but starting with the base of a good mayonnaise is important.
Caramelized onion mayonnaise
Caramelized onions add a blast of sweet, nutty, and savory flavor to mayonnaise to form this super tasty sandwich spread.
Get RecipeCrispy fried onion strings
It seems like just two weeks ago I wrote these same words, but for this sandwich, I did not make my own crispy fried onion strings, and I suggest that you don’t either unless you feel extra ambitious. Frying things isn’t hard, but when you’re also grilling or cooking chicken and assembling sandwiches, it can become a bit too much to handle.
These onions that you typically see at Thanksgiving on top of the green bean casserole are one of my favorite lazy additions that you can add to pretty much any sandwich. Sprinkle them in, next time you’re making a plain ham, cheese, and mustard sandwich, and your experience just leveled up in my book.
Also, those crispy onions you can get in the plastic container at the store are some sort of scientific accomplishment with their shelf stability and the fact that they stay crunchy even when submerged in liquid. Use those, or you can make the real deal with my crispy fried onion strings recipe.
Crispy fried onion strings
45 minutesSwiss cheese
I used Swiss cheese slices for this sandwich because it is simply the easiest way to get Swiss into this sandwich. You could use a block and shred it if you wanted, but a slice covers the mushrooms very well and will melt just fine when added to hot chicken.
Layer a slice or two on top of the cooked chicken and mushrooms and allow it to melt under the lid of your grill or pan. That’s what I did, and I suggest you do the same.
Grilled chicken
For this sandwich, I used chicken breast meat. Typically, for a sandwich like this, I would opt for boneless chicken thighs, but my wife prefers breast meat, and the inspiration sandwich also used breast meat, so that’s what I went with. I butterflied the breasts and then cut them into two cutlets so that they would grill quickly and be very easy to bite through.
I seasoned the chicken very simply with either just salt and black pepper or a seasoning blend that I purchased on a recent trip to Milwaukee. You can also use the fairly simple recipe I’ve shared below for grilling chicken thighs if you’ve never done that before, but I attempted here to keep it simple to make the mushrooms and Swiss cheese stand out as the primary components of the sandwich experience.
I used a grill pan indoors and my gas grill outdoors for these sandwiches, but you can also just cook the chicken in a regular pan if that’s what you have. Just make sure to cook it all the way through, and you’re good to go.
Spicy Grilled Chicken
1 hour and 25 minutesPut it all together
Assembling this sandwich is easy, but I suggest you get things started when the chicken is almost done cooking. Cover the chicken breast pieces with a spoonful or two of mushrooms and then layer on slices of Swiss cheese. If you’re using an outdoor grill you can close the grill lid for just a minute or so to melt the cheese but if you’re indoors, I suggest using a metal bowl if you’re using a large grill pan or if you’re using a pan, just grab the lid and use that to help control the heat around the chicken to help melt the cheese.
Grilled chicken, mushrooms, and Swiss sandwich photos and recipe
Here are a couple of photos you can look at of the sandwiches I made with the full recipe just below. Let me know how things turn out if you try to make this sandwich yourself!
Grilled chicken, mushroom n' swiss sandwich
This grilled chicken sandwich is a big winner with savory mushrooms covered with creamy, melty Swiss cheese. Grab a bun and hit the grill!
Ingredients:
Sauteed mushrooms- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 ounces sliced mushrooms
- salt and ground black pepper
- 2 ounces Marsala wine (optional)
- 1 chicken breast butterflied into 2 sandwich sized cutlets.
- salt and black pepper (or your favorite seasoning blend)
- mushrooms (from above)
- 2 to 4 slices of Swiss cheese (1 to 2 slices per sandwich)
- 2 sandwich buns (I use my honey wheat sandwich recipe)
- mayonnaise (I used my caramelized onion mayo recipe)
- grilled chicken, mushrooms and Swiss (from above)
- crispy fried onions (I use the store-bought kind in the plastic container)
Directions:
Sauteed mushrooms: add a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil to a medium pan over medium heat. Once the butter is melted and starting to foam up, add all of your sliced mushrooms and a pinch of salt and ground black pepper.
Cook mushrooms stiring often, for 7 minutes or until the mushrooms have started to soften. Add the Marsala wine, stir, and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
Remove the mushrooms from the heat to a bowl or sealed container. The mushrooms can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Grilled chicken: preheat a grill or grill pan on the stove for 10 minutes. Season your sandwich-sized chicken cutlets on both sides and place them on the grill or grill pan. Cook on the first side for about 5 minutes. At this point, if these are fairly thin cutlets, the chicken should be almost all the way cooked through.
Flip and cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes on the second side. If you have a probe thermometer, you should be looking for 165 degrees F (73 C).
Once the chicken is almost done, add a spoonful of mushrooms on top of each cutlet and then layer Swiss cheese slices on top of the mushrooms. Close the lid of the grill or add a pan lid or metal bowl over the chicken if using a grill pan on the stove, and cook for an additional 1 to 2 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Remove the mushroom and cheese-covered chicken to a plate.
While the chicken rests for a couple of minutes, slice your buns and toast them on the grill or grill pan. They should only need a minute or two to receive a light toasting. Turn off the grill or stove and start sandwich assembly.
Sandwich assembly: spread a bit of mayonnaise on the bottom bun. Top with a chicken cutlet covered with mushrooms and cheese. Optionally add mayo to the top bun, add some crispy fried onions, and sandwich everything together with the top bun.
Check back next week
Next week we’re making an almost-a-Cuban but not at all a Cuban. Come back and find out what this sandwich turns out to be.
