Don't lose your mojo chicken panini
Ingredients:
Mojo marinade- 12 cloves minced garlic (around 1 head of garlic
- 1⁄4 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 3 tablespoons orange juice
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Crispy chicken skin
- chicken skin from rotisserie chicken
Sandwich assembly and cooking process
- 1⁄2 cup pulled rotisserie chicken
- mojo marinade (from above)
- 1 six-inch long Cuban bread roll or a French bread roll
- 2 to 3 slices provolone cheese (or cheddar or pretty much any sliced cheese)
- crispy chicken skin (from above)
- pickled onions or any other type of sandwich pickle
- 2 tablespoons butter
Directions:
Mojo marinade: combine mojo marinade ingredients in a bowl and stir to integrate, creating the sauce.
Rotisserie chicken and crispy skin: carefully remove the skin from a rotisserie chicken and set it aside on a plate. Continue breaking down the chicken and separating all the meat from the carcass. Add chicken to a sealed container and store it in the refrigerator.
Add chicken skin to an unlined sheet pan or cookie pan and preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Bake the skin for 10 to 15 minutes or until it is fully crispy. Carefully move the now crispy skin to a paper towel-lined plate to cool. You can store any unused skin in a sealed container in the refrigerator for a few days.
Sandwich assembly: slice your roll all the way through.
Add some chicken and a couple of spoons of mojo marinade to a pan to cook and warm up for 4 to 5 minutes. The chicken is fully cooked so you are just trying to reheat it.
Spread a couple of spoonfuls of mojo sauce on the bottom bread roll. Top the sauce with half of the sliced cheese.
Place warm chicken on top of the cheese. Add crispy chicken skin on top of the chicken and top the skin with pickled onions or another choice of pickles.
Cover everything with the rest of the cheese and top with the top roll.
Butter both sides of the sandwich and cook it in a panini press until the bread gets crusty and browned. If you do not have a panini press, you can use a hot cast iron skillet with another skillet on top of the sandwich, pressing it down. This will griddle the bottom side and you will have to flip the sandwich, but it will work just fine.
Once both sides of the bread are browned and the cheese is melty, serve and enjoy.