Spinach and artichoke dip chicken sandwich
Ingredients:
Spinach and artichoke dip- 8 ounces frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed
- 14 ounce can baby artichokes, drained, squeezed and chopped
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened and room temperature
- 1⁄4 cup sour cream
- 1⁄4 cup mayonnaise
- 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
- 1⁄2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
Grilled chicken
- 1 tablespoon vegetable or neutral oil
- 1 chicken breast
- salt and pepper to season
Sandwich assembly
- 1 six-to-eight-inch bread roll
- spinach and artichoke dip (from above)
- grilled chicken (from above)
- pickled peppers (link to recipe)
Directions:
Spinach and artichoke dip: drain the spinach and artichokes.
Place the spinach in the middle of a paper towel or clean kitchen towel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Place the spinach in a bowl while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
After the artichokes have drained, pat them as dry as possible with paper towels. Remove as much moisture as you can. Once they are fairly dry, chop them roughly and place them in the bowl with the spinach.
In a large bowl combine the rest of the ingredients from the dip section and mix well. Add the spinach and artichokes and using a sturdy spoon, stir to combine everything. This is the base for spinach and artichoke dip. You can store this in a sealed container in the refrigerator and bake it in a casserole dish at 350 F (175 C) for 20 minutes and you'll have a great dip. But we're using it in a slightly different way, for sandwiches.
Grilled chicken: preheat the grill or a grill pan for 10 minutes.
Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the chicken and then coat both sides with salt and ground black pepper.
Place the chicken on the grill or grill pan and cook for around 5 to 6 minutes per side. If you have a very large chicken breast you might want to grill for 7 minutes per side. If you have a probe thermometer you should be looking for 165 degrees F (73 C). You should be able to pull the chicken off the grill 5 degrees less than your target temperature and it will carry over to cook those extra degrees while it is resting.
Once the chicken is fully cooked allow it to rest for 5 minutes before slicing and building your sandwich.
Sandwich assembly: spread a liberal amount of the spinach and artichoke dip mixture on the bottom of the roll. Be sure to spread the dip evenly, all the way to the corners.
Place the bottom and top of the sandwich roll under a broiler in your oven set to high. My toaster oven takes about 5 or 6 minutes for the dip to start to turn a little brown, but your oven might be different. Just make sure to keep checking the appearance of the bread and dip often because broilers can burn your food very quickly.
Once the dip layer is toasted to your liking, remove everything from the broiler and top the melty dip with slices of your chicken breast.
Top the chicken with pickled peppers and close the sandwich.