Brown Bag Challenge: Grilled Chicken Sandwich With Pepper Jack and Chipotle Lime Mayo

I met Cara and Phoebe of Big Girls Small Kitchen fame over brunch with Mrs. Wheelbarrow about a month ago now, and their energy was infectious. Meeting the people behind the blogs you love can be awkward, do I gush and say how much I love the blog? Will they be in real life how they write on their blog? All I can say is, these are the kind of gals you want as your friends – savvy, smart and hilarious.

So, when they asked me to participate in the Small Kitchen College Brown Bag Challenge I was very excited! There are all kinds of fun giveaways from BuiltNY (the folks who make all those fun lunch bags and wine carriers) and chats all week. But, first the food!

The challenge is all about making it fun and easy to take your lunch to work. I like my lunch to be the most filling meal of my day. I’m not too hungry in the morning so I eat light and am usually starving by lunch which also needs to fuel my evening work out. My go-to healthy lunch is a salad, but I decided to branch out and try a sandwich for today instead.

A grilled chicken sandwich seemed like a pretty boring move, but I zhuzhed it up with a “fancy” deli roll from the grocery store (shmeared with butter and grilled, too, of course), melted pepper jack cheese and some smokey spicy chipotle lime mayo.

My dining companion who taste tested the sandwich wanted a bag of Lays potato chips to go with it, but I opted for a cherry tomato, avocado and red onion salad dressed in a citrus vinaigrette. That recipe will come tomorrow though!

Something to consider: make sure you get a particularly plump chicken breast if you like your lunches large and in charge – or double up and do two chicken breasts. We definitely wanted more chicken on our sandwiches (whimpy breasts) to balance out all that bread from the fancy rolls.

I’m happy to say that while I thought this was a great sandwich, my taste tester, a boy, also thought it would make a filling meal. Who says you can’t eat well for lunch?!

Enjoy!

More Details on the Small Kitchen College Brown Bag Challenge:

Wednesday, July 13th from 12pm – 1pm, BGSK be hosting a live twitter chat with The Daily Meal, using hash tag #brownbag.

So, you can also  win BuiltNY prizes on Facebook and Twitter, @BGSKCollege,  by posting a photo of your brown bag lunch. Items up for grabs include: Gourmet Getaway Lunch Totes, Water Bottle Tote, Six Pack Tote, Market Tote, Spicy Relish Lunch Tote, and Wine Bottle Tote.

Grilled Chicken Sandwich With Chipotle Lime Mayo

• 1 thick chicken breast (or 2 small breasts)
• 1tsp olive oil
• 1-2 slices of pepper jack cheese
• 3 thin slices off a small red onion
• 3 pieces of crisp lettuce
• 1 kaiser roll
• Butter
• 1/4c mayo
• 1tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1tsp adobo sauce (from the chipotles in adobo sauce you’ll find in the Hispanic foods aisle at the grocery store)
• Salt/Pepper

I did this meal entirely on a gas grill, which certainly made things easy, but you can achieve the same results with a pan and your broiler.

Before you head to the grill:

• Halve your deli roll and shmear each side with a healthy portion of butter.
• Slice your onion, tear off some lettuce and grab your cheese.
• Combine mayo, lime juice, adobo sauce and salt/pepper in a bowl. Mix thoroughly & taste. Add more adobo, salt or pepper to taste.
• Rub down your chicken breast with the olive oil, salt and pepper.

Get the grill nice and hot, say, 400F.  Place chicken on the grill and close the top. After 7-10 minutes, turn the breast. While you have the grill still open, throw the bun, butter side down, on the upper portion of the grill so it’s not directly on the flame.

Check on your chicken after another 7-10 minutes…lookin’ all pretty with those grill marks?! Time to take your bun off the grill. now, using your tongs and a sharp knife, cut the breast in half lengthwise. This is your chance to make sure it’s cooked all the way through…no pink! Place your pepper jack cheese on top of each half of the chicken and close the grill again. Mmmm…melty, spicy cheese!

Since you’re taking this for lunch you’re going to want things in separate baggies or containers. One for each:

• chipotle lime mayo
• grilled chicken with melted cheese, lettuce and onion
• bun

When you get to work all you have to do is shmear on the mayo and assemble your sandwich. Maybe heat up the chicken in your office microwave if you’re feeling fancy. 

Tune back in tomorrow for the side salad recipe to complete your lunch!

Now if you’re looking at that can of chipotles in adobo sauce and wondering what to do with the rest of it…just make albondigas for dinner! They are great re-heated…for lunch even! :)