I don’t make a lot of sandwiches that I want to post about. But this is a sandwich I could eat every day. One that I would even serve at a party, especially one revolving around sports viewing or card playing. It’s spicy, beery, cheesy, and totally necessitates several napkins.
I used a beer that seems to be in regular rotation in my “beer cellar” (which is currently the bottom shelf of my fridge). If you live outside the Southern California area, you might not be familiar with the San Diego brewery Greenflash, but it’s hard to ignore this well distributed craft beer in these parts of the world.
Greenflash has an unapologetic love of the hops, wielding the bitterness with brute force. Which suits the hop frenzied California craft beer crowd. I’m a little choosier about my IPA’s than the average Los Angeles beer girl, and Greenflash gets it right when it comes to hopping the hell out of a beer. The Imperial IPA is really solid example of a West Coast IPA, well bittered, notes of pine, citrus, grapefruit, pineapple and a mild malty finish.
All of those flavor notes balance well with the spicy sauce I covered this giant sandwich with. A sandwich that also pairs very well with a nice cold IPA. But be careful, alcohol intensifies heat so that spicy sandwich may end up hotter than you wanted because of that same beer. And, please, get the good bread, none of that hot dog bun nonsense.
Ingredients
- 1 small white onions, chopped
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 3 lbs tomatoes (beefsteak or heirloom)
- 2 clove garlic chopped
- 1 cup IPA
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 1 large chipotle pepper
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp smoked paprika
- 5 large basil leaves, chopped
- 1 tsp chopped fresh oregano
- 2 chicken breasts
- 2 eggs
- Salt
- 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
- ¼ cup fresh shredded or fresh grated parmesan cheese (plus additional if desired)
- 1 cup flour
- 3 tbs olive oil
- 4 crust Italian sandwich rolls, split
- 1 ball whole milk mozzarella, sliced into 4 slices
Directions
- In a sauce pan cook the onions in the olive oil over medium high heat until softened. Add the tomatoes, cook until the skins starts to peel, about 5 minutes.
- Ad the garlic, cook for 30 seconds.
- Add the beer and tomato paste. Allow to simmer until most of the tomatoes have broken down, about 10 minutes.
- Transfer to a large food processor or blender along with the chipotle pepper, basil, salt, smoked paprika and oregano, process until smooth. Taste the sauce at this point, add additional chipotle peppers for a higher heat level, if desired. Sauce can be made up to three days in advance (If the sauce is too watery, return to the stove and simmer until it has reduced and thickened).
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Filet the chicken breasts in half, creating two thin slices per each chicken breast for a total of four, pound to an even thickness using a meat mallet, heavy rolling pin or heavy skillet.
- Pat the chicken dry. Place eggs in a bowl, beat well. Place the flour in a separate bowl. Mix the bread crumbs with the parmesan in a third bowl.
- Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat until shimmery but not smoking.
- Sprinkle chicken with salt on all sides.
- Dredge in the flour shaking off excess.
- Dip in the egg bowl, turning to coat, then dredge in the breadcrumbs until fully coated.
- Fry chicken in hot oil until golden brown on the underside, about 3 minutes, turn and cook until cooked through (try not to turn the chicken more than once).
- Place rolls on a baking sheet, spoon generous amounts of sauce into the rolls. Cut the chicken fillets in half lengthwise so they better fit into the rolls.
- Fill each roll with chicken, top with mozzarella. Sprinkle with parmesan if desired.
- Cook in a 400 oven until cheese has melted, serve immediately.
