Open-faced Chicken & Pesto Sandwich

By now you shouldn't be surprised that I was eager to use up some leftovers from yesterday's yummy Antipasti 'Pizza' Bruschetta! I threw together an amazing lunch in minutes using my leftovers. And thanks to my freezer I had some chicken to use, too!


Frozen chicken tips: Costco sells large packs of skinless-boneless chicken breasts that are humanely raised. But Costco-size packaging means a 2 person household can't necessarily eat it all in time. Not to mention a 1 person household. So I utilize a tip obtained from one of my colleagues: it's easy to cook a bunch of chicken breasts all at once. Just wrap the cooked chicken breasts individually in saran wrap and freeze them. Then you can transfer one into the fridge the night before you want it for lunch or dinner, and before you eat it just pop it in the microwave, saran wrap on, for 30 seconds (more/less depending on it's size) and it's ready to be sliced on a salad or used any way you'd like! Great tip for work time lunches. I also always freeze a couple raw chicken breasts so that I can marinate them once they're defrosted for more variety.

See my saran wrap chicken? Yum! You can kind of tell in the picture- I like to put a generous sprinkling of salt and cracked pepper then cook in a medium heat pan for about 6 minutes on each side. Don't touch it in between the flip to help make it golden.

Open-faced Chicken & Pesto Sandwich

• 1 Slice of nice bread, sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 1-2 Tablespoons pesto
• 1 Small chicken breast
• 1-2 Tablespoons good cheese, grated (I used Gruyere)
• Cherry or grape tomatoes sliced in half
• Arugula
• A splash of Balsamic Vinegar
• Squeeze of lemon (optional)

Toast the slice of bread, spread with a layer of pesto. Yesterday I threw in the extra marinated sun dried tomatoes into my pesto so it had a bit more flavor and texture.

Cover with slices of the chicken breast and top with a very thin layer of flavorful cheese. Using grated cheese means you can use a lot less than a slice would be. 

Top that with the sliced tomatoes to cover the whole sandwich and then put a handful of arugula on top.

I added a quick squeeze of  lemon on top just because I had it leftover from making the pesto. Give the arugula a couple good sprays of balsamic vinegar on top (or a teaspoon if you don't have a spray bottle). So, so good.

And guess what? I had extra pesto to make a super tasty plate of pasta for dinner...just add enough of the starchy pasta water after the pasta is done cooking to make it reach the right consistency and that's the only work you have to do for this! I added some bright sliced tomatoes for a nice contrast.

You can see a few of those marinated tomatoes in there!

Ta-dah!