Barbeque Chicken Sandwiches

Dear actual barbeque eaters of the world,

I’m sorry for misappropriating the word “barbeque” in this recipe. I could claim to simply be following in the steps of a blogger far more influential than I, but it’s no real excuse. There’s no pit in the ground, smoking, pork, or even a carefully measured spice rub – instead there’s just your favorite style of barbeque sauce pulled from the grocery store shelf added over some browned chicken and baked in an oven until it’s falling apart.

But it’s damned tasty.

And now that turning on my stove no longer makes me want to cry, I’m more than happy to have it bubbling away in the oven for an hour. I’m glad I didn’t find this recipe until recently – having to wait through the end of August to try this out would have been torture.

(And so you know – I’ve got another 2 full bottles of commercial barbeque sauce hanging out in my pantry ready for the next go-round. Yes. It’s that good)

Baked Chicken Gyros

I studied abroad in Athens during college. Oh it was a real hardship – historical monuments, museums, bank holidays, island hopping – I’m surprised they managed to squeeze class in there!

At the time I was living with other students from my university in a small apartment building.  There was a small plaza down the street from us which had the world’s best bakery as well as a great Gyro shop. We ate there so often we began to measure prices in units of gyros – that bag costs 10 gyros! That hostel is only 6 gyros, what a steal!

I miss that place – it used to pile fresh French fries to top off an already perfect sandwich.  Seriously, if you’ve never had an authentic gyro, you don’t know what you’re missing. The meat is slowly roasted on a split, and thin slivers are cut off to order. No sitting around and getting tough for this meat. I honestly don’t even know what meat I was eating at the time; I just pointed to whichever spit had the least amount on it (on the theory that the locals had probably been eating it the most, so clearly it was awesome) and hoped for the best.

You’d be surprised how often this method works, just make sure not to think too hard about what you could be eating. That way leads to madness and possibly upset stomachs.

In any case, when I found this recipe I had to give it a try. It was a good choice. Chicken marinated in yogurt plus tzatziki and onion? Pretty delicious, but you’ll definitely want to make sure to brush your teeth after eating!

Ginger-Sesame Chicken Wrap for Two

What makes wraps so amazing? Seriously, I sometimes think they must be made with unicorn blood or baby tears because I can eat the same ingredients on bread or in a wrap and I’ll usually prefer the wrap.

These wraps are really dependent on a good salad dressing. It provides the marinade for the chicken and is added to the wrap just before eating. If you never had Sesame-Ginger dressing, you’re in for a treat. I love Newman’s Own brand because it’s low-calorie, great tasting, and the proceeds go to charity, but use your favorite brand.

I tend to over stuff my wraps as you can see below, so feel no shame in doing what I do – hold them once you’ve finished rolling with one hand while wrangling the aluminum foil. This method also serves as your cardio for the day while you accidentally hold your breath while trying to work fast enough so the filling doesn’t fall out.

Enjoy!

Pear and Shallot Grilled Cheese

Eagle-eyed readers might notice some similarity in ingredients between this recipe and Wednesday’s. Even more eagle-eyed readers might notice a common theme between this recipe and last week’s lentil soup recipe.

Shallots.

Yes, I’m in a shallot rut. When I bought the ingredients for the lentil soup I had never cooked with shallots before; so when I saw “3 shallots” on the suggested ingredient list, I bought three physical root vegetables. Turns out, shallots are a bit like garlic and have bulbs inside their tricky physical exterior. So I’d bought triple what the recipe called for, whoops!

I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the excess for a while. Caramelizing it alongside garlic worked amazingly well, but I still had a giant bulb leftover. Looking into the depths of my refrigerator, I decided to play my favorite cooking game – namely “what will happen if I toss all these random ingredients together?” So I grabbed a pear my mother had sent me from our last trip to Lyman Orchards, the dreaded leftover shallot, a cooked chicken breast I had prepared in case the power went out (and then didn’t bother to eat because my power stayed on), some cheese, and began to ponder.

Grilled cheese immediately came to mind and since I’m a relatively lazy cook I decided to give it a whirl. And man was I lucky. This turned out to be a pretty great sandwich that comes together very quickly.