This is my husband's favorite food. Out of everything I cook, out of every restaurant he's ever eaten at, this is his favorite thing. The only reason we ever eat anything else is because I won't eat these every day. We go to restaurants for me, he'd rather be at home eating a Chicken Marinara Sandwich. He doesn't even like any other one, he thinks mine is best.
Now, this isn't some majorly organic dish or anything. In fact, I don't even have a decent bread for it. I usually use french sandwich rolls. So I apologize that this is such a bachelor food, but I had to share it with you all.
Turn on the oven at 350. Then start with your chicken breasts. Put them on a grill if you have one, or fry them in a pan. I always loved doing it on the Foreman before it died.
While they're grilling/frying, get a dish/bowl/ramekin and some tomato sauce and regular dried spices. I'm all about making your own from scratch, but this recipe is perfect the way it is, with the "canned" guilt not being worth the taste.
Add in Italian Seasoning, garlic powder, a pinch of cumin and one of coriander, some kind of meat seasoning, oregano, and sprinkle a little white sugar on top. Taste it. It should taste like quintessential marinara, and if it's not, add a little more garlic and maybe a splash of a dark thin sauce like Worcestershire or Maggi Seasoning. If you want to cheat, you could buy the plain cheap canned basic spaghetti sauce, but I've never found one that tasted quite "normal". Non-descript. It needs to be a really simple sauce.
Add a bit to the chicken that's still cooking. Don't drown it, just add a little to cook in. Once your chicken is cooked (and you can keep it a tiny underdone, since it's going in the oven as well, and that way it doesn't dry out).....
Lay out the bread on your cookie sheet. Spoon a thin layer of sauce on the "bottom" half of your bread. Place the chicken breast on top, pour marinara on top. Again, you don't want to drown it, but you do want to cover the majority of the top and let a little run over the sides. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on top (a colby jack kind of mix of your choosing, buy a block and shred it or buy shredded, it doesn't make a difference). With the top slice, spread a little butter on top and sprinkle some Italian Seasoning and garlic salt on top, but don't put it on the rest of the sandwich.
Put it in the oven, and cook it for about 10 minutes, just long enough for the cheese to melt.
Pull them out, and as quickly as possible, put the top slice on the sandwich and serve!
Calories: 742 | Fat: 32.0 | Carbs: 47.9 | Protein: 62.2 |
