Chicken & Bacon Caesar Melt

We were on the shopping Estate near us the other morning and I was sitting in the car waiting for Todd.  We were parked right in front of one of those Sub shops and they had an ad in the window for their new chicken caesar melt sandwiches.  I looked at it and thought to myself, that looks tasty, supposedly using fresh rotisserie chicken, etc. but experience has taught me that looks are oftimes very deceiving and that I could probably do much better at home myself.  And so I did.

I picked up a Rotisserie chicken at the grocery store afterwards, and some hoagie buns and then went home and created this.

 

It wasn't very hard to do at all.  I split the hoagie buns and spread them with a homemade garlic butter.  Garlic is a large component of a Caesar salad . . .  as is Parmesan cheese.  My garlic butter has both. I toasted the buttered hoagies under the grill, then I set them aside to keep them warm while I prepared the rest of the sandwich ingredients.

 

I tore the chicken off the bones of the rotisserie chicken and broke it into bite sized pieces, which I tossed together with an amount of caesar salad dressing.  You can just use your favourite kind, and low fat if you wish.  

I mounded the dresssed chicken into bun sized mounds on a baking sheet I had lined with lightly greased aluminium foil.  Then I topped each mound with some melty cheese I had sliced in half diagonally.  Back under the grill it went . . . to heat the chicken through and melt the cheese.

 

 I had also grilled some bacon earlier until it was crisp.  Smoked streaky bacon, two slices for each sandwich.

I also shredded some coz (romaine) lettuce and slices some fresh  tomatoes thinly along with a bit of red onion, also thinly sliced. 

 

The bottom halves of the toasted buns got layered up with shredded lettuce and onion slices and then drizzled with a bit more salad dressing and topped with the chicken and melted cheese . . . and then topped with the bacon and tomato slices, with the top half of the bun folded over top.  I will just say one word about this.  DELICIOUS!  And at a fraction of the cost of buying one ready made.

*Chicken & Bacon Caesar Melt*

Makes 4 servings

Printable Recipe 

 

A simple and delicious sandwich that everyone will just love! Very quick to put together. 

4 hoagie buns

1 cooked rotisserie chicken

8 slices cooked streaky smoked bacon

225g creamy caesar salad dressing (1 cup)

(can use low fat)

4 slices of melty cheese, cut in half diagonally (I used Dutch Gouda)

For the garlic butter:

4 TBS softened butter

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 TBS grated parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp oregano flakes

You will also need:

1/2 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced

finely shredded lettuce

thinly sliced tomato  

 

Mix all of the ingredients for the garlic butter together.  Split the hoagie buns and spread the insides with the garlic butter.  Heat the grill/broiler in the oven.  Toast the split buns beneath the grill and then set aside and keep warm. Remove and rougly tear the chicken from the rotisserie chicken into bite sized pieces. Mix with half of the caesar salad dressing.  Line a pan with some foil and butter the foil. Mound the chicken into four piles on the foil, roughly the size of the hoagie buns.  Top each with 2 diagonals of cheese.  Pop briefly under the grill to heat the chicken and melt the cheese. Reheat the bacon briefly. 

Sprinkle the bottom halves of each toasted hoagie bun with some shredded lettuce, and sliced onion. Drizzle with 1/4 of the remaining caesar salad dressing and then top each with one mound of chicken and melted cheese.  Top with sliced bacon and tomato.  Cover with the other toasted half of the bun and serve immediately.

Served with some crisp oven chips these went down a real treat for our tea.  We both fell in love.  Its surprisingly tasty what you can do when you are inspired to do so!  Plus I had some meat leftover (because there are only two of us) for a casserole and some bones for soup.  Win, win, win!!!  Bon Appetit!