Club Sandwich
The American diner triple-decker: three slices of toasted white bread layered with chicken or turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo.
Overview
The diner triple-decker reworked with a poached egg sitting on top - what an American sandwich shop would call a club with eggs, and what a French brunch menu would simply serve as the house club. Two slices of buttered, toasted bread layered with sliced grilled chicken, crisp smoked bacon, shredded iceberg dressed in mayo and a sharp pinch of onion, ripe tomato brightened with vinaigrette, and the soft poached eggs draped over the top so the yolks break into everything underneath. The pleasure is in the layering: a different texture in every bite, the bread crisp enough to hold structure but soft enough to give. You build it carefully, slice it on the diagonal, and pin the halves together with toast picks so the whole tower stays upright on the plate. Lunch counter at noon, light supper after a long afternoon, eaten with chips on the side and an extra napkin within reach.
Ingredients
- 2 slices of bread
- soft butter
- 1 chicken breast fillet
- salt
- pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 smoked bacon rashers (rinded)
- ½ iceberg lettuce (shredded)
- 1 tablespoon onion (very finely chopped)
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise (fresh)
- 2 tomatoes (thinly sliced)
- 2 tablespoons vinaigrette
- 1 teaspoon parsley (freshly chopped)
- 2 poached eggs
Method
Stage 1 - Prepare Components
- Preheat the grill to hot.
- Butter the bread on both sides then toast it under the grill until golden brown.
- Split the chicken breast length-ways through the middle and season with salt and pepper.
- Grill or fry the chicken in olive oil, for a few minutes on each side until cooked.
- Grill the bacon until crisp.
Stage 2 - Assemble Sandwich
- Mix the shredded lettuce and onion with the mayonnaise and season with salt and pepper.
- Lay the tomato slices on top of the two pieces of toast and sprinkle with some of the vinaigrette.
- Divide the lettuce mixture between the two and top with the bacon and chicken breast halves.
- Sit the warmed poached eggs on the chicken breasts.
- Mix the chopped parsley with the remaining vinaigrette, and sprinkle over the eggs.
Notes
- Chicken doneness: Cook the chicken through but don't dry it out, test with a meat thermometer (74°C internal temperature) for perfect results.
- Poached egg timing: Cook the eggs just before serving so they're still warm and the yolks are runny.
- Component temperature: Keep all components warm until assembly, toast the bread last for maximum crispness.
- Breadcrumbs vs. crust: Use good quality bread with a firm crumb that can support the fillings without tearing.
Serving
Serve with: A crisp salad or french fries Garnish with: Fresh parsley sprigs and a lemon wedge Accompaniment: Toast picks to hold the sandwich together while eating
Storage
- Best served immediately while all components are warm
- Individual components can be prepared ahead but should be assembled just before serving
- Leftovers not recommended as bread becomes soggy
- Not suitable for freezing
More like this
Chicken Piccata Meatballs
Chicken piccata, the Italian-American mid-century classic of pounded chicken cutlets in a lemon-butter-caper pan sauce, reshaped into meatball form, which trades the precise look of cutlets for a juicier, more forgiving texture. The flavour is unmistakably piccata: butter as the body of the sauce, lemon as the brightness, capers as the salty-vinegary punctuation. Underneath sits a chicken meatball lightened by ricotta (it keeps the lean ground chicken from going dry and dense) and parmesan, with parsley, garlic, smoked paprika and a pinch of red pepper flakes lifting the seasoning. The meatballs themselves stay tender because the mix isn't overworked and because they finish cooking in the sauce rather than the pan. Smell is melted butter, lemon and capers, the same smell every Italian-American restaurant kitchen has on a Tuesday lunch service. Easy enough for a weeknight, restrained enough not to feel like a stand-in dish; the technique is essentially "make meatballs, build pan sauce, return meatballs". Serves over pasta, rice or crusty bread to mop the sauce.
Eggs Benedict
The Sunday brunch icon, and the dish people learn hollandaise for. You build the sauce first, whisking egg yolks with water and lemon over a bain-marie until they ribbon, then drizzling in warm clarified butter while you whisk steady and even until the bowl holds something glossy and thick. The hollandaise will wait for you in a warm spot while you poach the eggs - vinegar in barely-simmering water, a gentle whirlpool, three minutes for a runny yolk - and toast the muffins, and warm the ham. Then everything stacks at speed: muffin, ham, egg, hollandaise spooned generously over, a scatter of chives. You eat immediately, because every component is at its best within a minute of plating and falls off a cliff after five. Looks fancy on a tablecloth; rewards twenty focused minutes of work.
Manhattan Seafood Chowder
New York's tomato-based answer to New England's milk-and-cream chowder, and the source of a regional argument that has been going on for a hundred years. You start by softening bacon with onion, celery and garlic in butter, then add potatoes, thyme and fish stock and let them simmer until the potatoes are tender. The clams go in next under a lid for a few minutes until they open; you pull most of them out of their shells (keeping a few intact for the look of it) and strain the liquor back into the pot. Then tomato purée, chopped tomatoes, cod and prawns, and a final low simmer of just three minutes so the seafood stays tender. A generous scatter of flat-leaf parsley at the end lifts the lot. Serve with crusty bread to mop the brothy red sauce, and ignore anyone from Boston who tells you it's not a chowder.
Meatloaf
The mid-century Sunday supper that every American household above a certain age has its own version of. You soften onion and garlic in butter and let them cool, soak breadcrumbs in milk to a soft panade (this is the structural trick that keeps the loaf from going dense and bricklike), then mix everything into the beef and pork with egg, Worcestershire, mustard and a handful of fresh herbs. The mix goes loosely packed into a tin so it stays tender rather than tight, brushed thickly with a glaze of ketchup, brown sugar and a touch more Worcestershire, and into a moderate oven for the best part of an hour. You glaze again at the end and let it tan in the heat for fifteen more minutes until the top has gone deep mahogany and slightly tacky. Slice thick and serve with mashed potato and a green vegetable on the side. The leftover slab cold the next day in a sandwich is the dish's quiet second life.