Chopped Lemon Thyme Roast Chicken, Bacon and Little Gem Sandwich

A great way to use up your Sunday Roast Chicken, this deep-fill sandwich reminds me of sunny afternoons in the hotel pool out in Olbia, Italy. The hotel served this at lunchtime and we got one pretty much every day. Quick, simple and easy to make this sandwich packs a real flavour punch. This mouthwatering sandwich combines succulent roast chicken infused with zesty lemon and aromatic thyme, crispy bacon slices, and the crisp freshness of Little Gem lettuce with a hint or Tarragon.

Ingredients (Leftover Roast Chicken):

1. Leftover Roast Chicken (from your Sunday Roast)

2. Streaky Bacon

3. Little Gem Lettuce

4. A Little Tarragon

5. Butter

6. Rock Salt and Black Pepper

7. Mayonnaise (ideally full fat)

8. Farmhouse Bread

9. Large Bowl for mixing

If you don’t have any leftover Roast Chicken then grab a couple of Chicken Breasts, roast these for around 30/35 mins at 190c with olive oil, lemon a crushed garlic clove and a few sprigs of thyme and then baste these every 10 minutes to infuse the chicken breasts. Allow them to cool and the move onto the next steps below:

Method:

Take your left-over Roast Chicken or Cooled Roasted Chicken Breasts and roughly chop these up, pop into your mixing bowl, fry some streaky bacon rashers until crisp and set aside to cool and crisp up. Roughly chop these and pop into the mixing bowl. Take your little gem lettuce and remove the butt and outer leaves, take a few leaves, remove the core and finely chop, pop into your bowl along with a little tarragon, a sprinkling of rock salt and a few twists of black pepper.

Now take your Mayonnaise and pop a few heaped tablespoons into your mixing bowl with all of the ingredients and mix up well. You want to make sure everything has a good coating of Mayonnaise to keep the sandwich filling moist. Take your farmhouse bread and give it a light toasting, spread with butter on both sides and heap your filling in (don’t skimp on the filling! These are meant to be deep fill). Pop onto a chopping board and cut on the diagonal and then serve immediately.

Of course you could also use a toasted panini roll, warmed sub or toasted baguette, but I prefer this sandwich on toasted farmhouse bread.