Summer is finally here, which means it's also picnic season. Yay!
My family have been making a version of these sandwiches for as long as I can remember. The mixture is delicious in sliced bread, and they make ideal finger sandwiches for a party. On this occasion, however, I wanted something a bit more substantial to enjoy on a picnic, so we used baguettes. I made them for this children's festival and, even though I made far too many for our small group, every last mouthful was devoured.
These sandwiches are definitely crowd pleasers :-) They're easy to make too - using a store bought rotisserie chicken. If you're looking for ideas for your 4th of July celebrations, these would be perfect cut into smaller portions and served on a platter.
The ingredients - so simple, and so delicious!
Ingredients
Makes 4 generous 6" baguettes
- 1 french baguette
- 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded (you should end up with around 4 cups of meat, depending on the size of your bird)
- 1 ⅓ cups whole egg mayonnaise
- 1 cup finely diced celery
- 1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
- 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Take all the meat off the rotisserie chicken, and shred it. I usually remove the skin because it's healthier, but it tastes absolutely delicious if you keep it in the mix.
- Mix the chicken, celery, walnuts, mayonnaise, and lime juice in a bowl, then season with salt a pepper to taste.
- Slice the baguettes length-ways so there's an opening for the filling. Fill with the chicken mixture, add a couple of lettuce leaves, and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- This recipe doesn't require precision! You just want juicy chicken, with lots of mayonnaise (so the baguette isn't dry), along with the crunch from walnuts and celery. For each 1 cup of chicken meat I use around ¼ cup celery + ¼ cup walnuts + ⅓ cup mayonnaise + ½ teaspoon lime juice, which fills a 6" baguette.
- If you're feeding a crowd you can use 2 or 3 rotisserie chickens and just follow the formula above.
- This mixture works equally well in sliced bread, or in a baguette cut into smaller portions.
- You can prepare the chicken mixture a day ahead of serving, and keep it in an airtight container in the fridge.