The Za’atar Crisp & Chill Chicken Salad Sandwich: se easy, but so beyond everyday. So many wonderful flavors and textures, and so satisfying.

Social Learning

The Ingredients…

My favorite grocery store sells boxed-up, fully-cooked, breaded chicken strips, refrigerated – the deep-fried sort you’d get if you ordered them in a bar. They sell them plain, or lightly coated in a honey-barbecue sauce: both are excellent for this purpose. Chicken strips vary widely in size; you may have to eyeball it to produce one sandwich’s-worth.

Any kind of mustard will do, from yellow to Dijon to country-style.

Be generous with the za’atar. It needs to cut through the chicken’s seasonings. And I really mean obscenely generous. The amount I’ve given is a startng point.

It doesn’t take much mayo to bind the salad together. A heaping soup spoon usually does the trick. The amount of mayo isn’t obvious when the salad it chunky. If you want the salad to be more cohesive, continue stirring instead of adding more mayo. As the chicken breaks down, the mayo will become more apparent as the salad comes together. You do not want the salad to taste like mayo. You want the chicken to stand out, and then the za’atar.

The cheese and lettuce do double-duty: they’re not only excellent complements to the chicken salad, but they come between the salad and the bread, which prevents the bread from sogging if you pack this sandwich in your lunch. 

Speaking of bread, I like something earthy for this sandwich in order to stand up to the richness of the salad. For the one I photographed for this post, I used a 15-grain, seeded bread, which not only added flavor, but texture. Toasting the bread might take the texture a nice step further.

The Flavor…

Because the chicken is commercially prepared, it’s going to be plenty salty enough to season the whole salad, and because it’s deep fried, it’ll also have plenty of fat. The cheese also adds fat. That’s part of the reason that you don’t want to overdo the mayo.

The tang of the mustard and the cheese balances things out.

Don’t overlook the way that accompanying this sandwich with something like a fresh strawberry will add brightness and sweetness to the meal overall. 

The celery, almonds, and lettuce as freshness and crunch, while the za’atar brings in an aromatic, herby depth. 

It might be nice to pair this sandwich with a chilled soup. 

The Backstory

I just sold my house. This is the second time I’ve sold a house. The first time, the realtor came to see the house, and as soon as she got back to her office, one of her coworkers said, “I know someone who will pay asking price for that house.” It sold the next day, without ever making it onto the market. 

This time was more traditional: lots of decluttering and staging for open houses and showings. You know what I mean: the kitchen has to look like someone would love cooking in it, and yet it has to look like no one has ever actually cooked there. And it certainly can’t smell like anyone’s been cooking there.

So, this sandwich is a compromise between wanting to eat something I made myself, while not having the ability to do a lot of cooking. But it’s way tastier (and at the same time, far cheaper) than any pre-made chicken salad I’ve ever bought in a grocery store! I was so surprised at how much I like this sandwich, that I’ll be making it well after I’m back in the kitchen! I’d serve it to guests, proudly.

Za’atar Crisp & Chill Chicken Salad Sandwich

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. Thank you, ⌘+C. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #13 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs.

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