Chicken and Arugula Open-Faced Sandwiches Topped with Melted Cheese

My girlfriend, Anita, thinks my Chicken Arugula Open-faced Sandwiches are the best sandwiches she’s ever had!  High praise from a woman who normally doesn’t eat chicken (she eats mostly fish and stays away from other meats)!  But, she hasn’t yet had my Avocado Nut Sandwich, so once she has that, maybe she’ll change her mind!

Anyway, she and my Mom were over for lunch the other day and I thought I’d test my Chicken Arugula Open-faced Sandwiches out on them.  I’d made them once before, as a fluke, and served them to my neighbor, Rosa, who loved it too!  But, maybe Rosa was just being nice, so I needed a second (and third) opinion.

Why were my Chicken Arugula Open-faced Sandwiches a fluke?  Well, I’m really, really, seriously bad about shopping and sometimes I wait until we really, really, really need fresh food in our house before I make the trek into town and commit myself to 2 hours of shopping in a grocery store.  So, these Chicken Arugula Open-faced Sandwiches were created one day when I was sorely lacking in sandwich ingredients.

I didn’t have any deli meats in the house (I really don’t eat much deli meat anyway).  I didn’t have tuna.  I didn’t have any eggs.  I didn’t have any peanut butter.  I didn’t have any lettuce, tomato, avocado, or other veggies for a sandwich.  I did have Poached Chicken Breast Tenders.  I almost always have Poached Chicken Breast Tenders in my refrigerator, so that was a no brainer.

The bread I had wasn’t even good sandwich bread – it was kinda dried out and bland.  Seriously.  But, it would make good toast.  And, I had arugula.  A whole bag of arugula.  Plus I had some white American cheese.  So, after thinking about it a minute, I thought “what would go with the chicken and arugula and enhance the flavors?”  Arugula has a spicy, peppery taste and chicken is, well, chicken.

Suddenly, it popped into my brain – why not mayonnaise and orange marmalade?  I know!  Crazy combination of flavors, but it works!  Completely!  Entirely!  Yummily (is that even a word?)!

So, without further ado, let me introduce the world wide web to my amazingly delicious, incredibly easy Chicken Arugula Open-faced Sandwich!

First, you toast some bread.  This is my favorite bread – called Nut & Grain made by Safeway.  This isn’t the bread I used the first time I made this sandwich, but I went to the store {finally!!} and bought some needed groceries!

Once it’s toasted, you place the slices of bread on a baking (cookie) sheet.

Then, you spread each slice of toast with mayonnaise.  I used light mayonnaise because I’m on a diet.  Did you know I was on a diet?  You can read about my diet here:

• Cankles and Zits
• Caprese Salad Roll-ups
• Coffee Banana Protein Smoothie
• Confessions of the Incredibly Shrinking Woman
• Steel Cut Oats with Peanut Butter and Bananas
• Tri-colored Roasted Potato Salad

Anyway, when I finally went to the grocery store, I loaded up on “diet” type things.  Stay tuned for my post on the 27th (my diet update day) to read more about that little adventure.

Then, you spread orange marmalade on top of the mayonnaise.  Weird, I know!  But, delicious.  I swear.  Trust me.  I used sugar-free orange marmalade because I’m on a diet.  Did I tell you I’m on a diet?  Oh, yea, I did.  Sorry.

Then you add a handful of spicy, peppery arugula on top of each sandwich.

For these Chicken Arugula Open-faced Sandwiches, you need cooked chicken breast.  Well, I almost always have Poached Chicken Breast Tenders in my refrigerator and lucky for my guest, I had 6 left!  They are little, about 1 1/2 to 2 ounces each, cooked.  You could also use chicken breast or chicken breast pulled from a rotisserie chicken.

I wanted the Poached Chicken Breast Tenders to be thinner than what they were, so I carefully sliced them in half.  You could probably just pull them apart like pulled chicken and that would work just fine.

Then you place the sliced (or pulled) chicken on top of the arugula.

Then, you add slices of cheese.  I used white American cheese because that’s what I had in the refrigerator, but I have since made it (successfully) with sliced mozzarella cheese!

Then broil the Chicken Arugula Open-faced Sandwiches in the oven until the cheese melts.  Watch them carefully or you will have almost burned sandwiches like these!  I rescued them just in time!

Here’s one sandwich ready to eat!  I love these napkins…they have birds and flowers all over them on a chocolate background.  I got them at World Market a couple of years ago along with a tablecloth.  I don’t use them enough!

Here’s another close-up of one of my Chicken Arugula Open-faced Sandwiches cut in half.  Yum!

Here’s the recipe:

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So good!  I hope you enjoy!

Tootles,

 

Related Posts:

(other posts about my diet or recipes mentioned in this post)

• Avocado Nut Sandwich
• Cankles and Zits
• Caprese Salad Roll-ups
• Coffee Banana Protein Smoothie
• Confessions of the Incredible Shrinking Woman
• Poached Chicken Breast Tenders
• Steel Cut Oats with Peanut Butter and Bananas 
• Tri-colored Roasted Potato Salad