We all love olives in our house, and this sandwich is for our fellow olive lovers. If you don’t love olives, might I suggest some of my other delicious sandwich recipes instead 🙂 Now, back to olives galore 🙂 This sandwich has a juice pan seared chicken breast that has been brined in the juice from the olives, as well as an olive tapenade with herbs and sun dried tomatoes so it is packed with olive flavor and the farthest thing from boring.
Since olive brine is strong, this is one recipe where you do not want to marinate the chicken overnight. If you do so, it will have a mushy texture, so only marinate about 1-2 hours for this. I used my favorite sandwich roll recipe here, but shaped as rounds instead of sub shape. You can use any soft roll and I think this would also be fabulous with focaccia bread. We had a little tapenade left over from these, and can’t wait to eat it.
Olive Chicken Sandwich with Arugula
Ingredients
- 2 5.6 oz jars Lindsay olives or equivalent
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts cut in half horizontally and pounded with a meat pounder
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
- 3 tbsp sun dried tomatoes
- 2 tbsp roasted red pepper paste or a jarred roasted red pepper
- 1 tsp anchovy paste optional
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 4 rolls or favorite bread
- mayo
- arugula
Instructions
- Cut the chicken breasts in half horizontally and pound them out into roughly equal size rounds. Pour the brine from one jar of olives into a zip lock and add the chicken and oregano. Brine for 1-2 hours.
- To make the tapenade, combine olives, red pepper, sun dried tomatoes, herbs, olive oil, anchovy paste in a food processor and pulse until combined but still a little chunky. You don't want a paste. Taste and add a little pepper and salt if needed but the olives are very salty so you may not need any.
- Heat a heavy skillet over high heat and add a few tbsp of oil. Add the chicken and allow to brown well on one side. Flip and brown the other side, then reduce heat to medium and cook until cooked through.
- Toast your bread or buns, spread them with mayo, add the arugula and then top with chicken and a good amount of tapenade. Serve immediately.