Grilled Turmeric Chicken Sandwich and Radish Kimchi

In honor of the first pepper being harvested from my garden, I made a Vietnamese-style sandwich (Bánh Mì) using the pepper and one of the chicken breasts left over from the Malay-Style Grilled Turmeric Chicken Breast recipe, along with some herbs (the Thai basil is also from my garden) and radish kimchi for lunch. This isn’t an authentic Vietnamese recipe and I just used ingredients that were available in my refrigerator.

The bread is from the local Vietnamese bakery (via my local Asian market). The bread is baked fresh and delivered daily in packages of five. You can easily substitute your favorite bread, but this bread is light, inexpensive, and tasty, so I would definitely go for the Vietnamese bread if you can get it. Usually I cut the bread open to make a deep pocket rather than slicing the bread open fully as in the picture above, but cutting it open makes for a better photo. Making a pocket allows all the good stuff to stay in the sandwich and not drip out while you eat!

The kimchi makes a nice addition to the meal. I got hooked on kimchi after my many visits to South Korea, where it’s served at every meal (in what seems like endless varieties). I buy my kimchi bottled at the local Korean market; in this case it’s a radish kimchi. Kimchi is a healthy and tasty addition to any meal in my opinion.

The sandwich is easy to assemble and the kimchi comes from a jar. So it takes very little time to make the sandwich, dish out the kimchi, and start eating. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 Vietnamese Sandwich (Bánh Mì) Bread

1 boneless and skinless Chicken Breast cut into ¼ inch pieces

1 Pepper of your choice (it can be mild, hot, very hot …)

Cilantro, Mint, Thai Basil to taste

Sweet Chili Sauce to taste (Mae Ploy or Butterfly brand)

Radish Kimchi (or any other variety that you like)

Instructions

1. Start to assemble the sandwich by cutting a pocket in the Vietnamese sandwich bread.
2. Wash, shake dry, and shred by hand the cilantro, mint and Thai basil. Put the herbs into the bread pocket. You can use any other combination of herbs that you have available. The herbs give the sandwich a fresh taste and enhance the flavor of the other fillings.
3. Debone and cut the leftover grilled turmeric chicken breast into ¼ inch pieces. Put the chicken pieces into the bread pocket. You can use any prepared meat (or vegetable) to make the sandwich.
4. Cut the pepper into thin pieces and add the pieces to the bread pocket. The pepper from my garden happens to be a Spanish Spice pepper, but you can use any pepper available. The degree of the pepper’s heat level is up to you!
5. Carefully pour Sweet Chili Sauce over the chicken and pepper in the bread pocket. Sweet Chili Sauce is available at your local Asian market. I use either the Mae Ploy or Butterfly brand. Sweet Chili Sauce is more sweet than hot, and makes an excellent condiment for the sandwich.
6. Optionally, you can warm the sandwich in a 350⁰F oven for no more than 5-10 minutes, but don’t leave the sandwich in the oven too long. You want a warm and tender, not crispy sandwich.
7. Dish out the radish kimchi. You can use any kimchi as an accompaniment to this sandwich. If you don’t have kimchi, you can substitute dill pickles (but it won’t be the same in my opinion).