Banh Mi

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I live in a smallish city and the traditional vietnamese sandwich, Banh Mi, has been something I haven't been able to enjoy in a long time.  Last year, when CG went to NYC for a week on business, he brought home a couple of them for me.  Imagine my joy when I saw a recipe for them in Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook, My Father's Daughter.  Now her version is a prawn sandwich, but that's not how I eat them so I used chicken in mine.

This is my adapted version of her vietnamese prawn sandwich recipe.  The night before I planned on making these sandwiches, I prepared the pickled carrots and sauce, and marinated the chicken.  She says to make these at least an hour ahead, but I find it easy to prep items just before bed and my final kitchen cleanup plus I wanted the chicken to sit in the marinade for a long time.

For the pickled carrots, I shredded 3 small carrots, and added them to 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp granulated sugar.  She used rice wine vinegar, but seasoned rice vinegar was what I had.  I liked it this way.

GP used vegenaise, but we're not vegans, so I used mayo.  For the sauce I whisked together 1/2 cup mayo, the juice of 1 lime and 1 1/2 tsps sriracha.  I like things zippy, you could use less sriracha.  Speaking of sriracha, GP has a recipe for homemade sriracha, but I just used the bottle in my frig.  When I run out, I plan on giving her recipe a try.

In a ziplock baggie, I placed 1 split chicken breast, 2 tbsps GF soy sauce, 2 tbsps toasted sesame oil, and 1 tsp fresh grated ginger(not ground ginger.)

All of this went in the frig overnight.  When you're ready for lunch, grill your chicken.  While the chicken is cooking, julienne a half an english cucumber,

and grab some basil and cilantro from the garden.

Banh mi is made with baguettes.  I made my own rolls for this to keep them gluten-free, but buying baguettes would be way easier.

Split your bread lengthwise with a bread knife.

Grill the rolls on both sides, while you shred the chicken.

To assemble the sandwiches, I spread the sauce on both halves of the roll.  Placed a layer of pickled carrots followed by a layer of  julienned cucumbers.  Next layer on the herbs followed by the chicken.

These sandwiches are like a taste of childhood for me.  Whirling Dervish loved his, so it looks like these will go on the lunch rotation.

Thanks for popping in and cooking with me.