Crumbed Chicken and Creamy Slaw Sandwich

My two sons have been visiting friends on the other side of the country for the past week. It's the first time in fourteen years my husband and I have been without our kids for a whole week. At first everything seeemed very still... and quiet and we weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves. We stood in the airport departure lounge and waved goodbye to our two babies and then stared at each other for, oh about 10 seconds... Then hit the road and found a bar and had a glass of Champagne. Then we got all dressed up and had a romantic dinner, because any dinner without the kids is romantic. After that, we saw a movie and then went for a late night walk in the city. The next day we had a long, lazy breakfast, went shopping, had lunch and cocktails, more shopping and then went out for dinner again, saw another movie, had a late supper. The next day we slept in and then had brunch in the sun, went to the art gallery, had a fancy afternoon tea at a fancy restaurant...etc. You get the picture, right? But we really did miss our boys. Really, we did. They arrived home from Western Australia late last night and to show them how much they are loved, I made them these sandwiches as a welcome home lunch today. Nothing says I love you like a crumbed chicken sandwich.



Crumbed Chicken and Creamy Slaw Sandwich
Serves 2

For the Chicken:
1 skinless boneless chicken breast fillet, sliced in half horizontally so that you have two thin fillets
Fine sea salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Olive oil of shallow frying

For the Slaw:
1 cup shredded white cabbage
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
Juice of half a lemon
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

For the Sandwich:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 clove garlic, cut in half
4 slices of good sourdough rye bread
Pickles
Hot sauce

Make the Chicken:
Season the chicken generously with salt.

Dip it in the buttermilk.

Combine the breadcrumbs with the smoked paprika and coat the buttermilk-dipped chicken with them. Make sure they are well covered.

Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, lay the chicken in the oil and cook on both sides until golden and cooked through. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towel. Set aside.

Make the Slaw:
Put all the slaw ingredients into a bowl and mix to combine. Set aside.

Assemble the Sandwich:
Put the oil and butter into a frying pan and heat over medium-high heat. Once melted and hot, put the bread in the pan and cook until it is golden on one side. Remove from the pan and rub the fried side with the garlic clove.

Lay the bread slices, fried-side up and top two of the slices with pickles. Pop a piece of chicken on top of the pickles and finish with a spoonful of slaw and a drizzle of hot sauce. Place the remaining two slices of bread on top.