Grilled Chicken Pesto Sandwich |Cooking With Amanda

One of the biggest changes I had to get used to when we moved from Georgia to upstate New York is the shorter growing season. We ended up with a larger yard which led to a larger garden. Awesome!

But, the growing season is much, much shorter up here. Not awesome. We really can't plant outdoors until about mid-May as there's always the chance for a late season frost.

We still had a great crop of veggies, peppers and tomatoes this year, though. In fact, our tomato crop was insane! Not quite Atlanta insane… I mean, I remember picking tomatoes around Thanksgiving one year in Atlanta. But we still had a ton of tomatoes this year.

I picked the last few tomatoes this week, and I knew I wanted to do something special with them. That's where this grilled chicken pesto sandwich comes in!

Near the end of every summer, I make a huge batch of basil pesto using all of the leftover basil in the garden. Pesto freezes really well, so we always have some stored in the freezer ready to go on a moment's notice. Check out the link above for a convenient little trick for freezing pesto.

The other day, I walked past those big loaves of French bread in the store. I started thinking that I should use those for a sandwich. And not just any sandwich.

A sandwich loaded with delicious grilled chicken, basil pesto, tomatoes and roasted red peppers. I figured this would be a completely worthy use of the last of the garden tomatoes!

I went with a slightly different technique for grilling the chicken this time. I used bricks. Yup, bricks from the pile of extra bricks in my shed. Wrap those bad boys up in aluminum foil, and they became a great tool for the grill! If you don't have extra bricks, you can use any other heat-safe, heavy object. Cast iron pans work great.

But wait. You've probably heard the rule that you aren't supposed to press meat while grilling. It just squeezes out all of the juices and leaves you with a dry piece of meat. Well, that's true. But when you apply pressure evenly across the meat for the entire time it's cooking, then something magical happens.

The meat (chicken in this case) grills evenly… and it even creates these awesomely delicious crispy edges.

This sandwich is totally do-able on a weeknight. We threw the chicken on the grill, and about 30 minutes later we were sitting down to one heck of a tasty sandwich! This grilled chicken pesto sandwich is loaded with flavor, and it's definitely one of my favorites. (Plus, it's kinda fun to use bricks while grilling!)

And if you don't mind me saying so, it would go fantastically well with my grilled sweet potatoes!

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Grilled Chicken Pesto Sandwich Recipe

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Ingredients

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 loaf french bread
1/3 cup pesto
4 slices provolone cheese
6 tablespoons roasted red peppers
1 tomato, sliced

Directions

Wrap bricks in aluminum foil; set aside.
Preheat grill to medium-high heat.
Butterfly the chicken breasts to create 4 thin chicken breasts. Brush chicken breasts with olive oil and then sprinkle with spices (oregano, basil, salt and pepper).
Place the chicken breasts on the grill and top with foil-covered bricks. (If you place the 4 chicken breasts near each other, then 3 bricks should be plenty.) Grill for 6 minutes, flip (replacing the brick after flipping) and grill for 6-7 more minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.
Meanwhile, slice the loaf of French bread into 4 sections. Split each section in half. Spread the pesto evenly on the 4 bottom halves of bread. Set aside.
Once the chicken is fully cooked, remove it from the grill and slice into strips. Place chicken breasts onto the pesto-rubbed pieces of French bread. Top each sandwich with a slice of provolone cheese, several strips of roasted red peppers and a slice of tomato. Place top piece of bread on sandwiches.
(Optional) While the grill is still hot (but with the burners turned off), place sandwiches on the grill for 2-3 minutes. Serve sandwiches hot.