The Best Ever Chicken Sandwich

Yesterday, I made my very first loaf of bread, ever. Surprisingly, it actually turned out really well! I couldn't believe it. I showed my husband while I was mixing it in the Kitchenaid mixer and said, "Look it actually looks like dough!" Heather is the baker in the family. I am not. But I resorted to making my own ciabatta bread because now that we live in the "sticks" I cannot find ciabatta bread anywhere around me. I had a major craving for my favorite sandwich in the world that my mom and I used to make together. It is a fried or baked chicken tender patty, avocado, lettuce, bacon and pepperjack cheese on ciabatta bread. It HAS to be on ciabatta bread. So, I set out looking for a recipe for ciabatta bread and found this one that looked pretty simple on pinterest: Ciabatta Bread Recipe. I followed the recipe in the link completely to make the bread. Here is how the bread looked…it was absolutely delicious but you're welcome to just buy a loaf of ciabatta bread at your local grocery store, that will work just fine.

So, during the last half hour of the bread baking we started making the sandwiches. First you need to bread the chicken tenders. Dip the chicken tenders into a shallow baking dish with 3 eggs whisked together. 

 Then, we dipped the chicken tenders in a mixture of bread crumbs, garlic powder and sea salt.

 They were ready to be fried or baked. My husband prefers to fry them so that's what we did but they are just as good when you bake them.

 While the chicken tenders are frying, prepare the other toppings by shredding the romaine lettuce,  slicing the avocado, and cooking the bacon. You can also prepare a Chipotle Ranch sauce that one of my favorite restaurants back in Naperville, Kick's Chicken, used on their sandwich like this. Here is a link to a great Chipotle Ranch recipe, but it honestly doesn't need it with the avocado.

 To prepare the sandwich, toast your bread in the oven at 350 degrees with a slice of pepperjack cheese on both sides of the bread for about 3 minutes, being careful not to overcook. You want the cheese to be just melted. Then stack the chicken, bacon, avocado and lettuce on the sandwich. Here is the finished product. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! If you're lucky like me, there will be leftovers and you can have it again the next day for lunch when it is just as good! :)