Simple Pesto Chicken and Prosciutto Panini

Ingredients:

ciabatta bread sliced in half (and cut into pieces appropriate for a sandwich)

small bottle pesto home-made pesto

grilled chicken  4 baked, marinated chicken breast, pounded and cut into pieces cut at a

   diagonal (simple prep instructions to follow)

prosciutto sliced thin (as much as you want)

reduced-fat provolone slices

fresh basil (a handful)

Marinade:

olive oil (eye it)

red wine vinegar (eye it)

oregano (eye it)

garlic powder (eye it)

salt (eye it)

pepper (eye it)

romano (eye it) Wishbone Italian dressing

Pesto:

(This recipe is intended for plentiful batch that can be used for future recipes.  See Notes

   Section for more information.)

1/4 cup pine nuts

10 cloves garlic

5 cups fresh basil leaves (packed down)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon back pepper

1 1/2 cups olive oil

1 cup pecorino romano

      *To make this Really Simple Pesto Chicken and Prosciutto Panini, go ahead and use jarred (wuss).

Pre-heat your oven to 400º

Set your panini press to High

Pesto:

Put the pine nuts, garlic, basil, salt and pepper into your food processor and “process” on low for about 30 seconds.  While it breaks down your ingredients, stream in the olive oil through that hole-thing where that pushy thing goes.  When you pureed the ingredients, add the romano and puree for an additional 45 seconds to a minute. Put in the fridge to cool.

Chicken:

Make a high-lipped aluminum foil boat, for lack of a better term (basically a lipped floor that will hold liquid) and lay on a cookie sheet, covering it with a foil lid.  Add your chicken in it.  Smother it with your salad dressing, cover and cook in oven for about 25 minutes.  Remove your “boat” and take the cover off and allow to cool.

Panini:

Spread your pesto on both sides of your ciabatta slices.  Layer your chicken slices on the bottom piece of ciabatta.  Cover with slices of provolone and a generous portion of prosciutto.  Place on lower plate of panini press and, well, press with the upper level.  Allow to cook for like 5 minutes---check all you want.  Crisp is nice. Hard and burnt, not so much.

Notes:

I pieced this together from different recipes and tweaked ‘em and made them what I thought would be appropriate.  I changed measurements from said recipes and added or swapped items.

Pesto recipe yields enough to be used for future recipes.  You my freeze your pesto by covering the pesto with a think layer of olive oil and kept in an air tight container.

Tweaks:

I chose to use home-made pesto to be at least a little fulfilling in the “I made it” department.

I chose to skip the grilling in favor of baking in a marinade for a more flavorful chicken.

Cheats:

In the spirit of keeping this meal Simple, I skipped what I would normally use to make my own marinade (I’ll do that as a post another day) and used the perfect poor college guy replacement: Wishbone Italian dressing.  Works perfectly.

*To further cheat and increase the level of Simple, skip the pesto steps and use jarred.

Verdict: Success

This recipe is deemed Neighbor-worthy, I just didn’t make enough to share, sorry. 

Want to be on the mailing list or have a recipes to share? Contact me at themaniccheater@gmail.com.