Italian Chicken-grilled vegetable Panini
Nutritional Info
- Servings Per Recipe: 4
- Amount Per Serving
- Calories: 300.7
- Total Fat: 9.7 g
- Cholesterol: 55.8 mg
- Sodium: 322.1 mg
- Total Carbs: 26.9 g
- Dietary Fiber: 4.3 g
- Protein: 27.6 g
View full nutritional breakdown of Italian Chicken-grilled vegetable Panini calories by ingredient
Introduction
Looking for something exciting to do for lunch with your leftover chicken breasts? Or maybe you're trying to sneak in more vegetables? These tasty sandwiches are easy to make and even easier to pack for lunch. Add a piece of fruit and you have all 4 food groups met! Looking for something exciting to do for lunch with your leftover chicken breasts? Or maybe you're trying to sneak in more vegetables? These tasty sandwiches are easy to make and even easier to pack for lunch. Add a piece of fruit and you have all 4 food groups met!Number of Servings: 4
Ingredients
-
Zucchini, 2 cup, sliced
Eggplant, fresh, 1 cup, sliced
Chicken Breast, no skin, 12 ounces
Bread, pita, whole-wheat, 2 pita, large (6-1/2" dia)
Goat Cheese, Soft, 2 oz
For Pesto:
Olive Oil, 1 tbsp
Garlic, 2 cloves
Pumpkin Seeds, 1 oz (85 seeds)
Basil, 4 tbsp
Directions
If you don't have any leftover chicken, don't despair. Put 4 chicken breasts on a cast iron grill skillet while making the pesto.
In a marble or stone mortar, crush garlic until smooth. Then add fresh basil leaves and continue grinding. Add olive oil and pumpkin seeds. Before grinding, flip chicken breasts over on the grill...continue until your pesto is smooth consistancy as your taste prefer.
Slice zucchini and eggplant. (Some Italian grandmothers insists on placing eggplant covered in rock salt and sit for an hour to remove the bitter taste. They then wash off the salt, press out the excess water and cook) If you have the time, it does make some difference if your sensitive to the eggplant skins taste.
Take cooked chicken off grill and grill the vegetabeles around 2 minutes per side. Put the chicken into pita halves, divide pesto sauce and goat cheese between the four sandwiches. Add grilled vegetables to panini. You can then either grill for 1 minute the sandwiches on each side or pack up the sandwiches for lunch.
Recipe variations: To save time, you can used grilled red bell peppers in place of the other vegetables.
Changing the bread to whole wheat, tortilla , french bread or traditional Italain is a nice way to vary textures.
For cheese- I actually prefer a Sicilian fresh cheese with peppercorns. Fresh cheese in Italy doens't have a special name- just fresh cheese! The adventerous can make their own yogurt fresh cheese, the non- can use a nice pecorrino or other favorite white of choice.
Number of Servings: 4
Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user CRZYLLAMA71.
In a marble or stone mortar, crush garlic until smooth. Then add fresh basil leaves and continue grinding. Add olive oil and pumpkin seeds. Before grinding, flip chicken breasts over on the grill...continue until your pesto is smooth consistancy as your taste prefer.
Slice zucchini and eggplant. (Some Italian grandmothers insists on placing eggplant covered in rock salt and sit for an hour to remove the bitter taste. They then wash off the salt, press out the excess water and cook) If you have the time, it does make some difference if your sensitive to the eggplant skins taste.
Take cooked chicken off grill and grill the vegetabeles around 2 minutes per side. Put the chicken into pita halves, divide pesto sauce and goat cheese between the four sandwiches. Add grilled vegetables to panini. You can then either grill for 1 minute the sandwiches on each side or pack up the sandwiches for lunch.
Recipe variations: To save time, you can used grilled red bell peppers in place of the other vegetables.
Changing the bread to whole wheat, tortilla , french bread or traditional Italain is a nice way to vary textures.
For cheese- I actually prefer a Sicilian fresh cheese with peppercorns. Fresh cheese in Italy doens't have a special name- just fresh cheese! The adventerous can make their own yogurt fresh cheese, the non- can use a nice pecorrino or other favorite white of choice.
Number of Servings: 4
Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user CRZYLLAMA71.