Grilled Chicken Sandwich...ciabatta bread and grilled veggies too.

Sandwiches are a great fav at our place. My little duckie calls them as "sammich". He doesnt eat the entire sandwich but just the most interesting part in it- chicken or tomatoes as the case may be. My hubby S loves them. He loves to watch tv/surf the internet while eating his sandwich or two. And praising me on my culinary skills at the same time. Making sandwiches is really easy for me but the key part is, to eat it as soon as assembled. I mean, who likes a soggy, falling apart kind of sandwich??? The best side dish with a sandwich? A soup or a salad or just a bag of chips. My perfect way to eat a sandwich is a hot soup on a cold day or a light salad on a summery day and always a bag of chips. Ever tried laying crispy chips in middle of sandwich and then eating it??? It tastes great.
The above sandwich is a grilled chicken sandwich. I grilled chicken breasts in oven with marinade of olive oil, salt, pepper and a mix of dried basil and italian herbs. At the same time, I roasted few veggies- onions, red bell pepper and tomatoes. I used green salad as a healthy base for my ciabatta bread. Now something about this bread. This bread can be grilled little in oven with olive oil drizzled on it and then eaten as a sandwich or just make a sandwich as it is. Be careful while grilling ciabatta bread though, a little too much time turns it into a teethfalling-extra crispy-extra hard kind of bread. I hated it the first time I made it. Got it right on the second try though.
Recipe:
1 pack ciabatta bread - I got mine from Jewel bakery.
1 chicken breast- cut into strips
Marinade ingredients:
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp italian herb mix I used mccormick mix
1 tomato, washed and sliced
1 red onion sliced
1 red bell pepper cut into strips
greens-mix of spinach arugula, romaine or whatever suits you
part skim mozzarella cheese
my sandwich dressing:
I used Italian dressing, mustard, heinz ketchup and little hot sauce. eyeballed all the ingredients for 1 Tbs each. added little olive oil and salt/pepper/dried basil. then added 1/4 cup each of ketchup and italian dressing to give it a sweet-creamy taste with a little sourness.
It doesnt matter if any of the ingredients are missing. The easiest thing is to play around with them and pick a taste that suits you.

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350F. Slice horizontally through the ciabatta bread if not already sliced. Brush the inside of both sides with olive oil and sprinkle little dried basil on it. Grill just the lower halves of sandwich bread in the oven per instructions on the packet. Keep an eye on them all the time because the tend to crisp quickly. Marinate chicken with marinade ingredients. Keep aside for 15 ,mins. Mix the veggies with the chicken and grill till meat is cooked. Let it cool for 5 mins. In mean time, take the upper halves of sandwich bread and on the inside layer the cheese, grill till the cheese melts Get your bread base ready. Layer the lower half of the bread with salad greens, Then add the meat and the roasted veggies to it. Then Drizzle or apply liberally the dressing. Put together the ttwo halves of bread and enjoy with a bag of chips or as it is.
Dipti