Rotisserie-Style Chicken Breast for Sandwiches

Right about this point in my pregnancies, I usually start really missing sandwiches. I know that the risk of listeriosis isn't huge, but it still makes me nervous enough not to want to eat even toasted subs; I'm not a huge fan of warm sandwiches anyway. So when I started thinking about what to take for lunch this week, my mind naturally turned to sandwiches and sandwich meat.

Even when I'm not pregnant, I'm tempted to make my own sandwich meat, just because that way I know what actually went into it (and I'd really like a meat slicer as well :). I had some boneless skinless chicken breast in my freezer that needed to be cooked and eaten before it freezer-burned, so I set out to search the internet for recipes on how to make your own lunch meat.

I was disappointed.

Oh, there are lots of blog and forum posts about how much better it is for you to cook meat at home and use it for sandwiches than to buy overly processed, overly salted deli meat. But recipes? I found one recipe for roast beef, which didn't really help me with my chicken dilemma. The only recipes I found were for grilled chicken or chicken salad, neither of which were what I wanted. I wanted a nice, flavorful cooked chicken that I could slice for sandwiches.

I was on my own.

One of my favorite flavors of chicken deli meat is rotisserie-seasoned, and I remembered seeing a recipe for rotisserie-style chicken on Stephanie O'Dea's fabulous blog, so I went searching. I modified the recipe a bit for my taste, and because I was using boneless skinless breasts instead of a whole chicken. I don't think this quite qualifies as a new recipe, since it's almost entirely hers, but I did tweak it significantly.

Rotisserie-Style Chicken Breast for Sandwiches


Original recipe for Crockpot Rotisserie-Style Chicken 

4 boneless skinless chicken breast pieces (approx. 2 lbs)
2 tsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 heaping Tbsp. minced garlic
2 Tbsp. liquid smoke
1/2 10 oz. can chicken broth

I partially thawed the chicken breast so it would cook faster, and to facilitate rubbing it down with the spice mixture. You could probably do this just as well with frozen; it would probably need more cooking time, though.

Combine all dry spices in a bowl. Generously rub the chicken breasts with the spice mixture and place them in the crock pot.

Sprinkle minced garlic over chicken breasts and pour liquid smoke and chicken broth into the bottom of the crock pot.

I cooked this on high for 4 hours because I was afraid I'd end up with chicken too falling-apart to slice or too dried out to eat if I cooked it on Low. It seemed to work out okay.

Then I put the chicken breasts in the freezer to cool for easier slicing. I couldn't wait too long, though; I needed lunch. I had a picture of my scrumptious sandwich, but my weird memory card for the camera managed to lose it; I really have to reformat that thing.

Conclusion

Yummy! The bit with the seasoning on it was a bit spicy for my taste, with the cayenne and the black pepper, but the rest of the breast has a nice flavor. I couldn't taste the liquid smoke at all; I think I'd need more if I want a smoky flavor.

Also, do not leave the breasts in the freezer for too long before trying to slice them, or you might cut yourself while trying to cut them. On two fingers. At the same time. Not that this happened to me or anything. I would never be so foolish. I shudder to think what would happen if I had a meat slicer.

After some experimentation, I determined that what works best for me in slicing is to lay the chicken breast flat and cut it in half so I have a flat surface to stand the chicken up on. Then I can stand it up and slice some relatively thin slices, although still not at all uniform. The little crumby bits that fell off while slicing should make an excellent chicken salad. I just can't escape it :D