Daily Favorites: Smoky Chicken Sando

The inspiration for this dish came from walking into my backyard. In suburban Kansas City that night, someone was grilling and the entire neighborhood smelled like beautiful smoke. I said to myself I want that smoke. 

But I wanted to replicate that flavor in an easy way, through ingredients. I researched a few options including liquid smoke, but settled on a combination of smoked paprika which I already had + smoked salt.

I bought a package of chicken tenderloins for the shawarma, but saved two for this sandwich. 

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No marinade required. Turned the broiler on high, patted the chicken with smoked salt, smoked paprika, little cayenne, and black pepper. Broiled for 9 minutes, these were smaller pieces than my shawarma pieces. 

Meanwhile toasted a bun on the electric griddle and whipped up a little sauce: no sugar bbq, worcestershire, smoked salt, smoked paprika. 

That's it. Could have added some pickled onions or something, but wanted to keep it simple to taste the smoke flavor. 

This actually worked. 

It tasted like a chicken sandwich you would get a barbecue place. Look, I know chicken is not the best barbecue, and my broiler is not going to compete with real barbecue. But it turned out great. Very easy, and very healthy too. 

The bun was 130 cals, the chicken probably only like 200. Not much more from the sauce either. So like 350 altogether? It definitely felt more filling than that. 

When I've got a hankering for smoke, this gets the job done.