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Chipotle Chicken Panera Copycat

Chipotle Chicken Panini

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  • Author: Lilies and Loafers
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes + Overnight
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes + Overnight
  • Yield: 4 sandwiches 1x
  • Category: Lunch

Ingredients

Units Scale

Chicken Marinade

  • Damn Delicious for the recipe.

Chipotle Mayo

  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp paprika powder
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp lime juice
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 2 chipotle peppers in adobo
  • 2 tbsp adobo sauce

Sandwich

  • 2 chicken breasts
  • 4 slices of cooked bacon – 1 per sandwich
  • Sliced Red Onion
  • 8 slices cheddar cheese (or shredded) – 2 slices per sandwich
  • Avocado, sliced
  • Plum tomato, sliced
  • 8 slices of sourdough bread
  • Softened butter to spread on sandwich

Instructions

Chicken

  1. Make the marinade according to Damn Delicious. Set aside overnight.
  2. When ready to cook, take the chicken-in-marinade out of the fridge to get to room temperature.
  3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
  4. Drizzle olive oil in a baking dish.
  5. Place chicken (out of the bag of however you stored the chicken) in the baking dish.
  6. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until cooked through.
  7. Remove from the oven and cover lightly with foil. Let rest for 5 minutes.
  8. Slice chicken and set aside.

Chipotle Mayo

  1. If you can, make this ahead of time, too.
  2. Add all ingredients to a small bowl.
  3. Mix until well combined.
  4. Set aside.

Sandwich

  1. Once everything is chopped, sliced, and cooked, time to make the sandwich.
  2. Preheat a cast iron grill pan to medium heat (or panini press if you have one).
  3. Lay two slices of bread down (this will be the inside of the sandwich, so line up your slices accordingly).
  4. Spread a cereal spoon of chipotle mayo on each slice of bread. Be generous, but not gloppy.
  5. On one slice, add bacon then chicken. Top with cheese (we had tiny bread, so we ended up halving our slices). Then red onion, avocado, tomato, and the other slice of cheese.
  6. Top with the other slice of bread (chipotle mayo touching the cheese).
  7. Now you’re staring at a clean side of bread. Spread a thin layer of butter over the top of the bread.
  8. Place the buttered side down in the pan (this will be a circus act of flipping, so hold the sandwich tight!).
  9. Add a weighted object on top of the sandwich and cook for 3-4 minutes or until the bottom is golden brown (think grilled cheese colors).
  10. Butter the top of the sandwich before flipping over and repeat the last step.
  11. Remove from the pan and slice the sandwich in half.
  12. Repeat all these steps with the other three sandwiches!

Notes

Please refer to Damn Delicious for the chicken marinade.