Grilled Chicken and Pesto Sandwiches with California Salad

This recipe will make four hearty sandwiches. The crisp, clean taste of the salad is a nice complement to the rich pesto sauce.

Pesto Chicken sandwich ingredients:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• Salt and pepper
• 8 slices sourdough or other firm white bread
• 4 slices Mozzarella cheese
• Grilled red pepper, sliced thin
• 4 teaspoons pesto sauce (my easy basil pesto or my recipe for parsley pesto)

Preparation:
Prepare the salad ahead of time and place in the refrigerator to chill.
Pound the chicken slices between two pieces of plastic wrap with a meat mallet.
Cut each pounded piece in half.
Spray an indoor cooking grill with cooking spray and preheat it.
Salt and pepper the chicken, then place on the grill and cook for three minutes.
Spray a cooking pan with cooking spray and preheat it.
Lay the bread slices out and place a slice of Provolone on four of them and a tomato on top of the cheese.
Lay the grilled chicken on the other slices and top with pesto sauce.
Put the sandwiches together.
Cook the sandwiches until brown on both sides and the cheese is melted.
Serve piping hot.

California Salad ingredients

• Spring salad mix
• ½ cup of walnuts, chopped
• ½ cup of craisins or raisins
• ½ a navel orange, peeled and sliced
• Raspberry vinaigrette
• (Optional) Crumbled bleu cheese or feta cheese as a garnish

Salad preparation:
Toss all the ingredients together with a dash of vinaigrette.
Top with bleu or feta cheese if desired.

Photo/roboppy on Flickr
 
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