Frontega Chicken Panini

 

Ok. I've mentioned this before...I Truly. Madly. Deeply. Love me some Panera. Their pastries, breakfast, bread, lunch and dinner make my heart skip a beat. Really.

It's the perfect place. Right?

Well, with two little ones on the go, a perfect place is virtually non-existent.

Wait, I take it back. If it has a drive thru and they don't ask, "Do you want fries with that?", then it's perfect. Unfortunately, those places are EXTREMELY hard to find.

Anyway, back to Panera. My Go-To order is some combo that includes the Frontega Chicken Panini. I love it. I love it so much I don't even know why they bother to put any other panini options on the menu.

So one day, I was curious and looked up copy cat recipes.

Bingo! I found it here.

Except, it wasn't exactly what I had envisioned. So I changed it up a little bit and didn't bother with measuring.

The result: Wow! Could it be?! Did I manage to one-up Panera on this one? You be the judge!

Here's what I did:

Frontega Chicken Panini

Focaccia Bread, sliced sandwich style
Rotisserie Chicken (seriously, who has time to cook chicken and then make a sandwich?)
~1/2 c. mayonnaise
~1 T. diced green chile
~1/2 t. crushed red pepper
Basil leaves, cut into strips
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 tomato, sliced (and for me, seeded...seeds...bleh!)
Shredded mozzarella cheese

Mix mayo, green chile, and red pepper until combined. Set aside to let the flavors meld.

Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Saute red onion slices until onions are tender and start caramelizing. (Why do I do this??? Because I don't like raw onions - the one exception is white onions in piping hot albondigas soup. But I digress. This is the one thing I don't like about Panera. You can't ask them to remove the raw onions. They just won't. So I just remove them before eating. But at home, I can have onions any way I want. And sauteed is the way I like it.)

Spread the mayo mixtures on the top and bottom slices of the focaccia bread. On the bottom slice, start by spreading the rotisserie chicken first, followed by the cooked onions,a single layer of tomatoes, the basil strips, and lastly the mozzarella cheese. Top it off with the other slice of bread.

Bake in a 350 deg oven for ~7-8 minutes. (I don't have a panini press. This could possibly take this sandwich to a whole new level for me. I don't plan on buying one any time soon. But I can dream.)