pesto chicken caprese sandwich

2026-07-10

Recipe uses 4 french baguettes and serves 24.

Ingredients:

  1. 4 baguettes
  2. 2lb boneless chicken breasts
  3. 3 sliced mozzarella balls
  4. balsalmic glaze
  5. 2 beefcake/heirloom tomatoes
  6. 5oz arugula
  7. mayonnaise

Pesto Ingredients:

  1. 4oz pine nuts (shallow tub from Hannaford’s)
  2. small tub of grated parmesan cheese
  3. ~3 stalks of basil?
  4. olive oil
  5. jarlic
  6. 1 lemon

Instructions:

  1. Remove the basil leaves from the stalk and discard the stalk
  2. Blend all pesto ingredients in a food processor, adding olive oil to thin the mixture. Usually pesto has a texture and isn’t pureed, but the recipe makes concessions due to volume of food
  3. Cut chicken breasts along the grain into bite size strips
  4. Place chicken breasts in a ziploc bag. Take half the pesto and massage it into the flesh. Refrigerate
  5. Slice the tomatoes and then half them. Salt them to taste
  6. Stage the remaining ingredients for easy sandwich assembly
  7. Butterfly the baguettes open and spread olive oil and mayonnaise along the inside
  8. Remove the chicken from the fridge and grill them until some parts are blackened
  9. Rest the chicken
  10. Toast the bread (Grill them inside-face down if there’s space)
  11. Spread the remaining pesto along both inside faces of the baguettes
  12. Line the bottom half with arugula and then alternate between mozzarella, tomato, and chicken
  13. Drizzle balsalmic glaze across the ingredients
  14. Close the sandwich and press flat
  15. Cut each baguette into 6 pieces along the diagonal, similar to how the baguette is scored

Disclaimer:

I’ve toyed around with the ingredient quantities as I had extra chicken, mozzarella, and tomatoes the last time. I have a tendency to use all the ingredients at my disposal to make a meal, which sort of explains why the pesto is pine nut heavy. I find it much simpler to work this way and joke that it mirrors just-in-time manufacturing techniques. In the example of the pine nuts, I value using all of the pine nuts and feeding everyone over having pine nuts leftover and having the perfect flavor balance for the pesto. This also frees me from carrying a large inventory and concerning myself with food spoiling. If there is leftover food, it is already cooked and ready to be eaten immediately. The trade off for this approach is that I always must go to the grocery store beforehand and there is little room for error while cooking.