i love my lunch! my favourite roast chicken sandwich

leftover roast chicken and salad sandwich

These days I think that my middle name might be "Thrifty" unlike the more pedestrian "Emma" that my parents saw fit to bestow on me. But I am all about trying to save money, especially when it comes to food budgeting.

As I have mentioned before, a really good way to do this is to roast a chicken for Sunday lunch and think of delicious ways to use up the leftovers. One of my favourite things to do is to make a roast chicken salad sandwich to take to work as a packed lunch. The tangy, smoky mayo dressing goes beautifully with the chicken and adding a little (or in my case a lot) of salad, makes this quite a substantial meal.

I recently totted up a less-than-forensic analysis of how much I spend by buying lunch at work. Admittedly sandwich bars in London tend to be a little more expensive than elsewhere and a substantial sandwich can cost anything from just a few quid to £4 or £5. You can do the maths; but you can see yourselves that by making my own pretty super sandwich, I am making a considerable saving.

I am using leftover roast chicken but you can cook up a couple of chicken breasts if you are in dire need of a delicious chicken sandwich.

Serves 4
Skill level: Easy

ingredients:
leftover roast chicken, shredded
3 tbsp mayonnaise (preferably home-made, but a good quality one such as Hellmann’s or Sainsbury's French Mayonnaise are very good too)
1 tbsp natural yoghurt
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
¼-½ tsp smoked paprika
salt and freshly ground black pepper
6-8 x baby plum tomatoes, sliced
½ x cucumber, halved, deseeded and sliced
rocket leaves
a good rustic loaf

directions:

1. Mix together the mayonnaise, natural yoghurt, lemon juice, smoked paprika and a little salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the chicken and stir well to combine.
2. Assemble the sandwich by dividing up the chicken mixture between 4 slices of bread. Top with a little rocket, tomato slices and cucumber.
3. Top with another slice of bread and press down gently before cutting in half and serving.

tip:

• Some good things that you can add to a chicken salad are some avocado and spring onions. You could also add a little grated Cheddar cheese or some crumbled well-cooked streaky bacon.