Home › Meat › Chicago Club Sandwich
Chicago Club Sandwich
Toast lightly two slices of white bread and one of rye; lightly butter and on the slices of white bread, place slices of cold cooked chicken and a couple of slices of bacon well crisped; cover with the slice of rye bread and on that place a lettuce leaf that has been dipped in a little mayonnaise dressing; sprinkle with a little chopped green pepper, then cover with the other slice of white bread.
A three-decker club with a rye slice in the middle rather than the usual all-white stack. The construction is the only tricky part, and the original description leaves the order slightly muddled.
- Read the stacking order firstBottom white slice takes the chicken and bacon, the rye goes on top of that, and the dressed lettuce and green pepper sit on the rye before the second white slice closes it. Assembling in that order keeps the wet lettuce off the toast until the last moment.
- Toast lightly, and butter while warmThe recipe calls for light toasting and light buttering; butter spreads more easily on warm toast. Some cooks butter only the facing sides to keep the mayonnaise off the crumb.
- Cold cooked chickenAny cold cooked chicken will do, poached or roasted, sliced thin. Deli-sliced chicken breast is a reasonable stand-in but has more moisture, so pat it dry.
- Bacon well crispedCook it until it snaps rather than bends, then drain thoroughly, or the rendered fat will soak through the middle slice.
- Green pepperA raw green pepper, finely chopped, a little of it. It is there for bite and crunch, not heat.
- Mayonnaise dressingIn a book of this kind the term generally means a made mayonnaise or a boiled dressing rather than anything from a jar. Either works; dip the lettuce leaf and shake off the excess so the rye does not go soggy.
- Cutting and servingThe recipe gives no cutting instruction. Makes one substantial sandwich.
The club sandwich appears in American print by the end of the 1880s and was familiar in hotel and club dining rooms through the 1890s; its origin is traditionally traced to gentlemen's clubs and resort card rooms of the northeastern United States, though no single documented inventor stands up to scrutiny. City names did attach themselves to sandwich variants in compilations of this sort, and what distinguishes the 'Chicago' here is the rye slice in the middle rather than a third piece of white toast, along with the chopped green pepper -- though the recipe itself offers no explanation of the name. The genre reflects a period when sandwiches had become respectable enough for luncheon service and printed compilations, rather than merely something wrapped for a workman's dinner pail.