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Hot Chicken Sandwich
Between thin slices of lightly buttered toast, place slices of warm chicken breast; over same pour hot gravy, made of slightly thickened chicken stock, seasoned with salt and pepper, and a little chopped parsley. Cut triangular and garnish with a pickle, and a radish.
A short assembly recipe that assumes a cooked bird and a pot of stock already on hand. Everything depends on the gravy being thin enough to soak the toast without collapsing it.
- "Slightly thickened"The gravy should be about the consistency of heavy cream, not a spoon-coating veloute. Roughly a tablespoon of flour or a scant tablespoon of roux per cup of stock; anything stiffer sits on top of the toast instead of soaking in.
- Warm, not reheated to deathThe chicken breast wants to be warmed through in a little of the hot stock, about a minute, then lifted out. Simmering sliced white meat in gravy squeezes it dry.
- Toast, and why it is toastUntoasted bread turns to paste under hot gravy. Toast the bread until firm and dry, butter it thinly while hot, and assemble at the last moment before serving.
- Chicken stockThe recipe says only "chicken stock"; a stock from the same bird, well reduced, is the likeliest reading. Commercial broth is generally thinner than a reduced homemade stock and often more heavily seasoned, so reduce it before thickening and salt only at the end.
- Cut triangularTwo diagonal cuts on a square slice give four small triangles; one cut gives two. Either reading is fine. Note that the recipe puts the chicken between two slices of toast, with the gravy poured over the closed sandwich.
- Yield and servingThe recipe builds each sandwich between two slices of toast, so figure two slices per serving as a light lunch or supper dish. The pickle and radish are given as garnish; they also supply something sharp against the gravy.
Books of this kind appeared in numbers in the early twentieth century, when the sandwich shifted from a portable snack to a category worth a whole volume, especially for luncheons, teas and club and hotel service. The hot sandwich under gravy belongs squarely to that world: sliced fowl between two slices of toast, sent out looking composed. The garnish instruction is characteristic of the period, when a plate was expected to carry a pickle and something raw and sharp as a matter of course, and the same combination of sliced meat, toast and thin pan gravy is often said to lie behind the hot turkey or hot beef sandwich still found on American diner menus.