caprese chicken toasties

You know those days when you’re feeling fancy, and you want to make something “gourmet” but you want to make it out of regular ingredients in your pantry? Well, these Caprese Chicken Toasties fit that bill. If you know me at all, you know that I’m the farthest thing from fancy most days. For instance, I’m not one of those people who’s bra matches the underwear on any given day, and yes, I consider that “fancy”, haha! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it never happens, but on a regular Tuesday afternoon, it’s a good bet that my underwear are your regular, non-matching set.  So, when you can combine ordinary chicken, with a few other ordinary ingredients and make this super amazing deliciousness for an appetizer, lunch or well, for me, dinner,… – this turns into a totally sexy, “bra matching underwear” fancy combination! You’ll look (and feel!) like a SUPASTAR!!!

Caprese Chicken Toasties

One of the best things about this recipe is that you don’t need a lot of chicken. I used one chicken breast and that was plenty to load up these Caprese Chicken Toasties. In fact, even if you have left over chicken from the night before, be it breast meat or thigh meat or whatever you had on hand, you can completely use that instead of cooking up some raw chicken, and it would make life even easier!

You’ll want to be sure that the other ingredients you use are as fresh as possible.  Plump ripe tomatoes (plum preferably) that are de-seeded. How do you do that, you ask? SO simply! Cut the tomato, cutting it from stem to stem (not horizontally around the fattest part of it.) in sections. Carefully, using a sharp knife, follow the natural curve of the tomato and cut out the inner seeds and “stuff” that surrounds the seeds.

If you’re making it with little ones, or don’t feel all that special about your knife skills, use a spoon. Scoop out the innards like a ….. well, I can’t think of anything right now, but you get my drift I’m sure. Honestly, I LOVE those inner bits of the tomato. They remind me of the tomato’s “caviar”, and I like feeling like a high roller when I eat it. (Hey, I know it’s a stretch, but I’ve got a great imagination sometimes.) And well, it tastes great too.

Anyway! Back at it.

Fresh fresh fresh is key. We’re talking fresh, fragrant basil, and fresh mozzarella as well. Ok.. don’t be rollin’  your eyes at me over this one. TRUE caprese salad has fresh, soft ripe mozzarella in it. But if you don’t have it on hand….. well, .. *whispering*…. cut up a few slices of regular mozzarella and dice it up. It won’t be exactly as it should be, but hey, the whole point of this is feeling fancy using the ordinary right??

So yeahhhhhhhhhh.. gah’ head with your bad self and use regular mozzarella if that’s all you have on hand. Just don’t use the shredded kind that comes in a bag. That’s just wrong and then a bunch MORE wrong after that. In fact, I’d say pack those ingredients up and put it away until you get yourself some proper mozza! No one’s feeling fancy with shredded mozza in this dish.

This recipe couldn’t be easier actually. Dice up the ingredients and combine in a bowl. Toast the toasties. Butter them if you wish. Pile the ingredients up onto the toasties. Shift the diced pieces around so that they won’t fall on the ground in transport from plate to mouth. Rover doesn’t need to take part of your gourmet caprese chicken fanciness today.

Now comes the SUPER fancypants part. Take some of your balsamic vinegar and just drizzle.. and I mean DRIZZLE little drops of it over the toasties. Don’t go overboard or you’ll be making those sourpuss faces after every bite. You just want to “accent” with the vinegar here. Even better, if you had balsamic glaze which is sweeter and a bit thicker, THAT would make these AHHMAYZZZZING! I unfortunately, didn’t have any glaze, so I just used what I had. You can too, no biggie!

Ok, the important parts here are: 
– fresh ingredients (as fresh as possible)
– no fresh, raw chicken on hand? Use leftover from the night before!
– use fresh, soft mozzarella if possible. If not possible, (ahem), you know what to do. 
– toast the baguette slices
– LIGHTLY drizzle the vinegar. Lightly. 

So that’s really the whole “recipe” of putting these amazing flavor busters together. Have some friends over, tell them you’re going to make some gourmet food for lunch (pair it with a simple salad if you want) and ask her to bring the wine. (heehee – free wine!) No one has to know that you put this together with ordinary, non-fancy ingredients from your fridge. You’re going to get all the admiration for being gourmet and fancy, drinkin’ wine in the middle of the day and eating these Caprese Chicken Toasties, even if your underwear doesn’t match.