These are the perfect chicken sandwiches to line up in the Tupperware and plonk down on the picnic blanket.

What makes them different is that they are made with flavoursome roast chicken thighs, specially made stuffing plus the chilled jelly from the chicken. It is bound together with mayo and freshened with garden herbs. If you can find good milk bread or Pain de Mie, use these to make the sandwiches. You can also try brioche loaf, but these little chicken sangers are just as good with bakery white sandwich loaf. If you do want to put them in something more rustic try a sourdough baguette or, if you are using sourdough, cut thin, butter thickly to cover holes and serve freshly made. Whatever the case, butter the bread thickly, and don’t forget to check the seasoning of the filling. Perfect with a glass of cool climate bubbles from Macedon Ranges.

Roast Chicken And Stuffing Sandwiches

Recipe Yield: 32 points

Ingredients

• 30ml extra virgin olive
• 2 rashers bacon, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• zest of one lemon
• 2 tablespoons chopped thyme, sage and rosemary
• 2 cups breadcrumbs
• ½ cup white wine
• ½ cup chicken stock
• 1 kg chicken thigh fillets, skin on
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• 250 ml good quality mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons each chopped parsley and chives
• 1 loaf good white sandwich loaf
• Butter
• Salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Make the stuffing by heating the oil in a heavy-based frying pan over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until golden. Add the onions and cook for five minutes. Take off the heat. Add the zest, herbs, and breadcrumbs. Mix through. Place this stuffing on the bottom of a medium baking tray. Pour over the wine and the stock. Place the fillets over the stuffing skin side up—season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil. Roast the chicken for 40 minutes. Remove, allow to cool, cover, and refrigerate. When cold, chop the chicken into medium dice with the jelly that has formed. In a bowl, mix the chicken, stuffing, and jelly with the mayonnaise. Add the chopped herbs and season with salt and pepper if necessary.

There are normally 16 slices of bread in a commercial sandwich loaf. Thickly butter the bread, spread over the mixture, top with bread, and cut into triangles, known to the members of the CWA and church groups as ‘points’.

Makes 32 points.

Recipe by: Richard Cornish, for Daylesford Meat Co.