Penn Station Teriyaki Chicken Sandwich Recipe

Okay - these looked SO tasty when they were assembled that my husband and I inhaled the sandwiches before I had a chance to take a photo! So, no photo for this blog update.

The source of my inspiration for this super quick dinner is Penn Station. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Penn Station is a quick serve restaurant where you order your sandwich and they make it in front of you on their hibachi-like grill. They saute up all the ingredients, throw on some cheese, toss it in a french bread, and throw it through a broiler to get it all melty and gooey. My favorite sandwich has always been the Chicken Teriyaki Sandwich with mushrooms and onions however recent years it hasn't been living up to my standard. So, I set out on a quest to make it the way I remembered. Plus, there aren't any Penn Stations here in Madison! The recipe below I believe will be super flexible for you. Add as many or as few mushrooms, onions and green peppers as you like. Season with as much (or as little) teriyaki sauce as you want. The French bread I'm using is the take-and-bake kind that you'll find in the bakery. Usually comes two to a loaf, each loaf is about 18 inches or so long, and you heat it up to get it crusty.

Serves about 2, depending on how big of a sandwich you make

Ingredients:

- 1 French bread loaf

- Vegetable oil - enough to coat the bottom of a saute pan

- 1 large chicken breast, pounded thin

- 2 very large mushrooms, thinly sliced

- 1/4 to 1/2 a white onion, thinly sliced

- Half green pepper, thinly sliced

- Teriyaki sauce

- 2-4 Swiss cheese slices

Directions:

1. Cut one loaf of French bread in half to get two 8-inch length loaves. Slice both loaves lengthwise, but not all the way through
   
2. Turn oven to 300 degrees, put sliced loaves in the oven while it heats up. Once the bread gets slightly crusty, turn off the heat, but leave the bread in the oven to keep warm
   
3. Pound your chicken breast as thin as you an get it and slice all your veggies
   
4. Heat vegetable oil in pan on med-high heat. Put the chicken breast in the pan and begin to saute. As the chicken sautees, use two stiff spatulas to shred the chicken in the pan. (This is how they do it in the restaurant!)
5. Add in the onions, mushrooms, green peppers and teriyaki sauce
   
6. Saute until teriyaki has cooked down, chicken is cooked, and veggies are as soft as you want
   
7. Pre-heat broiler
   
8. Place the swiss cheese slices in the bread, fill with the chicken teriyaki mix
   
9. Place sandwiches under the broiler to melt the cheese
   

There ya go!

Now, if you wanted to make this a true Penn Station recipe, you'll need to fry up a batch of freshly sliced french fries...that is also one of the BEST things about Penn Station. I fear that these won't be properly recreated any time soon since I don't have a deep fryer or the willingness to have that much oil on hand. At least I've satisfied the Chicken Teriyaki sandiwch craving!