Grilled Pesto Chicken Sandwiches

The Orem community center workshop was Saturday and I came home knowing something I had not known before: I am building something. Not just a system. Something with size. Thirty-two women in a community center kitchen for two hours. Women who drove from Lindon and Spanish Fork and Cedar Hills. One woman who brought her daughter, who is nineteen and a first-year BYU student living in an apartment for the first time, who wants to learn to feed herself well on a student budget. I gave her extra handouts and a separate resource sheet I put together on the drive over: twenty meals for under one hundred dollars a month, freezer-friendly, single-portion adaptable. I did not have that handout in my files. I made it on my phone at a red light and printed it at the community center's front desk. The accountant improvises occasionally.

The first frost came this week. I woke up Tuesday and the garden was over, all of it, the last tomatoes on the vine gone soft overnight, the zucchini blackened at the edges, the basil departed. Every October this happens and every October I am briefly shocked by it, as if I have not watched summer end in Utah for thirty-five years. I went out and harvested what was salvageable: six tomatoes, two zucchini, a big handful of chives, and the last of the basil, which I blended into pesto and froze in ice cube trays. The rest I put in the compost. The garden is over. The kitchen takes over from here.

Mason got a perfect score on his fourth-grade math test Friday, which his teacher noted in a comment on the paper. He brought it home and put it on the kitchen counter without mentioning it. I asked if he had seen it. He said: yeah. I said: that is great, buddy. He said: math is easy. This is either the most confident thing a nine-year-old has ever said or the beginning of a different kind of problem, and I am watching.

The pesto I blended from that last handful of basil Tuesday morning was already in the freezer by noon — eight cubes, each one a small act of salvage against October. By Thursday I had pulled two of them out, and this is what they became: grilled pesto chicken sandwiches, the kind of fast, satisfying dinner I recommend at workshops when someone asks what to do with a freezer full of pesto cubes and forty-five minutes. It is exactly the right answer.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 25 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to even thickness
1/2 cup basil pesto (homemade from frozen cubes or store-bought)
4 ciabatta rolls or sturdy sandwich buns, split
4 slices fresh mozzarella
1 cup baby arugula or fresh spinach
1 large tomato, sliced (or 8 cherry tomatoes, halved)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Extra pesto for spreading, optional

Instructions

Season the chicken. Brush chicken breasts with olive oil on both sides. Season evenly with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
Grill or sear. Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat. Cook chicken 5–6 minutes per side until cooked through and internal temperature reaches 165°F.
Add pesto and mozzarella. In the last 2 minutes of cooking, spread 1 tablespoon of pesto over each chicken breast and lay a slice of mozzarella on top. Cover loosely with foil or a lid to melt the cheese.
Toast the rolls. While the chicken rests, place rolls cut-side down on the grill or in a dry skillet for 1–2 minutes until lightly golden.
Assemble. Spread additional pesto on the bottom roll if desired. Layer with arugula, the pesto-mozzarella chicken breast, and tomato slices. Close and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Grilled Pesto Chicken Sandwiches — The Last of the Basil, Put to Work