2 slices of French sourdough bread (Costco Business Center sells a 2-pack of sourdough bread loaves for just $7. Each slice is square, not oval, so each slice is the same size). You can also try soft Ciabatta bread, available at both Costco and Costco Business Center.
2 eggs
2 slices of turkey deli meat
2 slices of cheddar cheese
Guacamole
Avocado oil spray
Salt and pepper
Mayonnaise
Directions
Spray a frying pan with avocado oil, add the eggs, and fry them to your desired doneness, optionally adding salt and pepper or other spices.
Spread mayonnaise on one side of each sourdough bread slice. This side will be the outside.
Spread guacamole on the other side of one slice of bread
Add the eggs on top of the guacamole
Add the cheese slices on top of the eggs
Add the turkey slices on top of the cheese
Add the other bread slice on top of the turkey slices (mayo side up)
Place the sandwich in an air fryer and air fry at 390 degrees for 5 minutes
The other day, I went to El Pollo Loco and had their chicken quesadillas with avocado salsa verde. It was delicious, so I sought out how to make a healthy version at home using my air fryer. Though my version doesn’t taste as good as El Pollo Loco’s, it’s healthier, still tastes pretty good, and is much cheaper. For the salsa, I found one that tastes almost the same as El Pollo Loco’s. Here’s my recipe.
Chicken sandwiches are very common at fast-food restaurants. They taste good, but you have to drive there, wait in line, and pay between $4 to $6 for just one sandwich. In this post, I share a better chicken sandwich that only takes literally 3 minutes to make at home. First, let’s take a look at some popular fast-food chicken sandwiches.
KFC’s Chicken Sandwich – $3.99
Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich – $5.99
McDonald’s McChicken – ~$4
McDonald’s McCrispy – ~$5
Burger King’s Royal Crispy Chicken – $8
Chick-fil-A® Chicken Sandwich – $6.59
Note: all of the sandwiches above look good in the marketing pictures, but when you get them, they don’t always look that great.
Now, here’s my recipe for a better and healthier chicken sandwich that only takes 3 minutes to make at home.
Panini sandwiches are usually made with a panini press, but I’ve found that using an air fryer is easier and better. Here’s how to make a turkey and cheese panini sandwich in an air fryer.
Ingredients
2 slices of turkey
2 slices of mozzarella cheese
2 slices of bread (sourdough, etc)
mayo
Instructions
Preheat the air fryer to 400 F
Spread mayo on one side of each slice of bread
Assemble the sandwich as follows
Bread slice (mayo on outside)
Turkey slice
Cheese slices
Turkey slice
Bread slice (mayo on outside)
When the air fryer is preheated, set the time to 10 minutes and place the sandwich inside
After 5 minutes, flip the sandwich
Increase or decrease the frying time to suit
Here are some ingredient options for making different panini sandwiches. The ingredients are listed in the order of the sandwich layers.
Meatball and cheese panini
mayo
bread slice
meatballs cut in half
pizza sauce
mozzarella cheese slices
bread slices
mayo
Chicken and cheese panini
mayo
bread slice
grilled chicken strips or sliced lightly breaded chicken breast
pesto sauce
roasted tomato
mozzarella cheese slices
bread
mayo
Turkey and cheese panini
mayo
bread slice
turkey slice
cheese slices
tomato slices
turkey slice
bread
mayo
BBQ chicken and cheese panini
mayo
bread slice
cheese slice
shredded chicken
bbq sauce
bread
mayo
Kebab and cheese panini
mayo
bread slice
cheese slice
kebabs
tzatziki sauce
tomato
bread
mayo
Beef brisket and cheese panini
mayo
bread slice
cheese slice
beef brisket
bread
mayo
Corned beef and cheese panini
mayo
bread slice
cheese slice
corned beef
bread
mayo
Following are different types of pre-cooked meat you can put in your panini and their prices.
$13 / lb at Costco$10 / lb at Costco$8.48 / lb at Costco$13 / lb at Costco$14 / lb at Costco$6 / lb at Costco$3.32 / lb at Costco$12 / lb at Costco$5.60 / lb
Note: if you cook the rice wrong, it will come out mushy. Carefully follow the rice-cooking instructions if you want the rice to come out good.
Place the rice in a fine-mesh sieve or colander and rinse under cool running water. Gently stir the rice as you rinse. Keep rinsing until the water runs clear. This is critical for removing excess surface starch, which is the primary cause of gummy or mushy rice.
Put the rice in a deep pan.
Add the water to the pan and lay the rice out evenly. Note that adding too much water will make the rice mushy.
Cook on medium until the water boils.
Cover the pan with a lid, reduce the heat to low, and simmer the rice for 15 minutes or until all the water is gone.
Turn off the heat and let the rice rest for 10 minutes with the lid still on.
After resting, gently fluff the rice with a fork to break up any clumps and create individual, separate grains. Avoid stirring the rice while it’s very hot and moist, as this can cause it to break apart and become mushy.
Add chopped green onion, cilantro, and the seasoning paste to the rice and mix.
Cook 2 eggs (I prefer sunny side up)
Transfer the rice to a plate, put the eggs on top, and garnish with some chopped cilantro.
Add slices of cucumber and tomato to the plate.
Enjoy
The rice while cookingThe cooked rice (notice it’s not mushy)The rice after adding green onion and the seasoning paste
When I was a kid, there were 2 foods I ate a lot of
Pizza
Greek Gyro (pronounced “yee-ro”) Sandwiches
Pizza is available everywhere, but there aren’t many places that sell Greek Gyros in the San Francisco Bay Area. One place that has it is Nick the Greek, but at $12.50 for a small sandwich, it feels overpriced. So, I tried to make my own without the hassle of cooking the meat and making the Greek Tzatziki sauce. I couldn’t find precooked doner kebab (“doner” is Turkish for “rotating”) meat, like a rotisserie, but I did find kebabs at Costco, which take a minute to heat up in the microwave, come out juicy, and taste delicious. For the Tzatziki sauce, I bought Tzatziki salad dressing from Target. It tastes good, but it’s thick, so getting it out of the bottle required using a knife.
French Fries (I bought frozen ones from Costco and cooked them in an air fryer)
Tomato
Lettuce (I got chopped and pre-washed lettuce for convenience)
Instructions
Cut 10% of the pita bread so you can open it like a pocket
Toast the pita bread in a toaster
Heat the beef kebabs in a microwave for 1 minute
Smear the Tzatziki sauce on both inner sides of the pita bread
Insert the kebabs in the pita bread
Add some lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and french fries in the pita bread
Enjoy
UPDATE
Stuffing a pita bread such that the ingredients are distributed uniformly so that you can taste each ingredient with each bite is a bit difficult to do. Instead of using a pita bread, you can use Lavash bread, shown below. It’s much easier to place the ingredients on Lavash bread. First, smear the Tzatziki sauce all over one side of the bread.
Then, place the ingredients as shown below (I added some extra Tzatziki sauce on the lettuce).
Then, roll the lavash and place it in a panini press.