Grilled Chicken Sandwich
Updated: June 25, 2024, By Swasthi
This Grilled Chicken Sandwich is the best you can make at home with pantry staples. Chicken breasts are coated with spiced tandoori marinade, grilled until tender and slightly charred. They are dressed in your favorite bread with mint /cilantro yogurt chutney and crunchy onions and tomatoes. This recipe makes a delicious meal for 2.
If you love Indian flavors, you are likely going to adore this grilled chicken sandwich. For convenience you can also marinate, roast the chicken ahead and refrigerate. You simply need to heat it and assemble when you are ready to serve.
Like tandoori chicken, this tandoori grilled chicken sandwich is also popular in a lot of café and eateries in India. A lot of places simply use ketchup or mayonnaise to dress it but for the true and complete India flavors, make it with cilantro chutney or mint chutney.
If you don’t want to try out that part, use your favorite sandwich spread, hot sauce or cream cheese. Here are the ingredients and substitutes to make this sandwich.
Ingredients & Substitutes
Bread: Here I used loaf bread but you can use French baguette, brioche, multigrain bread, sourdough bread or any other you prefer. You can also shred the chicken and wrap it in your tortillas or rotis.
Chicken: You may go with chicken breasts or boneless skinless thighs. This recipe also works with diced chicken or fillets. I use and prefer sliced chicken breasts.
Yogurt: You need thick yogurt like Greek Yogurt or strained yogurt to mix with the ground spices and coat the chicken. Using runny yogurt is going to bring down all the marinade to the pan and your chicken tastes pretty bland this way.
Ground spices: Garam masala, coriander powder, red chili and turmeric flavor your chicken. If you do not have garam masala, you may use curry powder or steak seasoning but the flavors won’t be the same.
Sandwich spread: I use this Mint Chutney or Cilantro Chutney. Feel free to use any other spread of choice.
Fresh veggies: I only use tomatoes, onions and sometimes cucumber slices. You can also substitute them with pickled veggies.
Photo Guide
How to make Grilled Chicken Sandwich (Stepwise Photos)
1. Add Greek yogurt or thick strained yogurt to a bowl. You can find the link to make hung curd here. Add chili powder, black pepper powder, ginger garlic paste (or grated), garam masala, coriander powder, turmeric, chat masala (optional), salt and crushed dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi, omit if you don’t have).
2. Mix everything well. Taste and adjust the salt and spices to your taste and preference.
3. Add chicken breasts, fillets or cubes. Make sure they are not very thick and large. You can also cut them down after grilling. You can marinate and keep aside for 30 mins to overnight in the refrigerator.
5. Butter the bread and toast it. You can also do this in a preheated oven. I made this in the grill pan. You can also make this on a griddle or a regular pan.
6. Set aside your bread slices.
7. Oil the hot pan. Place the chicken and grill it on a medium heat.
8. It only takes 5 to 6 mins for the thin chicken breasts (like in the pics) to cook through. They are done when the internal temperature reaches 165 F or 74 C. Overcooking makes the chicken chewy.
9. Smear mayonnaise or thick green mint chutney over the bread.
10. Place your grilled chicken.
11. Then your favorite veggies.
12. Then some herbs like cilantro if you have. Add more chutney.
13. Cover with another slice.
Serve tandoori grilled chicken sandwich immediately.
Related Recipes
Recipe Card
Grilled Chicken Sandwich
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
To Grill
- 250 grams chicken boneless (any – cubed, fillets or breasts)
- 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt or hung curd
- ¼ teaspoon crushed black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste (or 1 teaspoon each ginger and garlic crushed)
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder (or Cayenne)
- ⅛ teaspoon turmeric (optional)
- ⅓ teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
- ½ teaspoon garam masala (or any other spice powder of choice)
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon dried herbs (or kasuri methi)
For the Sandwich
- 4 bread slices (or any bread of choice)
- 1 to 2 tablespoons butter (adjust to taste)
- ¼ cup Mint chutney (or any sandwich spread of choice)
- 1 onion sliced
- 1 tomato sliced
- 2 sprigs coriander leaves (optional)
Instructions
Preparation
- To a mixing bowl, add Greek yogurt, black pepper, red chili powder, garam masala, coriander powder, ginger garlic, turmeric, dried herbs and salt.
- Mix well and taste test. The marinade has to be thick. Add more salt or ground spices to your taste. Wipe dry the Chicken with few kitchen tissues.
- Marinate the chicken and rest aside for 30 minutes. You can also refrigerate and use up to 48 hours. The longer it rests the tender and flavorful chicken tastes.
How to make Grilled Chicken Sandwich
- Butter the bread slices and toast them until crisp and golden, on a hot grill pan or on a griddle. Remove them and keep aside.
- Spread a teaspoon of oil or butter over the grill pan or griddle. Once hot, Shake off the excess marinade from the chicken and place it over the pan.
- Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on a medium to high heat, depending on the thickness of the chicken. At this stage, using a tong turn the chicken to the other side.
- Grill on both the sides until fully cooked and tender. The internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165F. If the chicken oozes out plenty of moisture, simply grill on the highest heat until it evaporates.
- Remove the chicken to a wooden board or plate.
- Optionally – Spread soft butter on the inner side of the toasted bread. This way your bread doesn't get soggy with all the sandwich spread or chutney.
- Spread your mint chutney or sandwich spread all over the bread. Layer the chicken, followed by slices of onions, tomatoes & coriander leaves or parsley.
- Cover with another buttered and spread smeared bread slice. Press down well so the sandwich binds together.
- Serve grilled chicken sandwich immediately.
Notes
- Use Greek yogurt or Indian Hung curd. Avoid using runny yogurt as we don’t want runny marinade. The prepared marinade has to be thick so it clings to the chicken. Runny marinade will go over the pan while grilling.
- I made it with Mint chutney but you can use any sandwich spread of your choice, even plain mayo with a hot sauce will work well.
- For authentic Indian flavors, you may add some amchur or chaat masala or lemon juice. You can also add some cumin powder. Remember kasuri methi is the key for Indian flavors.
- Use any kind of bread you want or use diced chicken or chicken strips. But fillets are more convenient to grill on the pan.
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes
About Swasthi
I’m Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthi’s Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills. More about me
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Comments
Oof !! Ok so this is a long story so bucle up for a ride ! yesterday we went for a local drive to this other resort in our country.the offered us chicken mayo sandwich and i ddnt really like it ..and it was 4 usd each! Thats another story entirely..so i noticed it was a bit not so nice so i googled today and i have never loved this chicken mayo grilled indian style! Well most of the ingredients were missing but i made do with what i had. Instead of grilling, i airfried it after marinating the chicken since morning. (Its now in the evening). Then i followed e rest of the instructions . Then cut down the bits and put mayo.. well this was og for a chicken mayo recipe but i mixed them up ??it was delicious! I did warn you that u are in for a ride!
Kind regards!!
Thank you! Glad you like it