Light Chicken Muffaletta takes a healthier spin with tender chicken, smoked ham, provolone, and the classic olive salad sandwiched between soft and crusty bread. Thank you Milk Means More for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.
Raise your hand if you know what makes up a muffaletta sandwich?
*crickets*
Chances are if you’ve been to the French Quarter in New Orleans, you’ve probably tried one. A muffaletta is an iconic sandwich first crafted by Salvatore Lupo at his Central Grocery Co in New Orleans in 1906. In the interest of honesty, I’ll admit that the closest that I’ve ever been to the French Quarter and a real muffaletta is when I first saw Emeril Legasse make one on the old show Emeril Live.
Sad but true!
Geography hasn’t stopped me from making muffaletta sandwiches at home over the years. They are super delicious and perfect for picnics. Muffalettas get better the longer that they sit in the refrigerator!
A muffaletta starts with a 10-inch diameter crusty Italian bread with a soft center. A fair amount of the interior of the bread is removed to make way for the filling. A muffaletta has layers of mortadella bologna, salami, ham, mozzarella, and provolone cheese. A layer of marinated olive salad spread on both interior halves of the bread is a must.
The olive salad is a briny mix of olives and other vegetables. I always look for olive salad with plenty of olives and capers, and avoid the ones with cauliflower or carrots. That’s just weird. I know that Central Grocery Co doesn’t put cauliflower in their olive salad.
In fact, you can find the very olive salad used by Central Grocery Co on Amazon! Whichever olive salad you choose, make sure that it’s fine enough for easy spreading. Since I have four sons that are suspicious of chunks of color on their sandwiches, I ran my olive salad through a food processor for a few pulses to achieve the right texture.
Sounds delicious, right? I mean, what’s not to love about salty meats paired with salty olives? The calories, that’s what. According to MyFitnessPal, a single serving of the average muffaletta weighs in at a whopping 774 calories!
For as much as I love a really great sandwich, I don’t want to blow nearly half a days worth of calories on one! I think we all know that I save my extra calories for fat slices of pie or soft chocolate chip cookies.
Priorities. I have them.
Another priority is to lighten up what is otherwise a calorie bomb of a sandwich. I also refuse to sacrifice flavor. For as much as I love the salami and spicy bologna in a traditional muffaletta, I just can’t justify the extra fat and calories on a regular basis. Which is why my Light Chicken Muffaletta takes a healthier spin on the classic sandwich. Light Chicken Muffaletta layers chicken, ham, smoked provolone cheese, and plenty of olive salad between soft and crusty ciabatta bread.
With all of the calories saved in the Light Chicken Muffaletta, I can go for that second piece of Vanilla Cream Pudding Pie without much guilt.
Yes, I said second piece of pie.
Just keeping it real, Friends!
Keep it real over lunch with this Light Chicken Muffaletta!
Kirsten/ComfortablyDomestic
Yields 4 to 6 Servings
Light Chicken Muffaletta takes a healthier spin with tender chicken, smoked ham, provolone, and the classic olive salad sandwiched between soft and crusty bread.
1 hr, 30 Prep Time
10 minCook Time
1 hr, 40 Total Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 (1 lb.) round loaf ciabatta bread
- 1 Tbs. light olive oil
- 1 Tbs. unsalted butter
- 12 oz. (4 small) boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- ½ tsp. kosher salt
- ¼ tsp. black pepper
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 C. chopped Creole olive salad (or substitute olive tapenade with capers)
- 4 oz. thinly sliced smoked provolone cheese
- 4 oz. thinly sliced deli ham
- 6 Pickled pepperoncini peppers, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Slice the ciabatta bread horizontally in half. Scoop out enough of the interior to make room for the sandwich filling; set aside while cooking the chicken.
- Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet set over medium heat. Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Once the oil begins to “ripple” in the pan, add the chicken and garlic to the pan. Sear the chicken for 3 to 4 minutes per side or until lightly browned and cooked through. Transfer the chicken to a plate to cool while assembling the sandwich.
- Spread the Creole olive salad evenly on the interior of each half of the ciabatta bread. Thinly slice the cooled chicken. Layer the filling on the bottom half of the bread, as follows: cheese, ham, chicken, ham, then more cheese. Place the top half of the bread on top of the filling. Wrap the sandwich well in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Refrigerate the sandwich for at least an hour, to give the olive salad time to soak into the bread.
- Cut the sandwich into 6 wedges. Garnish each wedge with a pickled pepperoncini pepper. Serve cold.
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