Hot Chicken Sandwich with Hand Cut Fries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (use convection if available). Rinse the chicken and dry it well. Liberally salt and pepper both sides of the chicken and arrange on the pan.

Cook the chicken to temperature of 165 degrees F- approximately 30 minutes

Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to cool a bit, then remove the skin and the meat from the bones. (Discard the roasted skin or reserve for later use. The roasted bones can also be reserved in a zipper bag and frozen for use in stock.)

Cook the peas in the microwave or in boiling water.

To assemble the sandwich divide the warm chicken in 4 and place each portion on a slice of bread. Close the sandwich and pour the sauce over the top and garnish with peas on top.

Fries Cut the Potatoes into 1/4 inch julienne using a mandolin, or by hand with a knife Soak for 60 minutes to 24 hours in water in the refrigerator When you are ready to cook the fries dry them very well on paper or kitchen towels

The potatoes can then be deep fried in peanut oil set to 350 degrees or baked in a well-greased sheet pan. If baking use a light flavored oil like canola or peanut.

In this case I reserved the baking pan from the chicken thighs. A good amount of fat had accumulated and with the pan already preheated I was able to put the fries on directly.

Bake at 400 degrees using convection if you have it. After five minutes gently shake the tray so make sure that the fries aren’t sticking.

The same baking technique is used with oil as with the rendered chicken fat. Preheating the pan and using well dried potatoes goes a long way to avoiding sticking.

Bake, checking every 5 minutes and making sure that the fries are baking evenly.

Cook until desired doneness – crispy or limp.

Serve immediately with sauce and hot chicken sandwich.