The spring is finally here so I thought to share one of my “lighter” recipes: The Soy Chicken and Zucchini Sandwich with spring onion garnish. I intentionally used chicken as I wanted to make it as light as possible in terms of both digestion and calorie intake. The whole sandwich shouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes to prepare so it’s an ideal go-to solution for busy days. Anyway, enough rambling – time to see how to make this soy chicken and zucchini sandwich.
Prepping the ingredients
When it comes to preparing the ingredients, there’s not much to do except cut the chicken into cubes and slice the zucchini into circles. You can also cut spring onions and bell peppers but my advice is to do that later, to save up time.
Cooking soy chicken and zucchini
Once chicken breasts and zucchini are prepared, heat up the frying pan, add some olive oil, and start cooking. Make sure to cover the pan with a lid and don’t add soy sauce during the first 5 minutes. This allows the juices to come out, helping the zucchini to soften and cook faster once you add the soy sauce later.
After a couple of minutes, stir the chicken breast and zucchini and then pour in the soy sauce. Keep the pan covered with a lid for a couple more minutes (until zucchini softens). This part can be a bit tricky. Depending on the type of soy sauce you’re using, you’ll need to decide how much to add. Most soy sauces are quite salty, so avoid adding any extra salt to the mixture.
If you plan to add salt or any salty spices, use less soy sauce. In this recipe, I used 3 tablespoons of soy sauce but didn’t add any salt. Once the soy sauce is mixed in, continue stirring the mixture. This part should take around 10-15 minutes, depending on how strong the heat is and how long you keep the pan covered with a lid. Basically, you want to keep the lid on until both, chicken breasts and zucchini soften. You can check this by feeling it out with a spatula.
Once the ingredients soften, remove the lid and wait for the chicken to start to turn golden brown (stirring it occasionally). Once the chicken gets a golden brown color, you can remove it from heat, cover it with a lid, and let it rest. While the mixture is resting, go back to your ingredients and start assembling the sandwich.
Assembling soy chicken and zucchini sandwich
I usually like to make soy chicken and zucchini sandwiches by putting sour cream on both sides of the flatbread. If you are not a fan of sour cream, you can use any milk-based sauce that you like. Oh, and about the flatbread- the reason why I like to use it is because it’s not doughy like some other types of bagels (and if it is, you can pull out the middle part). That means fewer calories and more space for the mixture in your sandwich – without any change to taste! So, cut the flatbread in half, spread sour cream in a thin layer on both sides and put spring onions on one side. On the other side, in this recipe, I put spicy bell peppers but if you are not a fan of spicy dishes, you can use regular ones.
Once the sandwich is ready, put the mixture of soy chicken with zucchini in it and spicy it with some pepper (to taste) before closing it. That’s it, your sandwich is done!
Ideas on seasoning and final thoughts
As you can see, this soy chicken and zucchini sandwich is super easy to make and doesn’t require too many ingredients. The main thing to be careful of is the saltiness and tenderness of the zucchini. The zucchini will absorb all the soy sauce from the pan, so if you add too much, it might become too moist and salty. On the other hand, I’m not using any other spices besides pepper in this recipe, so soy sauce is your main flavor source (along with spicy chili bell peppers if you choose to follow my advice). Just start slowly, mix the soy sauce in, and once you see that it’s nicely saturated, continue with the recipe, and you’ll be fine. If you are looking for some more ideas for quick chicken ideas, check out my chicken chicken quesadilla with spinach. Bon appétit!
Soy Chicken and Zucchini Sandwich
Ingredients
- 7 ounces Chicken breasts (200g)
- 1 Zucchini
- 2 Spring onions
- 1 Green bell pepper
- 2 tbsp Sour cream
- 1 Flatbread
- to taste Pepper
- 2-4 Soy sauce
Instructions
- Cut chicken breast into cubes.
- Cut green zucchini into small squares.
- Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
- Add the cubed chicken breast and diced green zucchini to the pan.
- Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid and add 4 tablespoons of soy sauce to the mixture.
- Mix well and continue cooking and stirring for another 10-15 minutes.
- While the chicken and zucchini mixture is cooking, prepare the spring onions and green chili bell peppers.
- Cut the flatbread in half.
- Spread sour cream on both sides of the flatbread.
- Place spring onions on one side of the flatbread and green chili bell peppers on the other.
- Remove any doughy middle parts from the flatbread (if any)
- Once the chicken and zucchini mixture is done, add it to the flatbread.
- Cut the assembled sandwich in half and serve.
