Comfort Food: the Quebec-style Hot Chicken Sandwich

What won’t those lovable Canadian lugs do with gravy? Of course poutine, that Canadian cousin to other calorie-packed drunken foods like chili-cheese fries or a garbage plate, is quite well known these days. Less well known–though known to me now and soon to be known to you–is the simple and comforting hot chicken sandwich.

What is a hot chicken sandwich? It’s pretty simple–shredded chicken on buttered white bread with gravy and green peas. I didn’t think much of it before trying it. Sandwiches should be something you can pick up and eat with your hands, that’s the common wisdom, and despite having really enjoyed some open-faced sandwiches or those that are just so loaded with ingredients that a knife and fork is simply the best strategy, we at the Tribunal still tend to side-eye something that is called a sandwich yet defies eating out-of-hand as an option.

The sandwich also defies my attempts at finding its origin–or perhaps my google fu is rusty–but it appears to be a common menu item at down-home style family restaurants or diners in Eastern Canada, and in homes as well.

The sandwich starts with some shredded cooked chicken. Many recipes call for leftovers, or for a rotisserie chicken, but if you really want your gravy to shine you could do what I did–simmer a whole chicken in a quart of chicken stock and enough extra water to cover, along with ingredients like cracked black pepper, bay leaf, onion, carrot, and celery, until the meat is pulling away from the bones, then remove the chicken, cool it and shred it, reserving the liquid for making the gravy and peas.

shredded poached chicken

For the gravy, I used this recipe, using my poaching liquid instead of the beef broth (and yes, I used the ketchup called for in the recipe, though I didn’t feel great about it). This resulted in a thick and savory sauce, well more than I needed for these sandwiches (though I did find a use for the remainder) as well as some additional poaching liquid that would be used to enhance the peas.

For the peas, I liked the idea here of sauteeing some garlic in some butter, using that to heat the drained peas, then finishing them with some black pepper and a bit of the remaining poaching liquid.

And then it was time to put together the sandwich. I started with a piece of buttered white bread. I used bread from a bakery–nothing fancy, just a simple white bread–but I think you could go with something much simpler here. You don’t need to toast it, just butter a piece of bread and put it on your plate.

buttered white bread

Cover the bread with a good thick layer of your poached shredded chicken

add chicken

Drizzle a little gravy over the chicken

add gravy

Put the top slice of buttered bread on and ladle some more gravy on top–the gravy should cover the sandwich and spread out onto your plate–then scatter a good-sized spoonful of peas over the sandwich.

Quebec-style hot chicken sandwich

It’s amazing the associations one can make, but the first thing I thought of eating this sandwich was a chicken pot pie. The bread doesn’t quite have that crisp pie crust texture, and the peas alone are no substitute for the full range of vegetables you get in a real pot pie, but the effect is similar. It’s chicken, carbs, and gravy. It’s simple, not challenging, yet immensely satisfying. My 9 year old son’s friend was visiting the day I made these, and did not like the look of this strange lunch I was serving. (Get used to it if you’re going to be hanging out with my kid!) But after taking one bite, he was all in.

Quebec-style hot chicken sandwich

And even after making 5 of these sandwiches, I still had a ton of chicken, gravy, and peas left over. What was I to do but simmer some vegetables in the remaining braising liquid, mix in the remaining chicken, peas, and gravy, and further scratch the itch this sandwich had already been addressing?

pot pie made from leftovers

I’ll be honest–the pot pie was amazing, and far more satisfying than the sandwich. But I loved the Hot Chicken nonetheless. It’s far easier to make then a pot pie and damn near as good. Though I didn’t grow up eating them, it’s everything that comfort food should be: familiar, carb-laden, and above all delicious!

Jim Behymer

I like sandwiches.

I like a lot of other things too but sandwiches are pretty great