Sorry for the delay. I spent most of today panicking over a problem with my student teaching placement. Long story short, it starts in 12 days and I received an email last night saying I was missing a class and could not be placed. Everything has been corrected now and I will be getting an art teaching placement in the next day or two, but I was a raging mess all day.

Okay enough drama, let’s get to the food.

Remember THIS awesome bread recipe I reviewed? 

I used it to make these paninis! (That was pretty obvious, huh?)

Like most of you know, I used to work at Panera Bread and I am still obsessed with their food. One of my favorite paninis was the (now discontinued) Chicken Bacon Dijon. I worked at every station at Panera and I usually made all of the paninis each weekend, so I knew what was in it. What’s to stop me from recreating it on my own? 

Ingredients: (Makes one panini)

• 2 Sliced of crusty country white bread (recipe)
• ¼ Cup of precooked and sliced chicken breast
  
• 2 Strip of precooked bacon
• 2 slices of Swiss cheese
  
  
• 3 tablespoons of Whole Grain Dijon Mustard**
• 1 ½ teaspoon of honey
• 1 crumbled strip of bacon (or tablespoon of bacon bits)
  
  **If you don’t have whole grain mustard, which I didn’t, I mixed some spicy brown mustard with yellow mustard which worked out quite well.

1. Start by mixing the mustard (or mustards) with the honey and bacon bits in a small bowl.
2. Spread the mustard mixture thinly onto both slices of bread. (Just like a PB+J)
3. Add your sliced Swiss cheese (American works nicely too) to one side of the bread and top that off with two strips of bacon and your precooked sliced chicken breast.
   
4. Finish by placing your other slice of bread (mustard side down of course) on top and toss it into a George Foreman Grill or panini press. (Panini press alternatives for those of you without a George Foreman Grill.)

I put a kitchen towel on top of my grill and manually pressed down to create a deliciously crisp panini.

The results? Absolutely awesome!

(If you want to recreate Panera’s version exactly stick to the Swiss cheese and whole grain mustard.)

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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