I’ve never had a quail sandwich. Quixotic.
Living in Canada one is accustomed to missing out on the gastronomic luxuries portrayed on American television. Few of our chains even offer Cornish hen, pheasant or partridge sandwiches with zesty spice or mouthwatering toppings.
This actually violates the rule I established earlier that a good chicken sandwich should be made from thigh meat, and shouldn’t need toppings to make it good. But I did once have an amazingly good smoked chicken breast sandwich at a sadly now closed restaurant in Sacramento. The restaurant was actually featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.
As I recall the chef actually had a smoker out behind the restaurant. So you got a juicy freshly smoked chicken breast, topped with bacon, cheese (Swiss, I think), lettuce, tomato, red onion, house made barbecue sauce, and fresh house made mayo. I don’t recall what kind of bun it was, but it was almost certainly baked fresh that day. In other words there was nothing especially fancy or exotic about any of the ingredients, they were all just extremely high quality. And condiments freshly prepared there at the restaurant, not from a jar.
I think in general a few quality ingredients produce the best results in cooking. Many French restaurants often have roast chicken as their house specialty, and if well prepared with high quality meat is almost impossibly delicious. But I also think a lot of fast food is pretty unnuanced, depending mainly on salt and sugar. There seems little room for spices, though cheap. Hot sauce does not save a chicken sandwich which uses a cafeteria style cutlet as its base, as both McDonald’s and Burger King do.
Dark meat tends to be tastier. And yet is often considerably cheaper both at the grocery store, even dining out. Canada has a chain called Swiss Chalet which mostly serves rotisserie chicken, ribs and various sides. It is popular and dependably mediocre. (The ribs are pretty good.). There is a half buck surcharge to get white meat, and I suspect most people pay it.
I thought Supersize Me was overrated. Plenty of younger people eat bad diets all the time and have essentially normal liver profiles. Cholesterol levels have a strong genetic component. A much more interesting look at fast food comes from Michael Moss’s book Salt, Sugar, Fat. He argues companies give people what they want, which is not a high degree of complexity.
I’m on the club sandwich wagon. The original club was made with chicken meat and only two pieces of bread/toast. The center slice of bread is always awful.
Lightly toasted good rye bread, schmear of Mayo on the chicken side, a heavier swipe on the tomato side
Poached chicken thigh meat (or roast, but the thighs are consumed first every time we roast a chicken)
Plenty of crispy bacon
A few leaves of Boston lettuce, romaine in a pinch
A couple slices of ripe red August tomato, kumato in the off season
Several thin sliced ribbons of red onion
Generous salt and peppering.
assemble and cleave together with the mayonnaise. Eat with lots of napkins, a dish towel, or standing over the sink