Dinner Tonight: Wayne's Inheritance

There are many great restaurants in Ann Arbor, Mich., but my favorite is Zingerman's Deli. It's quite possibly the greatest place on earth for someone who likes to eat really good food. It's also home to what is probably my favorite sandwich ever, Wayne's Inheritance. Comprised of roasted chicken, cucumber slices, white cheddar and Ranch dressing, it's a pretty simple sandwich to replicate at home, although it never really occurred to me to try until I started cooking for Mr. Fritz. Now I serve it every few weeks. Zingerman's is all about the ingredients - the best of everything. My version comes reasonably close to the original, though.

I use organic chicken breasts which I cut into strips and saute over medium high heat until they're cooked through. I heat up two demi-baguettes (I think I've written about these before - this great crusty bread that's sold frozen and then finished off at home with 10 minutes in the oven), split them open and spread ranch dressing on one side each one and lay out a slice of Vermont white cheddar on the other side of each baguette. I top the cheese with chicken and the chicken with slices of cucumber, then close each sandwich up, cut them in half and serve them warm. The contrast of the hot bread and warm chicken, the melted cheese and the cold dressing and cucumber is sublime. It's the sort of thing I'd never come up with on my own, but in this context, all of the ingredients are perfectly wedded to each other. Yum!