One of the world’s most ordered dishes by travellers, at just about any hour of the day or night, is the always satisfying club sandwich.

The traditional version of the club sandwich is a multi-layered fancy sandwich with alternating triangles of bread, chicken or turkey, boiled egg, tomato, bacon, lettuce, held together by a type of coctail-sword.

Far more elegant than other fast foods, the club sandwich has a fine history. It is said to be the invention of the chef of a gentlemen’s gambling club in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1894. It has been found on the dining menu of the steamship Rhode Island on 17 October 1899, and made it to Europe in the 1920s along with the then fashion for everything American: cruise liners, jazz and cocktail bars.

Recipe

   4 per           20 min

Ingredients:

  • 12 slices white bread
  • 8 romaine lettuce leaves
  • 175g mayonnaise
  • 16 sun-dried tomatoes
  • 2 avocados
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 16 slices crispy cooked streaky bacon
  • 450g sliced roasted chicken
  • 16 frill picks, or plastic cocktail swords

Preparation:

Toast or grill the bread and fry the bacon until crisp. Cut the lettuce leaves in half crosswise and form into 8 neat stacks.

Arrange 3 bread slices in a row. Spread 1 tbsp mayonnaise over 1 side of each bread slice. Place a lettuce stack on top of the first bread slice, top with 2 sun-dried tomatoes, and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Place 2 slices bacon over the tomatoes and top with 1/8 of the chicken. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. Place some slices of avocado on the chicken. Repeat with the second bread slice. Carefully place the second layered bread slice on top of the first layered bread, avocado side-up. Cover with the third bread slice, mayonnaise side-down.

Pin the sandwich’s layers together by piercing them with 4 frill picks or cocktail swords through the top bread slice, in 4 places in a diamond-like pattern, all the way to the bottom bread slice. Repeat the entire process with the remaining ingredients to form 3 more sandwiches.

Using a serrated knife cut each sandwich, diagonally, into 4 triangular pieces (each piece should be secured in the center with a pick or sword). Can be served with potato crisps or french fries.