Our easiest, creamiest chicken salad swap

Piled high on some crusty bread, for our money this is the perfect beach sandwich

Welcome back to no-cook July here at Cool Beans! Last weekend, my wife and I headed to the beach for a couple nights to decompress and celebrate our bakery’s first month in brick-and-mortar. I’m not really a beach person, but that’s OK because I’m really just in it for the food. I’m a firm believer that everything tastes better outside, and that’s especially the case for what I consider the ideal surfside lunch: the overstuffed beach sando. 

My mother-in-law is a master of the beach hoagie. She buys the longest bread she can find and piles it high with deli meats, cheese, mayo, and mustard. It’s an extreme version of a Pub Sub, the unofficial state sandwich of Florida. Don’t tell my fellow Floridians, but I never really got the hype. I’m not crazy about cold cuts, and I've had one-too-many sad lettuce, tomato, onion, and banana pepper sandwiches in my day. Not to be high maintenance, but I need more. 

Today I’m sharing my new go-to beach sando. It requires little more than opening cans and mashing ingredients together. It gets yummier as it sits (very important for the beach) and the flavors really get going on days two and three, so it’s make-ahead friendly. Enough talking, let’s go eat a sammich!

A better-as-it-sits beach sando 

Curried chickpeas on Bandidas’ focaccia. Credit: Gabriella Vigoreaux

Of all the things I miss in my quest to cut back on animal proteins, chicken salad definitely ranks in the top 10. It’s cool, creamy, perfect for summer, and, if you buy a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket, effortless. My GOAT variation is spiced with curry powder and mango chutney, and studded with diced apricots and sliced almonds—a preparation dubbed “coronation chicken salad,” as it was created to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s ascending the throne in 1953. 

Heidi Swanson’s chickpea salad sandwich has long been my base for a plant-based take on a cold chicken sammie, but lately I've been giving the chickpeas the coronation treatment. The filling itself is a protein-packed standalone salad, but it’s most importantly the perfect consistency for packing into a sandwich. Chickpeas are the least creamy canned bean, so they stay chunky when you mash them. The liquid garbanzos come in is also a key ingredient in a simple DIY mayo—but you can of course use store-bought smear to make the recipe even speedier. As for the bread, skip the sliced sandwich loaf, which isn’t sturdy enough to stand up to fillings and last the car ride. Baguettes, ciabatta, or focaccia are my chosen carbs here.

Curried Chickpea Salad Sandwich

Yield: 2 sandwiches