Healthy Mini Chicken Sliders {I Smell Smoke! Where’s My Fire?}

As the temperatures jump up like little kids on pogo sticks, people begin dusting off their webers and lugging home big bags of charcoal briquettes. A couple of weekends ago, I honestly thought a forest fire had engulfed my neighbor’s porch because their grill’s flames were so high! (Kind of glad they didn’t offer me a bite of the unsuspecting steak that couldn’t escape…)

 

Maybe the smell of their charcoal smoke sets my heart on fire. Or maybe I’m just jealous that I don’t have my own little hibachi to experiment with. Either way, I wanted to join in the warm weather grilling crazy that infected my entire neighborhood.  

 

But until the FDA or Homeland Security deems it safe for me to play with [controlled] fire, I’m forced to stay inside and sulk amongst my pots and pans. With the tantalizing scent of juicy burgers and toasted buns wafting through my windows, I couldn’t take it any longer. I improvised with the oven and cooked my own mini “burgers”—complete with a red fireman’s hat on top. These little guys are prepared to fight my fires if I ever buy my own grill!

 

 

Mini Red-Hat Chicken Sliders

makes 16-18

These can easily be made in advance. Toast the bread, cook the chicken, and cut all of the ingredients a few hours before, and assemble just before serving.

1 chicken breast

2 slices whole-wheat sandwich bread

2-3 large leaves of iceberg lettuce

9 cherry tomatoes

4-5 tbsp mustard

16-18 toothpicks

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly coat both sides of the chicken breast with nonstick cooking spray, and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 20-25 min, or until no longer pink in the center. Using a doughnut hole cutter or something with a similar diameter, cut out 6 cylinders in the chicken breast. Slice each cylinder into thirds to end up with 18 circles of chicken.
2. Lightly toast the bread until golden brown. Using the doughnut hole cutter, cut out 8-9 circles out of each slice of toast. Slice each round in half to end up with 16-18 circles.
3. Cut 32-36 circles out of the lettuce with the doughnut hole cutter. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half.
4. To assemble, place one lettuce circle on top of one bread circle. Lay a chicken circle on top of the lettuce, another lettuce circle on the chicken, ¼ tsp mustard on the lettuce, and another bread slice over the mustard. Place a cherry tomato half on top, and pin together with a toothpick. (Recap of order: bread, lettuce, chicken, lettuce, bread, tomato, toothpick.)