Over the summer, I was introduced to Ike’s Place, a chain of sandwich shops in the Bay Area. It was there that I discovered the Jaymee Sirewich, or what I like to call “the greatest sandwich of all time.” Seriously, if you’re in the Bay Area, you need to try it. It’s amazing.
Anyways, I’m only in the Bay Area for a small part of the year – most of the time, I’m down in Los Angeles for school. Which means no Ike’s Place, and no Sirewich. Because of this, I’ve decided to make a cheap and easy version of the Sirewich from things that I found in my local South Central Ralph’s.
First are the ingredients. I used whole wheat bread because it’s what I already had, but feel free to substitute it with a nicer sandwich roll or sourdough. Same with the mozzarella - I only had mozzarella, but the real sandwich calls for Pepper Jack.
What you can’t compromise on are the main innards of the sandwich. Get some kind of breaded chicken patties – I used Banquet’s, because they were on sale. Get ranch dressing, and get YELLOW barbecue sauce. That’s important – the Sirewich uses a mustard-based barbecue sauce rather than the standard tomato-based one, which makes it harder to find. I’ve been able to find yellow barbecue sauce at most chain grocery stores (Safeway, Albertson’s, Ralph’s, and Vons), but sometimes it’s labeled as Carolina barbecue sauce, so look out for that.
First, you need to microwave the chicken patty. Yes, microwave. This is a quick and easy recipe that should take maybe 5 minutes to do, so we’re microwaving things.
After you microwave the patty, cut it into slices like you see above. This makes the sandwich easier to cut and spreads out the chicken over a larger area on the bread.
Put it on the bread. As you can see, the pieces make it so that no matter where you bite, you will get chicken.
Add the cheese on top of the chicken. Also pour a bit of barbecue sauce and ranch dressing on the other slice of bread. Be sure to be about even with the portions of both.
Mix together the ranch and barbecue sauce and spread over that piece of bread.
Put together, cut, and voila! A College Sirewich!
Obviously, you can add lettuce, spinach, tomatos, or (my personal favorite) avocado to the sandwich to add some veggies. And recently, I’ve found that the addition of sriracha to the ranch dressing/yellow barbecue sauce mixture gives the sandwich an extra kick that makes it even more college-y.
Hope you enjoyed this!
