Pulled Chicken with White Sauce (Alabama)
About a week ago my husband, Nate, found a post on Reddit that listed a sandwich for every state in the U.S. For absolutely no reason whatsoever, we decided that it was our duty as humans to make and try each and every one of those sandwiches.
I should mention, this is not an official or definitive list. In fact, at a glance, I think North Carolinians are going to be pretty pissed off that their sandwich is listed as having a sweet BBQ sauce when they are well known to be a vinegar-based BBQ sauce state. But regardless of how appropriate the sandwich is for the state in question (or even how “sandwich-y” the listed item is, here’s looking at you, Navajo Taco), we decided it would be at the very least a delicious endeavor. Thus, Sandwich Sundays were instated.
We don’t have any hard or official rules, just that we go through the list alphabetically, follow the general spirit of the sandwich, and eat it. And if things change, whatever. It’s a sandwich, not a guide to making a nuclear weapon.
Last night we started our 50-week endeavor with Alabama. Their sandwich is listed as “Pulled Chicken with White Sauce” and described as “a combination of mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, and a dash of horseradish smothers dry-rubbed chicken.”
OK. Sure. To me, “white sauce” sounds a little “alfredo sauce-y” to me, which unfortunately I don’t love. But I’m also not one to shy away from a food challenge we just invented on the very first week. So, here goes nothing…
For the chicken, I did a rub of salt, garlic, paprika, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and a little brown sugar on some chicken thighs. I didn’t think through the “pulled chicken has to be cooked slow and low” part, so I cooked it in my instant pot, using pickle juice as the liquid. I cooked it for 12 minutes and it was perfect.
For the white sauce, I combined mayonnaise, prepared horseradish, apple cider vinegar, yellow mustard, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
I think ideally we would have used white buns, but, again, I didn’t think this whole thing through, so we used what we had, which were Brioche Buns from Trader Joe’s.
I know. We’re fancy.
To complete the meal, I made refrigerator pickled vegetables and baked beans.
The verdict? Pretty damn delicious. I don’t know if using pickle-juice as your pressure cooker liquid is a tried-and-true thing, but it made for a nice, tangy chicken. And the white sauce was actually quite good! I think I went a little heavy on the horseradish, but that’s ok, my sinuses needed to wake up, anyway.
I’d definitely make this again. It was pretty tasty and not that difficult to make. Of all the sandwiches we’ve made thus far on Sandwich Sundays — which is to say, only this sandwich — this one is the winner.
