Three Alarm Grilled Chicken Sandwich

This post is sponsored by Stubb’s Bar-B-Q. Check out their full line of sauces including the spicy Bar-B-Q sauce I used for this extreme chicken sandwich. Be sure to follow them on Facebook and Instagram for more great recipes!

Memorial Day (May 28^th) is one of my favorite days of the year to relax outside with friends and family and grill something delicious. I remember a time when I didn’t have kids and could actually relax, but at least I can still cook good food! The nice thing about this chicken sandwich is you can actually vary the spiciness to your liking. Three alarm can easily become two alarm!

For me though, I have a nearly unlimited tolerance for spicy food. I actually have to be careful with it when I’m developing recipes because I find if I just make what I would like, it’s much too spicy for most people. So, I pump the brakes almost always on my spicy recipes.

Unless, of course, someone challenges me to make something truly spicy and extreme. Stubb’s Bar-B-Q contacted me recently and challenged me to come up with a truly extreme chicken sandwich using their Spicy BBQ sauce.

The result is this Three Alarm Grilled Chicken Sandwich and it should seriously come with a warning if you actually use all three toppings.

If you’re looking for a quick and delicious side dish to serve this Memorial Day with this chicken sandwich, try this Stubb’s Macaroni Salad!

Raise your hand if you like to sweat and love spicy food! Think you could handle this EXTREME chicken sandwich?

Three Alarm Grilled Chicken Sandwich

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5 from 1 vote

Author: Nick Evans

Servings: 4 Sandwiches

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

The most massive and extreme grilled chicken sandwich you’ll see this summer! Seasoned chicken topped with candied bacon and crispy spicy pepper chips. This sandwich packs some FIRE.

Ingredients 

• 1 ½ pounds chicken breasts, sliced into 8 (approx. 3-oz) pieces
• 4 potato buns, grilled
• 1 ripe avocado, sliced
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon chili powder
• 4 medium jalapenos, halved
• Stubbs Spicy Bar-B-Q Sauce, for grilling and topping
• Oil, for grilling

Spicy Bacon:

• 8 slices bacon, not thick cut
• ¼ cup Stubbs Spicy Bar-B-Q Sauce

Crispy Pepper Chip Topper:

• ½ white onion, sliced thin
• 4 Serrano peppers, sliced thin
• 2 habanero peppers, sliced thin
• 1 cup cornstarch
• ⅔ cup lager beer
• 2 cups vegetable oil for frying
• Kosher salt for seasoning

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Instructions

For Bacon:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. and line a baking sheet with foil. Lay out bacon strips and bake for 15 minutes. Remove bacon and brush liberally with Stubbs Spicy Bar-B-Q sauce. Return to oven and bake for another 7-10 minutes. Let bacon cool.

For Crispy Topper:

• Slice onions and peppers very thinly. Leave seeds in peppers. Be sure to wear gloves or wash your hands very well after slicing peppers. They are very spicy and can burn your eyes.
• Whisk together cornstarch and beer in a separate bowl and add onions and peppers. Coat well in the corn starch topping.
• Preheat oil in a shallow pot or deep cast iron skillet for frying. You don’t need a ton of oil, a few cups will work. Heat to 350 degrees F. Add pepper mix in small batches and fry until light golden brown. You know they are done when they stop sizzling.
• Remove fried topper from the oil and drain on a paper towel. Season immediately with kosher salt. Repeat until all your peppers are fried.
• NOTE: After you fry this stuff in the oil, the oil will actually be spicy. Don’t reuse it unless you want the following things to be spicy as well!

To Make Sandwiches:

• Slice chicken breasts into thin fillets about 3 ounces each. These will grill quickly and stack easily on a sandwich. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder.
• Grill the chicken (and halved jalapenos) over medium-high heat for about four minutes per side. When you flip the chicken, add a liberally brushing of Stubbs Spicy BBQ sauce to the chicken.
• Assemble the sandwiches by adding ripe avocado to a bottom bun (grilled). Top with two pieces of the spicy BBQ chicken, spicy bacon, grilled jalapenos (remove seeds optional), and a handful of the crispy pepper topper. Serve while warm with lots of cold drinks!

Nutrition

Serving: 1sandwich | Calories: 773kcal | Carbohydrates: 70g | Protein: 52g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 14g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 138mg | Sodium: 1158mg | Potassium: 1115mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 514IU | Vitamin C: 35mg | Calcium: 185mg | Iron: 4mg

Course: Main Dishes, Sandwiches

Cuisine: American

Three Alarm Spicy Grilled Chicken Sandwich

Let’s walk through the alarms quickly on this bad boy:

Alarm One: Stubbs Spicy Bar-B-Q sauce which is on the sandwich and also baked on the crispy bacon topper on the sandwich. I actually don’t find their sauce to be crazy spicy, but it packs a nice balanced punch.

Stubb’s is definitely my go-to store-bought Bar-B-Q sauce and I hadn’t had their spicy version before. I love that it’s flexible enough to be used in various ways on a sandwich like this. It caramelizes a bit on the bacon and goes really well on any grilled sandwich. The sauce has habanero peppers in it which give it some nice fruity pepper flavor, but it isn’t overly spicy. Even my three year old tried it!

One of the toppers on this sandwich is bacon that I baked and then brushed with the spicy Bar-B-Q sauce. Honestly, I made a double batch of this bacon and I’m glad I did because I ate a few pieces before they even made it to a sandwich!

Alarm Two: This is the above and beyond spicy element that should come with a disclaimer: Crispy Pepper Chips. I sliced up serrano peppers and habanero peppers and lightly fried them with onions strings for a crispy topper to the sandwich! I actually tried one version that didn’t have the onions, but it was stupid spicy. Like, actually inedible. So the onions help tone down the spice JUST enough. But trust me, it still packs a serious punch.

Toss the slivered veggies with cornstarch and beer and then they go in the fry oil in small batches. You don’t need much for a sandwich topper like this and you’ll probably have some leftover for snacking.

I just love how crispy these get.

One note: The oil you fry these in will now be spicy oil. Don’t fry your kid’s chicken nuggets in the same oil. Seriously.

See these little Serrano crispy chips? I love these so much. They might just be the perfect sandwich topper.

Alarm Three: Grilled Jalapeño peppers. When I toss my seasoned chicken on the grill I also grilled halved jalapeños on the grill. These go right on the sandwich for a fresh grilled peppery punch.

Building this big sandwich is a thing of beauty. A good potato bun helps, then a layer of avocado which adds some creaminess and balances the heat.

I like to make my chicken patties thin so I can stack two on a sandwich. Then the bacon and grilled peppers!

Top with a handful of the crispy peppers and you’re in business.

This Three Alarm Spicy Grilled Chicken Sandwich is a completely extreme sandwich. Feel free to leave out a layer or two if you’re worried about heat levels (or work levels) but if you want to go big, this sucker pays really delicious dividends.

I mean… just look at this bite. It’s as good as it looks.