Chicken Sandwich

Out of the many colonial constructs India has stuck on to forever, the nation’s tiffin culture needs a special mention. Be it schoolchildren or office goers, a street vendor extending a quick bite, or a Mumbai Dabbawalla’s Bollywood entrance with a box full of home-cooked specialities, tiffin is an integral part of an Indian common man’s daily joys. One dish that has revolutionised the tiffin culture in the 21st century due to its sheer simplicity, portability, and wholesomeness, is the significantly diversified Chicken Sandwich. Comprising a boneless chicken fillet smeared in a mayonnaise or cheese laden topping of vegetables and enclosed in perfectly soft bread, the Chicken Sandwich packs a powerful blend of flavours and texture.

It is widely believed that the Chicken Sandwich as it is popular today was invented by an Atlanta-based restaurant owner named Truett Cathy in 1946. The dish was created as an alternative to America’s favourite hamburger and was named Chick-fil-A by Cathy. However, it was the popular American food chain by the same name that promoted the dish in the 1960s, and often incorrectly claims to be the actual exponents of the bread-and-chicken delicacy.

Though sandwiches were present in different cuisines for a long part of history, it is often a matter of conjecture as to when chicken was introduced as a filling. In fact, the earliest mentions of a sandwich in the way it is eaten today can be found in the Jewish text Haggadah that narrates how Hillel the Elder, a rabbi and scholar from 1st century BCE Babylon, made sandwiches from Paschal lamb, herbs, and matzoh bread. But, according to many historians, the modern sandwich was invented in 1762 by John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich and an avid gambler, during one of his long attempts at the notorious card table. Legend has it that a hungry Montagu requested something that would be filling as well as easy to hold, leading to the creation of the sandwich, which became widely popular by the time of the Revolutionary War.

It is believed that the sandwich travelled from Britain to America in the early 1800s where iconic Po-Boy and Hoagie variants became substantially commonplace. The closest similarity to modern Chicken Sandwich, however, rests with the Club Sandwich, made with chicken or turkey, that is believed to have been introduced in 1894 at the famous Saratoga Clubhouse in New York.