Recipe: Italian Chicken Panini PLUS Tomato Soup!

Man, it has been a long time since I posted a new recipe. I haven't been making as many new things lately though - random experiments but nothing worth sharing.

Today though, I have a recipe that I came up with completely from scratch and got completely positive reviews from my family. 

Italian Chicken Panini

Ingredients:
(To make 5 paninis)

5 chicken breasts, cut and trimmed

Olive oil
Basil/Italian seasoning

1 loaf of french or italian bread.
Garlic butter (either homemade or bought)

1-2 tomatoes

Spinach

5 thick slices of provolone cheese

Recipe:

Prepare the chicken first as follows: 

Pour some oil into a frying pan and allow pan to heat up.

Place as many chicken breasts as you can in pan and sprinkle with basil and seasonings (I actually was using basil-infused oil so I didn't need extra seasons).

Cook chicken until no longer pink on inside. 

Set aside/keep warm while you cook the rest of the chicken.

Prepare your paninis as follows:

Cut the bread into 1/4 inch slices (or as thick as you want to get 10 slices).

Slice your tomatoes and place 2 slices per sandwich on top of 1 slice of bread.

Next add provolone cheese.

Then chicken, followed by spinach.

Place 2nd slice of bread on top and spread with the garlic butter.

Place butter side down on  your panini press, and spread some butter on the exposed side.

Allow to cook until cheese is melted and bread is golden brown.

Remove from press and serve.

I made a delicious homemade tomato-basil soup to go with these paninis and they tasted so perfect together. I highly recommend trying them both. You can also add other things to your paninis, such as mushrooms, onions, peppers, etc. 

I think the biggest shocker of the evening was when my dad said "This is delicious". He NEVER says that about my cooking, so I think I must have done something right.

What's your favorite type of panini? 

~Lisa

PS: It was really hard to photograph these !