These easy shredded chicken sandwiches are absolutely delicious, featuring tender shredded chicken, tangy and creamy homemade lime mayo, and a kick from pickled jalapeños. You’ll love how quickly they come together!
I’m always happy when we have leftover chicken in the house because my mind usually turns to these shredded chicken sandwiches. We used to live near an incredible Vietnamese restaurant that sold the most delicious bánh mì sandwiches. These shredded chicken sandwiches are loosely inspired by that restaurant.
I love the baguette, with its crisp crust and soft interior. It’s perfect for filling with flavorful shredded chicken, veggies, fresh cilantro, and that bright lime mayo. You can stop there, but I like these a little spicy, so we pile on pickled jalapeños or Adam’s favorite candied jalapeños for a spicy bite.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken: Shredded chicken is ideal for this sandwich recipe. You can shred leftover roasted chicken or rotisserie chicken from the store. Or, try making it from scratch. I love this stovetop shredded chicken recipe and this slow cooker shredded chicken.
- Baguette: You can use any variety of bread, but I love baguettes for this sandwich. Look for one that’s crisp on the outside but not too hard inside. You want it a little squishy, meaning it will be easy to take a bite.
- Veggies: I keep my sandwich simple with lettuce and tomato, but to really lean into the bánh mì idea, you can add shredded carrots or some pickled daikon and carrots.
- Lime Mayo: I love adding extra flavor to mayo, so for this one, we’ll stir some lime zest and juice into the mayonnaise and then season with salt. If you are up for it, you can start with homemade mayo!
- Jalapeños: These add a spicy layer to our sandwich. If you want a sweet and spicy variation, try cowboy candy (also called candied jalapeños) instead of traditional pickled jalapeños.
Spicy Shredded Chicken Sandwiches
- PREP
- TOTAL
The popular Vietnamese sandwich, the bánh mì, loosely inspires these spicy shredded chicken sandwiches! We love starting with a baguette that’s nice and soft inside. Before building your sandwich, remove a little bread to fit more chicken! For the chicken, use leftovers or rotisserie chicken. If you want to make shredded chicken for these sandwiches, I love this easy shredded chicken recipe.
You Will Need
1 ½ cups shredded chicken, warmed, see how to make shredded chicken
1/2 cup mayonnaise, see homemade mayonnaise
1 lime
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
1 baguette
4 lettuce leaves
4 slices tomato
Handful of cilantro leaves
1/4 cup pickled jalapeño slices or try candied jalapeños
Directions
1Make lime mayo: Stir 1/2 cup of mayonnaise with the zest and juice of one lime. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
2Make sandwiches: Slice the baguette in half to make two smaller baguettes, then slit them lengthwise. Use your fingers to hollow out the insides, creating a bit more room for the chicken.
3Generously spread the inside of the bread with the lime mayonnaise. Then, layer the lettuce, tomato, shredded chicken, pickled jalapeños, and cilantro. Close the sandwiches, then cut them in half for easy eating.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
Found this recipe to use some left over shredded chicken we had. I used whole wheat bread instead and left out the cilantro. It tasted amazing and was super easy to prepare. This would be great for quick meals and picnic outings!
Just had this today for the first time. My only change was to add Sriracha, as my husband and I love our food spicy. The flavours were so fresh and delicious. I will definitely make this again, and again!
Recipes look so Good!
All of the flavors pre perfectly balanced! This sandwich is entering my normal rotation. Made It for dinner and packed leftovers for my husbands lunch. Held up fine in the fridge overnight and was not soggy (we did use a tougher baguette, closer to a ciabatta). Every recipe I have tried from your site has been perfect!!
Hi!I’m glad you enjoying spring,I’m in S.A.it’s Autumn,love ur recipes,infact I have always made shredded chicken with mayo.for my kids wen growing up.but with lemon zest/juice that’s interesting,and what was interesting was the wings to grill them first then add the sauce.gr8.I also have something that I tried and tasted delicious dip:no specific measures plain greek yogurt,can add cream cheese,fresh basil parsley mint,put in blender,add to yogurt,pinch salt n pepper some honey.fry prawns and dip..amazing.enjoy
Oh that looks so delicious! What a beautiful blog! 🙂
Miri Leigh – thanks! We could go for a picnic right about now!
Ben – you are too kind!
This looks like a wonderful sandwich- perfect for a picnic or tasty lunch!
What’s even better with the Lime Mayonnaise is if you also run a whole raw jalapeño through your grater / microplane for a little smoky kick!
I like to use Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie brand) for it.
Beautiful photos! Definitely makes me want to try the sandwich. I so need to get my good camera out and play with it.
Mission accomplished is right! Not only are all of these photos amazing but the sandwich looks pretty darn tasty as well. I really love how the color green popped in all of these.
Mission accomplished…those are definitely cool photos. Looking at them I can almost trick myself into believing it’s warm and sunny outside.
Wendi – the funny thing is, we took those photos last Friday when it was oddly warm outside! We sure do wish that weather would come back, with a sandwich or two!