Trader Joe’s Focaccia Sandwich with Pesto Chicken Salad

Whether you’re here due to the viral social media posts about Trader Joe’s focaccia sandwiches or just looking for a high protein pesto chicken salad, I’m happy to have you. I try not to chase trends with my recipes, but I absolutely love focaccia. I’ve also been meaning to make a cottage cheese pesto chicken salad for quite some time.

So here we are. You can get every ingredient from Trader Joe’s and have these chicken salad sandwiches prepped in no time at all. The recipe makes four sandwiches from one loaf of focaccia, each with 34g of protein, 57g of carbs, 18g of fat, and 500 calories.

Your Trader Joe’s Shopping List and Substitutes

Pictured below, you’ll see everything you need to make the pesto chicken salad and sandwiches. It’s also worth mentioning, you can find similar products outside of Trader Joe’s. Swap the pesto for a similar jar of pesto, any focaccia, and the cooked chicken for rotisserie chicken (I have tons of protein packed rotisserie chicken recipes by the way).

I first tested this recipe with a blend of chopped romaine, kale, and shaved brussels sprouts. Then I realized you can buy a bag of TJ’s cruciferous crunch to make life even easier.

The dijon mustard, lemon juice, black pepper, and garlic are here to add a caesar-dressing-adjacent flavor profile that I think works nicely with the pesto. If you have calories to spare and want to just add caesar dressing to save some ingredients, go for it. My chicken caesar wraps use a low calorie yogurt caesar dressing from Bolthouse Farms that might be a good option.

Coincidentally, you’ll have the perfect amount of pesto left over to make my pesto chicken pasta. Just add some pasta and lightly breaded chicken nuggets or some type of crunchy chicken to your shopping list.

Making the Pesto Chicken Salad and Assembling the Sandwiches

Blend the cottage cheese, pesto, dijon mustard, and lemon juice together before adding it to a bowl with the chopped cruciferous crunch and chicken. I recommend chopping the cruciferous crunch even more to make a super homogenous chicken salad.

While you can make the chicken salad and assemble the sandwiches all at once (like you see pictured above), I’d actually recommend making the chicken salad ahead of time if possible. That way all the flavors have a chance to get to know one another and the crunchy veggies will slightly soften.

Either way, assembling the focaccia sandwiches is easy. Just slice it in half, add a little olive oil spray, and bake it for 10-12 minutes at 400ºF. You can also toast it in a pan if you have one large enough.

Add the chicken salad and slice the focaccia into four corners. You’re done!

I’ve played around with different add-ins like pickled onions and even Trader Joe’s fried scallions for extra crunch. But I’ll leave that creative direction up to you.

Let me know if you have any questions about making these sandwiches, finding ingredient alternatives beyond Trader Joe’s, or anything else in the comments below. Otherwise, go forth and become the sandwich artist you were always meant to be.

Until we break bread again. – Mason