How Mama's Too Makes NYC's Most-Hyped Chicken Cutlet Sandwich — Most-Ordered

Quick Overview

Mama's Too creates its most-ordered Chicken Alka sandwich using four key components: juicy fried chicken cutlets, vodka sauce, pesto, and housemade semolina bread, with the owner emphasizing the perfect balance of robust flavors achieved through meticulous, house-made preparations for each element.

Key Points: The Chicken Alka sandwich features four main components: juicy fried chicken cutlets, vodka sauce, pesto, and housemade semolina bread, creating a "perfect balance of all kind of different robust flavors." The owner, Frank Deondundo, notes that while his food is popular on social media, he prefers customers return because they crave it, stating, "I don't love to call any of our food viral because this is something that people get once and they come back for and they crave." For the chicken batter, the owner prioritizes using "really cold sparkling water that's got a lot of gas and bubbles" instead of a traditional egg wash, and the breading uses dried, grated house bread mixed with specific spices like oregano, parsley, salt, and pepper. The vodka sauce preparation involves roasting shallots and garlic for the sofrito base, boiling peeled tomatoes, and adding heavy cream for texture, notably omitting any alcohol (vodka or cooking wine) as the owner does not believe it contributes flavor. The bread-making process involves mixing flour, water, yeast, and salt (key for strengthening gluten), finishing with olive oil, and shaping loaves with sesame seeds before scoring for proper oven spring. The sandwich assembly order prioritizes layering: first, vodka sauce is liberally ladled over the bread to permeate to the bottom, followed by spread 'bara' (a cold cheese effect), and finally, the pesto is applied generously over the top. The owner describes breading chicken as therapeutic and notes he developed his recipe by taking elements he loved from his mother's cooking and improving upon them.

Context: Frank Deondundo, the proprietor of Mama's Too in the West Village, presents a detailed tutorial on constructing their highly popular and most-ordered sandwich, the Chicken Alka. He positions himself as a "chicken cutlet connoisseur" aiming to perfect the classic sandwich by making every core component—the bread, chicken cutlet, vodka sauce, and pesto—in-house to achieve a superior flavor profile.