It’s Basically a Chicken Pot Pie on a Bun and It’s Amazing

According to one story, the sloppy Joe originated in Iowa, a descendant of the state’s loose meat sandwich. True or not, the Joe went mainstream decades ago, while its poultry counterpart is still more or less unique to another part of the Midwest.

The Ohio shredded chicken sandwich, also called a “sloppy bird,” is basically chicken pot pie filling on a bun. In the northwestern and central parts of the state, it’s a staple, served in schools, ice cream shops, and retirement homes. The standard recipe calls for a can of chicken breast meat, a can or two of cream-of-something soup, a slow cooker, and a pack of burger buns. Many cooks also use crackers, stuffing mix, breadcrumbs, or potato chips to thicken the slow-cooked filling, making it more scoopable.

The sandwich is easy to make and easy to enjoy, as long as you have a Midwesterner’s appreciation for carbs on carbs, which is why it’s been popular in Ohio since the 1940s. Compact and portable, it’s the walking taco of chicken dinners. It doesn’t have the zing of a tomato-sauced sloppy Joe, but it has its own warm, steamy, comforting appeal.

As you might imagine, some versions can be bland and mushy. Working on this recipe, I didn’t want to reimagine the sandwich, or add anything you can’t easily find at the supermarket, which would feel like a betrayal of its convenience-food origins. I wanted to come up with a version that tasted like more than just convenience… without a lot of extra effort.

Starting from scratch got me there. Instead of canned chicken breasts, I used fresh chicken thighs, which is a more forgiving cut—less likely to dry out and naturally richer in flavor. I sear the thighs to develop fond and flavor, braise them, shred them, then finish them in a sort of homemade cream of celery soup. The ingredient list is still short and familiar, but I replaced the crumbly thickeners such as breadcrumbs used in traditional recipes with a roux and puréed vegetables, to keep things simple and relatively light.

For some mouthwatering tang, I added pickled banana peppers, a popular topping for other sandwiches as well as pizzas in Buckeye State sandwich shops and pizzerias. They aren’t standard on shredded chicken sandwiches, but I’m not the only Ohioan who uses them, and my research turned up more surprising secret ingredients, including mushrooms, eggs, and various cheeses. Customization is part of the tradition.

There’s no good reason why the shredded chicken sandwich is just an Ohio thing—no hyper-regional surplus of canned chicken, to my knowledge. It’s a dish that could fit in just about anywhere. (Who doesn’t like chicken and gravy?) Keep this easy recipe in your back pocket for potlucks, tailgates, and all those other occasions when you need a sloppy sandwich to scoop out of a skillet.

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