Chain Reactions: The Turkey & Stuffing Sandwich from Così

Rejoice! ‘Tis the season, ladies and gentlemen, that the deservedly revered Thanksgiving sandwich celebrates its all-too-brief moment of glory. We like to say that any great meal can make a great sandwich, but the traditional feast of turkey, stuff and cranberry sauce makes the translation to mobile form more naturally than most. The best examples of this most comforting of comfort sandwiches would be typically prepared in the kitchen of your ancestral home, on Black Friday, while nursing a hangover, but plenty of savvy professional sandwichmakers have taken to offering up their own interpretations, with varying levels of success.

Chief among these opportunists is the ubiquitous Così, whose “signature flatbread” sandwiches I’ve never been particularly fond of. Though the bread’s high crust-to-innard ratio results in a pleasant crunch, it adds little else to the overall sandwich package. And it’s the only bread you’ll find on this menu.

The flatbread aside, Così’s seasonal Turkey & Stuffing is a relatively straightforward rendition of the standard turkey/stuffing/cranberry trinity. And like the homemade versions you’re probably familiar with, it’s the cranberry sauce that makes the most noise here. Yes, it probably arrived in a 10-gallon bag and is no doubt packed with GMOs, but is that really any worse than the canned stuff we slurp down every year?

Unfortunately, the cranberry’s tartness is not enough to save the Turkey & Stuffing from the same defect that befalls many a chain sandwich: salt. The turkey and stuffing are dry and extremely salty — in fairness, probably not unlike a lot of Thanksgiving leftovers — and the aforementioned flatbread does its part in boosting the sodium count into four-digit territory. (1030mg, or 43% of your daily recommended intake, to be precise.) Unlike other chain sandwiches whose high salt content is less obvious, however, you know when you’re eating the Turkey & Stuffing that you’re doing your blood pressure no favors. You taste it.

But, hey, the self-declared “cult classic” is only around once a year, so if you won’t be making it home to mom’s this year, indulge yourself. Enjoy the tiny little bags of chips they give you. Stare, mesmerized, into the industrial gas-fueled pizza oven. It’s a holiday. #YOLO, you know?

Chain Reactions features sandwiches offered at national chain sandwich shops.