With the British heatwave continuing I decided to teach my students how to make the Ultimate Chicken Caesar Salad. I used skin on chicken breasts that I wrapped in smoked bacon, homemade croutons, and of course real Caesar Salad dressing made from scratch. A delicious meal full of juicy flavour!

I wanted my chicken breasts to keep plenty of moisture so used skin on chicken breasts. If you cannot find breasts with the skin on you could watch my video of How To Cut a Whole Chicken because it is a great skill to learn.

Ingredients: serves 2
2 x 7.5 oz (212 grams) Chicken breasts skin on
6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
1½ head of baby Romaine/ Cos lettuce
Parmesan or Padano for shavings
Flat parsley optional

Croutons
2 Slices of stale bread (approximately 80-90 grams when trimmed)
1 ½ Tbsp Oilve oil
6g garlic finely diced

Caesar Dressing
6 anchovy fillets in oil, drained
8g garlic finely chopped
2 large free-range egg yolks
Juice ¾ lemon
1 tsp dijon mustard
100ml olive oil
1 Tbsp Red wine vinegar
18g grated Parmesan or Padano

Method:

1. Wrap each breast with 3 rashers of bacon and pin the bacon in place with
wooden toothpicks. Refrigerate until needed.

2. Next prepare the croutons by trimming the crusts off two slices of bread
then dice into large even pieces.

3. Mix the olive oil with the finely chopped garlic and toss with the diced bread
season lightly with seas salt and black pepper and reserve until later.

4. Now make the dressing; put the anchovies, garlic, egg yolks, juice of about
1/3 lemon and Dijon mustard in a small food processor whizz until smooth.

5. Slowly drizzle in olive oil a little at a time so the dressing does not split. It
should thicken up a lot.

6. Once you’ve added all the oil, stir through the grated parmesan and whizz
again. Then season lightly with salt (remember the anchovies are salty so not
too much salt).

7. Thin down the dressing with the rest of the lemon juice and stir in the 1
teaspoon of red wine vinegar.

8. Transfer the dressing into a clean container and place in the fridge until
needed.

Making the salad:

9. Tear the lettuce leaves in half (keep some smaller leaves whole). Wash and
then spin in a salad spinner and reserve.

10. Preheat the oven to 180 C and as soon as it reaches the temperature place
the prepared croutons on a baking tray on the middle shelf, bake until
golden brown then reserve until needed.

11. Heat a large non-stick frying pan and add ½ Tbsp olive oil, when the pan is
hot add the two chicken breasts skin side down. Cook on a medium high
heat (7) and season lightly.

12. When the breasts are lightly brown on both sides transfer the pan to the
preheated oven and cook until the internal temp is 75 C (167F). Let the chicken
breasts rest in a warm place whilst you finish off the Caesar salad.

To Serve:

13. Place a few of the small whole cos/romaine leaves around the edge of each pasta bowl.

14. Place enough salad leaves for 1 portion into a clean bowl and toss with just enough dressing and then place neatly into a pasta bowl, then repeat.

15. Cut each breast into 4 pieces, keeping them together for ease of transfering them and lay into the pasta bowls next to the Caesar salad (not on top).

16. Decorate with Parmesan/Padano cheese curls and chopped flat parsley and croutons.

History of Caesar Salad

The salad’s creation is generally attributed to the restaurateur Caesar Cardini, a most interesting Italian immigrant who operated restaurants in Mexico and the United States. Cardini lived in San Diego, but ran one of his restaurants, Caesar’s, in Tijuana, Mexico, to attract American customers seeking to circumvent the restrictions of prohibition.

The Anchovy Debate: Cardini’s original recipe did not contain whole anchovies; the umami flavor came from the Worcestershire sauce. It was actually his brother, Alex Cardini, who added anchovies to the recipe (originally calling it the “Aviator’s Salad.

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