Caesar chicken - a classic recipe step by step (photos and videos)

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Step-by-step recipe for Caesar salad with chicken
8 tips on cooking Caesar salad

Caesar salad with chicken is the perfect salad for cooking at home. His recipe is quite simple, the main difficulty is, perhaps, only in the preparation of the sauce. But if everything is done correctly, then even a beginner will have a more delicious home-made Caesar than the restaurant version.

Strictly speaking, the original Caesar salad is prepared without chicken, shrimp or tomato. Crispy Romano salad, silky sauce with anchovies, croutons, fried in olive oil, and Parmesan cheese - that's the whole dish. However, Caesar and the chicken became so fond of the world that many consider it a classic.

Today we will tell how to cook a delicious (just delicious) classic Caesar chicken salad in steps. At the end of the article you will find useful tips on how to avoid mistakes, how to replace some products and how to serve the salad.

Step-by-step recipe for Caesar salad with chicken

So, what is needed for the proper Caesar salad for 6-8 servings.

For croutons (toast):

Olive oil - 2 tbsp. spoons;
White bread or a loaf (better than yesterday) - about 4-5 slices (about 100 g);
Salt - 1/3 tsp.

For the sauce:

Anchovy fillets in oil - 1 small can (30-50 g of fish);
Garlic - 2 cloves;
Egg yolks - 3 pcs. (it is better to take more eggs and most importantly - the most fresh);
Dijon mustard - 1 tsp;
Freshly squeezed lemon juice - 2 tablespoons;
Olive oil - 2 tbsp. spoons;
Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup (about 80 g);
Parmesan cheese chips - 2 tbsp. spoons;
Freshly ground black pepper (to taste).

For salad:

3 medium bunches of romaine lettuce (about 400-500 g)
Parmesan cheese, planed with a peeler - about 100 g

Instruments:

Peeler;
Grater;
Whisk or mixer;
Blender (desirable).

Step by step instructions (below you will find our instructions, but in video format):

Make croutons. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until it starts to squash. While the butter is heating up, cut the bread into cubes approximately 2 × 2 cm in size. Crusts of bread can be cut, especially if they are too thick and dark. Put the cubes in the pan, sprinkle them with salt and mix with butter. Fry the croutons, turning them every minute or so, until they turn golden brown on all sides. It takes about 5 minutes. Next, remove the pan from the heat and leave the croutons to cool completely.
Make garlic-anchovy paste. Blot the anchovies with a paper napkin to remove excess oil, then chop finely. Crush the garlic in the garlic press (or chop, after having crushed the teeth with a knife). Mix the garlic and anchovies with a mixer or a blender (preferably) to make a smooth paste.

Make the sauce. Beat the egg yolks in a medium bowl until smooth. Add 1 teaspoon of mustard and beat the mixture again. Then add garlic anchovy paste and mix. Next, pour in lemon juice and whisk again the sauce until smooth.

If raw yolks scare you, you can pre-hold eggs for 1 minute in boiling water or even use mayonnaise (3 tablespoons).

Beat the butter sauce. Pour olive oil into the sauce, then beat it for about 1 minute. Then slowly pour in the vegetable oil, without ceasing to use the whisk, and continue to beat the sauce for about 1 minute. Next, add Parmesan shavings, season with black pepper (optional) and whisk again.
Prepare romaine. Cut romain into pieces in a size convenient for one bite. Next, rinse the salad under cool running water. Finally, place the leaves on a clean towel (paper or cotton) to dry.
Cook the chicken in your favorite way. How to cook chicken for Caesar salad? There are no strict rules here. Chicken fillet, you can simply boil, fry and fry, cook on the grill - choose any way that you like. The main thing is that the chicken was soft, without excess oil and fat. Before adding chicken to salad, cut into small bites into one bite, for example, 1 × 3 cm.

We prepared the chicken for Caesar as follows: first, beat the breasts with a glass, pepper and salt, then for 1 minute fried them on one side in a hot frying pan with olive oil. Then they reduced the heat to medium, turned the breasts upside down, covered the pan with a lid and left for 10 minutes. Chicken fillet cooked in this way will have an appetizing golden crust and very tender meat. What you need for Caesar salad! More about this recipe we wrote here.

Mix the ingredients and serve the salad to the table. Transfer Romain to a large bowl, add half the cooked sauce to it and mix gently. Next, add croutons to the salad and mix again. Finally, add chopped chicken and some slices of Parmesan + Parmesan chips. Serve immediately.

8 tips on cooking Caesar salad

Raw egg yolks in sauce can be replaced if necessary.

In the classic sauce for Caesar salad should be a lot of garlic and Parmesan cheese, a little anchovy and black pepper. And, of course, can not do without egg yolk. In the classic version of the recipe, it is raw egg yolks that are used; however, if you are preparing a salad for children, the elderly, or simply do not like raw eggs, then you can:

Pre-hold the eggs in boiling water for about 1 minute;
Use boiled yolks;
Use mayonnaise (about 3-4 tablespoons).

By the way, Caesar sauce based on mayonnaise is quite good - it turns out to be fluffy, thick and, above all, safe.

Anchovies can be replaced with sprat in a spicy salting

... or Worcestershire sauce, since there are already anchovies in it and, by the way, according to many experts, it should be in the recipe of Caesar. In fact, the question of what is better - Worcestershire sauce or anchovies, or a combination of them - still remains open. In our humble opinion, it is anchovies that make Caesar sauce so “branded”.

Romen salad is not desirable to replace, but you can

Crispy Romain blends perfectly with crispy croutons and Caesar dressing. It is simply impossible to invent a combination. But if this type of salad was not at hand, then you can replace it with Iceberg lettuce or Peking cabbage.

Lettuce leaves are better not to tear hands, and cut with a knife

Despite the widespread belief that Romain is more correct to tear his hands, we insist on cutting with a knife. Why? The fact is that the cut leaves remain fresh and crisp longer than after manual processing. And one more tip - the leaves should be completely dry, otherwise the sauce will cover them worse and the salad will turn out watery.

The sequence of the salad is important

Consistency is another step towards the success of the classic Caesar salad. First mix Romain with the sauce, then add croutons and mix again. Add some slices of Parmesan.Parmesan and anchovy sauce are very salty on their own, so try and season the salad only after adding them.

Serve the salad as soon as possible after cooking.

Ideally, it should be eaten within 1 hour. After all, crisp (not faded) Romain is one of the hallmarks of a proper Caesar salad.

Caesar salad croutons can be made for future use

Croutons can be prepared for storage and stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week or in a freezer for up to 6 months.

The sauce is suitable for 1 day.

Leftover sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for 1 day. Before serving, you need to hold it a little at room temperature, and then beat with a whisk.

Serve a salad can be in a large salad bowl, and there is - on a large plate

If you make a salad for 2-3 people, then the salad can be collected at all immediately on plates.

For the appetizing of the salad, you can add cherry tomatoes

Adding tomatoes is a rather rough departure from the classic Caesar salad recipe. On the other hand, you can always do it if the salad turned out to be salty or you just want to add bright colors to the dish.