Chicken Caesar Salad

Have you ever wondered why Caesar Salad is called “Caesar Salad”? I looked it up. It turns out that the original Caesar Salad was invented by an Italian immigrant chef, Caesar Cardini, who had restaurants in San Diego and Tijuana in the 1920s. The story is that, like so many recipes, Caesar Salad was invented out of necessity. Apparently a huge Fourth of July rush in 1924 depleted Cartini’s kitchen stock, so he threw the salad together with the few ingredients he still had on hand. Then–and this is my favorite part–in order to drum up excitement for his desperation salad, Chef Cardini tossed the salad together, rather extravagantly, tableside. That bit of foodie theater worked, and Caesar Salad was a hit! By the 1950s Caesar Salads were all the rage in Hollywood and New York, and from there, everywhere.

Caesar Salad is so popular in my personal universe that we typically have it as a meal, so we add plenty of protein. Here at home, by far the most requested addition is grilled chicken, but among catering clients, it was a toss-up between grilled chicken and roasted shrimp. A friend of mine would always order Caesar Salad with grilled salmon which I thought sounded weird. I tried it her way once though, and it was pretty darn good I must admit. However, a Caesar with grilled chicken still has my heart, and both the Princess OG and Princess Persnickety would happily eat yours if you didn’t want it. Chicken Caesar Salad is such a favorite at my house that it’s often requested for birthday dinner.

Forgive me for saying so, but the Caesar dressing below is the best one I’ve ever tasted. It’s easy and it keeps well, too. It’s a little on the lemony side, and calls for both anchovy paste and Worcestershire. (Don’t be a weenie about anchovy paste! Anchovy paste is cheap and you use so little, the $3 tube lasts for ages. And it makes a HUGE difference, but you won’t taste it.)

My Caesar dressing also uses commercial mayonnaise instead of raw eggs and oil. Mayo is so much easier to deal with, carries no overt salmonella risks, and mayo allows the dressing to last a week or more in your fridge. Feel free to make the dressing a day or so before you plan to serve it; the flavors marry beautifully overnight. If you have leftover dressing, save it! Caesar dressing makes a great dip for vegetables, grocery store fried chicken fingers, potato chips, French fries, or leftover croutons.

Speaking of croutons, you can use commercial croutons of course, but it’s so easy to make your own. I usually use the inexpensive French/Italian/whatever bread in the bakery area and that works great. But there’s another crouton version that has turned my head recently, especially with regard to Chicken Caesar Salad: cornbread croutons. The texture and flavor of cornbread croutons are perfect, and they’re just as easy to make as the regular ones. Sometimes, depending on the day-old bread situation at home, I make both cornbread and regular bread croutons like I did in these photos. Swoon!

To make Chicken Caesar Salad, any sort of cooked chicken is fine, but our favorite is grilled. We often cut boneless chicken breasts into cutlets (i.e., each breast is cut into two pieces through the thickness, giving you two pieces of chicken the same shape as the boneless breast, but thinner) and marinate them overnight in Italian dressing. If I’m planning ahead and firing up the outdoor grill for something else, I’ll cook them out there. If not, I’ll just do them in the grill pan on top of the stove.

And finally, you should know that Princess Persnickety’s favorite lunch-to-go is a Chicken Caesar Salad Wrap. She says to make it like this: put a cup or so of sliced or chopped romaine in a bowl. Add black pepper to taste. Add 2ish T. leftover Caesar dressing and toss well. Put the dressed romaine down the center of an 8” flour tortilla. Add as much sliced leftover chicken as you think you can fit, plus some extra grated parmesan cheese. (She wants you to know that the parmesan cheese in the green can won’t ruin it.) Roll it up. Wrap it in plastic wrap. Take it for lunch!

LOVE!