Chicken Caesar Salad

This post may contain affiliate links. See my privacy policy for details.

The humble chicken Caesar salad is a mainstay of restaurants and lunchrooms everywhere. However, it is way better when you make it at home, using from-scratch Caesar salad dressing!

Make sure that you learn How to Make Buttery Garlicky Homemade Croutons for this recipe. Or why not learn what Worcestershire Sauce is for this recipe?

Chicken Caesar Salad

Chicken Caesar salad is often considered nothing more than a mainstay, reliable lunch option to order at a restaurant you aren’t sure about.

It’s always going to have plenty of tangy, acidic flavors, and while it isn’t the most filling thing on most menus, it will at least give you all of the calories you need for a good lunch, thanks to the rich dressing and chicken.

However, Chicken Caesar salads are actually pretty amazing, especially if done right. One of the main reasons that so many Caesar salads you get away from home are a bit lackluster is because they skimp on some of the flavoring ingredients, or they don’t include real anchovy paste.

This recipe will not only make for a robust, filling, and nutritious meal but will also probably be the best Chicken Caesar salad you have ever eaten as well.                                                                  

Chicken Caesar Salad Ingredients

Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.

Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing

 • Garlic

 • Mayonnaise, preferably full-fat

 • Anchovy paste

 • Parmesan cheese

 • Worcestershire sauce

 • Dijon mustard

 • Lemon juice

• Salt & pepper

Chicken Caesar Salad Ingredients

• Romaine hearts

• Garlic croutons

• Chicken breasts, cooked and diced

• Parmesan flakes

• Fresh lemon juice

How To Make Chicken Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad Dressing

• Combine all of the ingredients together into a container that you can use an immersion or hand blender to mix

• Process and blend all of the ingredients together, adding in as much garlic and lemon as you want

Assembling The Chicken Caesar Salad

• Place the lettuce in a large bowl

• Toss the dressing until the lettuce is totally coated

• Top with the chicken, croutons, and the Parmesan

• Right before serving, mix the toppings in the very top layer of lettuce, just enough so that there is a layer of toppings in every serving and it is spread easily.   

Why It Needs Anchovy Paste, Despite What Food Historians Will Tell You

One of the great controversies in the culinary world is about the inclusion of anchovies in Caesar salads.

Most recipes, including this one, will contain anchovies in some form or another, either as whole anchovy fillets diced or just anchovy paste.

The very first, original Caesar salad, however, did not contain anchovies, and the creator, Caesar Cardini, was adamantly against the inclusion of anchovies.

In the original recipe, the salty intensity of anchovy flavor came from the addition of Worcestershire sauce.

However, pretty much all Caesar salad recipes include anchovies, and the reason is that it makes it taste really, really good.

While you could simply use extra Worcestershire sauce instead of using anchovies, especially if you are trying to make this vegetarian, but there is a lot of extra flavors you can add if you use anchovies as well.

Ignore the purists and include some anchovy paste – you won’t regret it.

How Should You Cook Your Chicken Breasts For This Recipe?

This recipe calls for some chicken breasts that have been cooked, cooled, and then diced into small pieces to make for an even distribution throughout the salad.

If you want to start from raw chicken breasts, you can cook your chicken however you like it. Just make sure to not overcook it and let it get dry.

You could bake it in the oven at around 350 Fahrenheit with a bit of salt and pepper, pulling it from the oven when an instant-read thermometer put into the thickest part reads 165 Fahrenheit.

Or, to get even more precise, you could cook it sous vide. So long as you have a sous vide machine, you could cook it to a perfect 165 Fahrenheit to get the juiciest flavor possible.

Instead of cooking your chicken breasts from scratch for this recipe, you could also simply use leftover chicken breasts from another recipe.

If you cook a roast chicken dinner, why not save the chicken breasts and just eat the dark meat for dinner instead?

That way, you have some perfectly cooked and seasoned chicken breasts that you can refrigerate and then eat the next day as part of this delicious Chicken Caesar salad!

Looking for more delicious Salad recipes? Try these out:

•Shrimp Salad

• Cucumber Tomato Salad

• Turkey Salad

Happy Cooking

Love,

Karlynn

Pin this recipe to your SALADS or DINNER IDEAS Board and Remember to FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST!