breaded chicken caesar salad.
A really good, really simple kale caesar with anchovy-less dressing and easy, crispy, parmesan chicken.
Makes: 4 servings Prep time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes jump to recipe.
Am I the only one who routinely craves salad? I genuinely love a little bowl of greens and protein, especially if it involves avocado (Okay, I’ll admit I enjoy them exclusively if they involve avocado).
There is one salad I never, ever get tired of. It’s super easy to pull together and can be customized a hundred ways without needing much more than 2 toppings at a time, and pairs with just about any meal. This wonder salad is a kale caesar, and I’m sharing my recipe for it here.
Making your own dressing
Dressing is something that really intimidates me for some reason. Maybe because it involves the word “emulsion” or because it uses a hefty amount of olive oil, I kind of dread making my own dressing. The truth is, you can just buy your favorite caesar dressing and use it instead. There are healthy versions out there (Trader Joe’s has a great vegan one) and it’s a hundred times healthier to have a salad with store-bought dressing than to not have a salad at all. I’m telling you: it’s okay. But you should also, at some point, try doing it yourself.
It’s actually pretty easy and can be done using a whisk and some dexterity. Here’s what you should know, though:
The dressing will be yellow
You need to use good olive oil
The egg will be raw
Store bought dressing is white because there is additives that brighten and whiten the color to be more palatable (Spooky, right?). The natural color of caesar dressing is yellow, because most of the ingredients are bright-to-gold shades. Don’t be alarmed, this is totally fine!
What’s also fine is the egg yolk being raw. Most eggs don’t contain salmonella and this shouldn’t hurt you, but if you’re wary, you can pasteurize your eggs (or buy specifically pasteurized eggs).
Making this vegetarian
Writing this to be vegan would be an entirely different recipe, but you can definitely make this vegan or pescatarian pretty easily. Here are some swaps for the chicken to make this either vegetarian or pescatarian:
chickpeas, drained
crispy chickpeas, peeled, dried, and roasted in the oven
pine nuts and shaved parmesan
canned tuna
breaded tilapia, made the same way as the chicken in this recipe
grilled salmon
soft-boiled eggs
breaded chicken caesar ingredients
kale: I love kale and think it’s the best green for caesar, but by no means do you have to use it. Like a classic caesar, this works with lettuce, or you can use spinach or arugula. If using arugula, I recommend tossing it with spinach or romaine, or the flavor will be a little strange. If you go with kale, you can use any kind. My favorite is lacinato kale, which is almost purple in color, matte, and super bumpy. In other words, it’s the awesome-looking kale. Cut it into chunks, remove the stems, and massage it well before using.
eggs: You’ll just need the yolks from 2 eggs, plus a whole egg for dredging the chicken. If consuming raw egg spooks you out, look for pasteurized eggs specifically. You could also swap in 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise.
dijon mustard: You need a tiny bit of mustard to get that almost-spicy flavor. Don’t try swapping in a different mustard, it will taste off.
lemon: The lemon will add a brightness to the flavor of the dressing but is also required for emulsifying the dressing.
soy sauce: This is where that umami flavor is going to come from, instead of Worcestershire or anchovy paste. Or honestly, you can just skip the whole anchovy thing altogether and leave this out, too.
olive oil: Choose a high-quality olive oil or extra-virgin olive oil. It makes a lot of difference in dressings! You’ll need quite a bit here, so make sure you have enough before starting. By the way, I don’t recommend frying the chicken with olive oil because it tends to burn (plus, why waste all that nice oil). Have a vegetable oil handy for the chicken.
grated parmesan: You’ll use this in the dressing and the chicken breading. It adds a lot of thickness and creaminess to the dressing, plus a nice salty flavor, so don’t try to leave it out. You don’t need as much as you think. I recommend grating it fresh, it will blend into the dressing 100 times better.
garlic: This adds more flavor than salt and pepper, even, and it’s just one clove. Grate it into the dressing for a super-smooth texture, or mince as finely as possible if you don’t have a microplane.
chicken cutlets: Chicken cutlets aren’t any more expensive than regular breasts, so I recommend just buying them pre-cutletted (sliced? I don’t know) at the store. There should be packages labeled chicken cutlets. If not, you can do it yourself pretty easily using thick chicken breasts. Just slice the breasts in half horizontally and pound the halves out so they are at an even thickness.
breadcrumbs: I love panko for it’s crunch, but regular breadcrumbs work really well here, too. To make this gluten free, you’ll just swap this and the flour — there are quite a few GF breadcrumbs out there, including Kikkoman (the panko brand).
flour: You just need a handful of flour to dredge the chicken with. If making this gluten free, the cup4cup brand (or anything similar, I know there’s a lot out there now) will work just fine. Flour contributes to the brown, crispy crust, so I wouldn’t try skipping this.
avocado: Because you just need a little avo in your life.
