Salad Days: Chicken Caesar salad

In one sense, this is a recipe that makes use of leftover cooked chicken. So, next time you have a chicken roast, make too much – choose a very large chicken, or roast two smaller ones – so that you can have this lovely chicken Caesar salad for supper a night or two later.

Alternatively, do what I did: poach chicken in a broth of water, wine and chicken stock with herbs, let it cool, and shred it for your salad.

A traditional Caesar salad does not have chicken in it, of course. Nor, historically, does it have tuna in it, although that has become a common ingredient of a Caesar over the decades. It is sometimes made with prawns or even steak.

If images of Roman emperors come to mind when reading the name of the dish, banish them. It is named after its supposed inventor, Caesar Cardini, and its origins are in Mexico.

Supposed? As with so many famous dishes, its precise origins are disputed. Cardini was an Italian who operated restaurants in San Diego and elsewhere, including Tijuana, Mexico, in the 1920s. 

The Wikipedia entry is full of intrigue: “His daughter, Rosa, recounted that her father invented the salad at the Tijuana restaurant when a Fourth of July rush in 1924 depleted the kitchen’s supplies. Cardini made do with what he had, adding the dramatic flair of table-side tossing by the chef. Some other accounts of the history state that Alex Cardini, Caesar Cardini’s brother, made the salad, and that the salad was previously named the ‘Aviator Salad’ because it was made for aviators who travelled over during Prohibition.”

It adds: “A number of Cardini’s staff have also said that they invented the dish. A popular myth attributes its invention to Julius Caesar. A 2024 book confirmed the claim that Caesar Cardini originated the recipe. Livio Santini’s son, Aldo, countered that his father provided the recipe while working as a cook in Cardini’s restaurant.”

An authentic Caesar salad – also spelt Cesar, César or Cesare – is said to contain romaine or cos lettuce, rustic croutons, olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, grated Parmesan, coddled eggs and croutons made with olive oil and garlic.

I’m a little dubious about the Worcestershire sauce, and I think the dish works perfectly well without it. Nor do I think eggs are essential to the dish, but you can add them if you wish to.

Here’s my recipe, which distils the known original and can easily be whipped up for a quick weeknight supper, especially if you start with leftover chicken.

The air fryer comes into play in a small way with my recipe.

Ingredients

For the poached chicken:

2 plump chicken breasts, skinless and boneless

Water to cover

2 chicken stock sachets

3 or 4 thyme springs

A glass of dry white wine

Salt and black pepper

For the salad:

The shredded chicken

Ciabatta croutons

Romaine or cos lettuce, about 12 leaves

Parmesan shavings, about 1 cup

For the croutons:

⅓ of a ciabatta loaf

⅓ cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves

1 Tbsp coarse salt

For the dressing:

3 anchovy fillets, chopped finely

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

½ a cup grated parmesan

1 Tbsp white grape vinegar

5 Tbsp good-quality mayonnaise

Method

Poach the chicken gently in chicken stock and wine with the thyme and seasoning for about 40 minutes or until the chicken is soft and cooked through. Drain and leave to cool, then pull into strips.

Pour the olive oil into a small bowl and add the chopped garlic. Allow it to infuse for about 30 minutes.

Pull pieces off the ciabatta and put them in a bowl. Drizzle a little of the garlic oil over, toss, drizzle more over, toss again, and so on until the oil is used up. While tossing the bowl, sprinkle the coarse salt in.

Preheat an air fryer to 200°C and add the coated bits of bread. Cook until crunchy and browned, about 8 minutes. But stop sooner if it looks right.

For the dressing, in a small bowl, mix the chopped anchovies, garlic, vinegar, Parmesan and mayonnaise.

Place the lettuce leaves in a large salad bowl. Add most of the chicken and two-thirds of the croutons, and dollop half of the dressing on top.

Toss well.

Add the remaining chicken and croutons, scatter the shaved Parmesan over, and spoon blobs of the remaining dressing here and there. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award, in 2021 and 2023.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.