How to make next level chicken caesar salad

1. Make some chicken crackling

Not essential, but a great addition, the chicken crackling boosts the chicken flavour and overall richness of the salad and adds to the crunch. If the chicken breasts you buy are skinless, a good butcher should be able to give you some chicken skin.

2. Flatten the chicken for even cooking

Bashing the chicken out with a meat mallet or rolling pin isn’t essential, but helps it cook quick and evenly and gives nice long strips of chicken to top the salad with.

3. Marinate chicken for depth of flavour

Marinating the chicken gives it lots of depth, and because the marinade is based on the flavours in the salad, it complements it. The main ingredient is lemon juice – which also means you don’t need to marinate for any longer than it takes to get the other elements together.

4. Tear the croutons for a rough, crunchy edge

By ripping the croutons into large pieces, they get gnarly edges which catch and go extra crisp as they bake.

5. Next level croutons baked with cheese

We’ve used sourdough bread for the croutons for extra flavour and baked them so they go crunchier than fried. We’ve also baked cheese onto them which gives them an addictive cheesy ‘tuile’ crisp edge as they cool. Our best croutons yet.

6. Three ways with parmesan

Finely grated parmesan becomes part of the dressing and is scattered over the croutons and cooked, but we’ve also shaved it into slivers so it plays more of an integral part in the salad.

7. Make the dressing creamy with mayonnaise

Classically the dressing is based on making your own raw egg yolk emulsion, but we’ve achieved the same consistency and a better flavour by using shop-bought mayonnaise.

8. A well-balanced dressing

With a punchy dressing like this you need to taste and adjust to your liking, adding more anchovy for saltiness and more lemon juice for acidity.

9. Char for flavour

Try and get lots of charred colour on the chicken as this will add a smokiness to the overall flavour of the salad.

10. Last-minute mixing

All the elements of the salad can be prepared ahead, but the finished dish was invented to be mixed tableside and served immediately – otherwise the lettuce starts to become limp and croutons lose their crunchiness.

See the full recipe for our next level chicken caesar salad.

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