grilled chicken caesar salad

This grilled chicken caesar salad is better than any restaurant! The chicken is extra-juicy and flavorful (thanks to a lemony garlic marinade and super hot grill) and it’s tossed with crisp romaine, craggily sourdough croutons, and a creamy lemony caesar dressing. It’s a classic for a reason!

Why I love it:

My go-to restaurant salad is almost always a chicken Caesar salad. Adventurous, I know. But I just can’t get enough of the thick, garlicky, tangy dressing, the cold crunchy romaine, and all of that salty parm. Grilled chicken makes it a complete meal and I get to pretend like it’s all totally healthy.

It’s the textures, I think, that keep me coming back. And that’s what I’ve played up in our own grilled chicken caesar salad recipe. 

Here are the highlights.

• Juicy grilled chicken breasts that are infused in a lemony garlic marinade. Butterflied chicken breasts soak up the most flavor and cook evenly on the grill. 
• Super craggily croutons, where we tear the bread for extra rough edges that soak up the olive oil and get wonderfully crunchy in the oven. 
• Homemade Caesar dressing with a ton of fresh lemon and high-quality oil-packed anchovies (just enough to add savory depth). We coddle the eggs in boiling water to add a thicker, richer mouthfeel to the dressing. 

Note: this Caesar salad dressing does contain raw eggs. The minute in boiling water won’t pasteurize the raw eggs, it just helps denature the proteins so they emulsify the dressing more effectively. If you have health concerns, you can buy pasteurized eggs or pasteurize them at home before making the dressing. 

grilled chicken Caesar salad ingredients:

how to make a grilled chicken Caesar salad:

1. Butterfly the chicken breasts and marinate for at least 20 minutes, and up to 2 hours.
2. Make the croutons: tear the sourdough, toss with olive oil, and bake until crunchy (15- 20 minutes).
3. Make the Caesar salad dressing in a blender or food processor.
4. Grill the chicken, let rest a few minutes, then slice.
5. Toss romaine with parmesan and some dressing. 
6. Add croutons and grilled chicken, and drizzle with more dressing.
7. Serve, passing extra dressing and parmesan.

How to make the garlic paste:

If you’ve never mashed garlic into a paste, it’s a fantastic kitchen skill to learn!

We use it twice in this recipe, in the chicken marinade so garlic bits don’t burn on the grill in the dressing, so it's ultra-creamy and free from garlic chunks.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Mince the garlic.
2. Sprinkle a bit of kosher salt on top.
3. Use your chef’s knife to spread, smash, and scrape the salt into the garlic, over and over again. The salt pulls out the moisture from the garlic and helps break it down.
4. Repeat smashing and scraping until the garlic turns into a smooth paste.

How to make this chicken caesar salad recipe for two:

Everything in this recipe can be easily halved! 

I recommend making the full amount of chicken and re-purposing it throughout the week in wraps and sandwiches, or tossing it on pasta or in rice.

When halving the dressing, use ⅜ cup olive oil (equal to ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons) and 4 ½ teaspoons of lemon juice. Use a tiny amount of garlic and a tiny bit of Dijon.

Shortcut this recipe for a weeknight dinner!

• Marinate the chicken for 10 minutes and toss it on the grill. Any amount of time is better than none!
• Use store-bought croutons.
• Use store-bought caesar salad dressing (or make it in the morning before you head to work).
• Buy a bag of pre-chopped, washed romaine lettuce instead of heads of lettuce.
• Use grated parmesan and save time from grating your own.

More leafy salad recipes to try!

buffalo chicken salad

butter lettuce salad

fresh herb salad

watercress salad

raw beet salad with citrus vinaigrette

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