2010 Cooking club week 25B: Chicken Caeser Salad

foodaholic

As this isnt my week I have no pics, but will make it tomorrow and post them for you.


Crunchy Crispy Chicken Caesar Salad

6 chicken legs (with thighs attached if you can, with skin on yum yum)
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 tbs olive oil
Salt & pepper
8 -10 slices of pancetta or bacon
1 loaf of uncut bread ripped into chunks ( I use the ciabbatta loafs that u need to cook at home, just rip them up into big chunks)
1 Cos lettuce

Caesar Dressing
2 or 3 anchovies (a must and it doesnt make it fishy at all)
1 clove garlic
1/2 a cup of olive oil
1 tbs creame fraiche
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup grated fresh parmesan

Chicken
Peel off the leaves from the rosemary stalk and bash together with the oil, salt & pepper in a mortar & pestle.

Rub all over the chicken.

Place some extra sprigs of rosemary and the bread on the bottom of the baking tray

Place the chicken over the bread and bake until cooked and crispy at 180C (The bread will soak up all the chicken juices & oils and these will be used as the croutons in the salad)

Remove from oven, lay over the bacon, return to oven & cook until the bacon is crispy.

Caesar Dressing

Place the anchovies, a little of the anchovy oil & the garlic in a mortar and pestle and smash together well.
Add creame fraiche,parmesan cheese and add the lemon juice. Mix well then add the oil and mix until combined & smooth.

Salad
Place the Cos lettuce leaves into a bowl.
Take the chicken from the oven and tear off the meat then rustically chop up with the bacon and the bread.

Mix the chicken, bacon and bread in with the Cos leaves and drizzle over the dressing,
Sprinkle over some fresh parmesan.

foodaholic

Here the pics:

Note I should have listed 1/2 a cup of olive oil under the caeser dressing, sorry.

Seaneh

That is a beautiful looking ceaser.

BaZmO*

Should it not be Romaine lettuce fir a Caesar Salad?

I suppose it is a bit difficult to get. Baby Gems are a nice replacement too.

Little Alex

Hi foodaholic

Just had this now and it was lovely!

foodaholic

That looks fab Little Alex. Fair dues to you, you get to every recipe every week !!

Little Alex

foodaholic wrote: »

That looks fab Little Alex. Fair dues to you, you get to every recipe every week !!

Yeah, I try to keep up!

Mr Magnolia

My croutons were a bit soggy so I put them back into the oven after the chicken was cooked for 10 minutes. In case anyone was wondering I put the chicken (legs & thighs on the bone) in the oven at 180 for 45 minutes and they were nice and moist. Personally, I thought is was a bit messy pulling the chicken off the bone for a salad. Overall the flavours did work well together, thanks foodaholic.

Faith

This is why I love the cooking club. It's like the best recipe book in the world. I was looking for something healthy (enough) to do with leftover roast chicken, and I spot this recipe! Will report back once it's made (in a few days, because I haven't even bought the chicken yet!).

BaZmO*

Faith wrote: »

This is why I love the cooking club. It's like the best recipe book in the world. I was looking for something healthy (enough) to do with leftover roast chicken, and I spot this recipe! Will report back once it's made (in a few days, because I haven't even bought the chicken yet!).

Ohh good thinking. I always make a chicken risotto with my roast chicken leftovers but I'm always looking for something else to do with the additional leftovers. This recipe would be perfect.

I love the way you can keep going back to old CC recipes for inspiration.

Faith

So I made this last night (pretty much). I used previously roasted chicken, and just mixed it in with the cooking bacon at the end to reheat it. I bought my croutons, but I bought them from Waitrose so it was like making my own . The dressing was quite lumpy and never achieved a "smooth" texture because of the cheese. Over all, it was delicious! Would definitely make again .

Here's the final (very badly photographed) result:

MissFlitworth

Faith wrote: »

I bought my croutons, but I bought them from Waitrose so it was like making my own

Hehehe love it