THE BEST Caesar Salad

I have to say. I'm a BIG fan of Caesar Salad. A BIG FAN. But if the dressing isn't awesome, I won't touch a Caesar salad with a 10 ft. pole. I've only had 2 Caesar dressings that were OKAY, not awesome, but edible!

This is one. Cardini's Caesar Dressing. It comes in a glass bottle and I can only find it at Walmart.



This is the other, Marzetti. It's not so bad either.. But the best thing to do is to make your own. You probably have everything you need in your fridge. Here's the list-

For the Dressing-
5 Tbsp. GOOD Olive Oil
5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp. Worstershire
3 Tbsp. Real Mayonnaise
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cp Grated Parmesan Cheese
Ground Pepper

For the Salad-
3 Heads of Romaine
Cherry Tomatoes
Extra Parmesan
Grilled Chicken
French bread for croutons (optional)

This recipe is adapted from Pam Anderson's Caesar recipe. I've only changed the amounts.

Start by throwing the garlic and the olive oil in a food processor and chop it all up.

Next strain the garlic through a sieve so we're taking out the garlic chunks. By blending the garlic in the olive oil, we're infusing the olive oil with the garlic and removing the bitterness in the raw garlic. Yum!

Use a spoon to press all of the olive oil through the sieve

This is what your oil will look like. We are going to keep it so that if we want a stronger garlic punch to the dressing, we can add it. If we don't add it to the dressing, you can cut up some french bread, toss with oil and salt, and cook in a skillet on medium until it forms a tender crust. Garlic Croutons. But that's another day.

Here's the golden goodness that we want.

Mix it with the remaining dressing ingredients.

Such as these...

This is from my recipe book. If I ever lost my recipe book....I would be LOST! It is such a wonderful collection of recipes! Redundant. Anyway, I added this picture to remind you how important it is to use GOOD OLIVE OIL!

So that's all for the dressing. Next, the chicken for the salad. I always pound out my chicken breasts. They are usually pretty thick on one end which doesn't allow it to cook evenly.

Then I sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper and freshly grated Parmesan.


Cook your chicken on medium heat, flipping once when lightly golden on one side. Once it's done, remove from heat and let cool while we finish the salad.

It's much cheaper to buy unwashed, uncut Romaine. It's a little more work but we just love pinching pennies.... :)


Cut up your lettuce

Wash your lettuce. (I use a salad spinner to dry it off) Another tip for CRISP, CRUNCHY lettuce, soak it in an ice bath first. Even if you have wilted lettuce, give it an ice bath. Then make sure you dry it really well.

I've also chopped up some cherry tomatoes and extra Parmesan cheese.

This is the Parmesan I use.

There's a big difference in fresh Parm and the stuff in the green plastic bottle....I'm not even sure if it's real parmesan...

I'll take 2!

I combined it all together and plated the salads. It's the perfect summer dinner, light and fresh. Bobby and I could eat this all day! Hope you enjoy!