By MELBA
One of my favourite go-to keto salads to order at a café is a Chicken Caesar Salad. So long as you ask them to leave out the croutons, it tends to be a pretty safe keto option when you’re out and about. Now you can have it at home in a flash.
I cooked a butterflied chicken last night and had a couple of small pieces of cooked chicken left over so I decided to turn that into a chicken Caesar-style salad today. It’s not technically a Caesar salad as I used mixed salad greens rather than the traditional cos/romaine lettuce, and I left out the croutons, but the essence of a Caesar salad was definitely there.
To me, one of the luxurious aspects of a great Caesar salad is having a poached egg on top that oozes a silky, rich golden yolk over your salad as you break into it. For this salad I did the eggs two ways, poached and soft boiled which meant that for both styles, you got that beautiful oozy yolk.
The other aspects of the remained such as the salty and oily anchovy fillets, the bacon pieces, and the parmesan. The shortcut for this dish is the use of precooked chicken and store-bought Caesar salad dressing. They are not all created equal and definitely do not have the fresh zingyness that you get from a freshly made Caesar dressing, but when you’re in a hurry, it can still produce a lovely Caesar salad that you will be able to dig into with gusto. I finally found one that I am happy to use for both the flavour and also the carb count. I used ‘Creamy Caesar’ by Paul Newman’s Own (not sponsored) and I also feel happy knowing that its company’s profits are used to support charities.
I doubled the recipe to make two serves, but you will find that making 1 serve versus 2 serves hardly affects the overall cooking time at all. You also get a very decent sized portion whereby each salad plank (see pictures) was a single serving. Why not give this dish a go the next time you have some leftover cooked chicken?
It makes a great lunch or brunch and will look impressive served up on your favourite plate.
INGREDIENTS
50g | Cooked Chicken |
1 (30g) | Streaky Bacon rasher, chopped |
2 | Medium-sized Eggs (1 poached and 1 soft boiled) |
2 | Anchovy fillets in oil |
20ml | Store-bought Caesar Salad Dressing of Choice |
60g | Green Leaf Lettuce |
To Taste | Salt and Pepper |
20g | Parmesan Cheese |
1 ½ | Grilled Green Beans, cut into 1-2inch pieces (optional) |
METHOD
- Take your cooked chicken and tear or slice into bite-sized pieces and set aside.
- Slice your bacon rasher into small pieces and pan fry till cooked and just golden on the edges and set aside.
- Tear 2 anchovy fillets into small slivers and set aside.
- Use a potato peeler to create 15g of parmesan cheese shavings and set aside.
- Finely grate/shred the remaining 5g of parmesan cheese and set aside.
- Poach and/or boil your eggs.
- Place your washed salad greens into a large bowl. Sprinkle on half of the grated parmesan, half of the parmesan shavings, half of the anchovies and 10mls of the Caesar salad dressing. Toss the salad gently then add the remaining parmesan, anchovies, and salad dressing (this helps to spread the dressing evenly over all parts of the salad).
- Transfer the salad mixture to your serving plate.
- Over the top of the salad, scatter the chicken pieces and bacon pieces.
- Slice the soft-yolked boiled in half and place on the side of the salad. Place the poached egg on the top of the salad. Add a crack of black pepper and Himalayan pink salt over the eggs, and you are done.
- If you wish to add the green beans, season 1-2 green beans with salt, pepper and a spray of olive oil then grill or pan-fry till slightly charred on the outside (or to your preferred level of doneness). Slice into 1-2 inch pieces and scatter them over the salad at the same time as you add the chicken and bacon pieces.
Tips on Poaching an Egg:
- Use fresh eggs as the egg white does not hold together as well as the egg ages.
- Bring a pan of water filled 5cm or more deep, to a simmer.
- Stir the water to create a gentle whirlpool. This helps the egg white to wrap around the yolk as it cooks.
- Gently crack an egg into the centre of the pan where your whirlpool, making sure that the heat is low enough that the water is not boiling as the bubbling with throw your egg around too much.
- Cook for 3-4 minutes until you can see that the egg white is set.
- Lift the egg out with a slotted spoon.
Tips on cooking a soft yolk egg:
- Place your egg in a saucepan and fill with enough cold water fully cover the egg.
- Place over high heat and bring to a boil and get your timer ready.
- As soon as the water begins boiling start timing. Remove the egg to an ice-water bath after 3 minutes (to halt the cooking process).
- Take care when peeling the egg as the egg white will be more delicate that if you had cooked a hard boiled egg.
Note: timing may vary depending on the size of the egg you are using.
Nutritional Information Amount Per 1 Serving (with green beans) | |||||
Kcal | Fat | Protein | Carbohydrate | Fibre | Net Carb |
557 | 41.3g | 39.3g | 6.1g | 1.8g | 4.3g |
Nutritional Information Amount Per 1 Serving (without green beans) | |||||
Kcal | Fat | Protein | Carbohydrate | Fibre | Net Carb |
528 | 38.9g | 38.7g | 3.9g | 0.7g | 3.2g |
Please note that the nutritional values may vary depending on the brand of ingredients that you use and the cooking technique utilised.
