Rockstar Chicken Caesar Salad

I apologize – I haven’t been posting recently, but I have been cooking and eating – a lot. You see that’s been the problem either I don’t stop to take photos for my blog, or I’m trying something out for the first time – either a random concoction of my own or someone else’s recipe that I just cant stop thinking about. I even tried my hand at home made pasta. Excuse # 3 is that my sister was visiting – just in time to catch the last weekend of the Texas State Fair and all the fried food you could dream up. Again, I was all set to take photos, but I quickly got distracted by said fried food, and my good intentions fell by the way side.

Therefore I’ve decided to dedicate this post to left overs based on some killer recipes I’ve tried out. The first is a smoothie, the Green Machine Smoothie to be exact taken from Whole Living’s website, it yields about 3 cups worth of healthy goodness. It combines parsley, romaine, kale, pineapple and ginger perfectly – I know I’ve gone on about parsley before but who knew it could taste so good in a smoothie? The recipe also calls for mango, but I’ve subbed in apple juice and apricot juice, it’s just as good. Have coconut water hanging around, you could add a little of that too! So I’m getting off track and could very easily end up wandering into my kitchen and see what else I can throw into my blender. My point is that I have some romaine lettuce and purple kale in my fridge and whenever I have romaine I always want to make a creamy caesar salad.

This brings me to the next recipe that I was literally talking about for days - Melissa Clarks’, Green Goddess Roasted Chicken from the New York Times. I don’t cook chicken often much less a whole chicken, but the photos from this NYTimes story where pretty ridiculous. All you had to do to was blend a few ingredients, Buttermilk, basil, chives, green onion, garlic, and a little salt and pepper, do a spatchcock number on that chicken [butterfly it] and let it marinate over night. Then roast in the oven for about 40 minutes at 500 degrees. You reserve a little of the marinade sauce at the beginning to drizzle on the finished bird and its pretty close to roasted chicken perfection. The only suggestion I would make is that if your bird is small enough after it’s been flattened, brown the underside in a cast iron skillet and then transfer it into the oven.

Basically what I am left with is, some leafy greens, left over roasted chicken, and a badass basil chive buttermilk sauce.  So yes, in my mind this equals a rockstar version of the good old traditional chicken caesar salad.

---

Rockstar Chicken Caesar Salad                                                                                                                                     PRINT RECIPE
[Prep: 20 / TOTAL: 20]
[Serving size depends on home much chicken is left over]

• leftover roasted chicken, pulled off the bone and sliced.
• whatever greens you have in the fridge, in this case I have kale, romaine and arugula, wash and chop [shaved brussel sprouts work really well in this type of salad]
  
• handful of cherry tomatoes, washed and sliced in half
• avocado, pitted and cubed
• 4 tablespoons panko, toasted [you can also you plain breadcrumbs here]
  
• parmesan cheese to grate over the top
• pinch of cayenne pepper, salt and cracked fresh pepper
  

Dressing:

• ½ cup leftover buttermilk sauce
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 anchovy fillets
• 1 egg yolk [optional, I didn't have any eggs, but including one will make your dressing creamier]
  
• juice from one lemon or about 2 tablespoons
• cracked pepper to taste

[this marinade is already pretty salty, you probably wont need to add any extra]

For the basil and chive buttermilk dressing, whisk all of the ingredients together in small bowl except for the olive oil. The oil you should slowly incorporate a little at a time while whisking, so it can emulsify and the dressing can become thicker. This dressing won’t become as creamy as a traditional caesar salad because of the volume of buttermilk already in the sauce – it will still taste darn good.

To assemble the salad just wash and  chop up the romaine, kale [stem it first] arugula and put into a large mixing bowl. Wash and halve the cherry tomatoes, pit and cube/slice the avocado and mix both in with the greens. Here you can pre-mix the salad with a few tablespoons of the dressing – just enough to coat everything.

In small skillet or saucier pan toast a 4 tablespoons of panko crumbs on medium-high heat. Add a dash of olive oil, a pinch of salt, a little cracked pepper and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Toast for 4 minutes, stirring a few times so it doesn't burn.

Pull the roasted chicken off the bones and slice it up. [You should save all the bones, skin and other inedible pieces from the whole roasted chicken, it will make killer stock. You can always save them in a Ziploc bag in the freezer until you are ready to make a homemade stock.]

Plate the mixed salad and top with the sliced chicken. Drizzle more of the dressing on top and finish off with the toasted panko, the shaved parmesan and a few grinds of cracked pepper. 

[If you see something missing in this photo it's because I had to ditch the purple kale, it smelled pretty bad – it had gone funky. It’s always a bummer when food goes to waste...]

---

NOTE: If you have some leftover chicken but no buttermilk sauce (so sad) no worries, here’s a basic caesar dressing that’s easy to whip up:

Classic Caesar Dressing
[Should make enough for 2-4 salads, depending on serving size]

• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3-4 anchovy fillets, washed if packed in salt
• juice from one lemon or about 2 tablespoons
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Blend all the ingredients together in small food processor, except the olive oil, or mash anchovies and pressed garlic together in a mortar and pestle and incorporate all the ingredients – again, except the olive oil. Transfer to a small bowl or measuring cup and slowly drizzle the olive oil while whisking the mixture. The slow drizzle will help the dressing come together and become creamy. If it becomes too thick for your liking you can always add a little water or vinegar to thin it out to be more like a vinaigrette.