CHICKEN CAESAR

The Hairy Dieters’ take on a lighter Chicken caesar salad recipe. It is one of our “go to’ meals, it can be made up in under 20 minutes, less if you use cold roast chicken from Sunday, which is why we often have it on a Monday.

It tastes fantastic, warm or cold. This new take on the classic has all the crunch and taste of a traditional caesar, but with much less fat.

Who knew 300 calories could taste so good

INGREDIENTS:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 slices prosciutto, excess fat trimmed
1 teaspoon sunflower oil
2 baby cos lettuce, trimmed, leaves separated, and coarsely torn
10 cherry tomatoes (halved)
2 slices of ciabatta bread
1 tablespoon finely grated parmesan
Flaked sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

For the Dressing:

2 anchovy fillets in oil (drained and roughly chopped)
1 garlic clove (peeled and roughly chopped)
2 tablespoon light mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
15g Parmesan cheese (finely grated)
2½ tablespoons cold water

METHOD:

To make the dressing, put the anchovy fillets in a pestle and mortar, add the chopped garlic clove and pound into a paste.

Add the mayonnaise, lemon juice, Parmesan and water and stir well to make a pourable dressing

Place a chicken breast between 2 sheets of cling film and bash it with a rolling pin until the chicken is about 1cm thick. Bash the other chicken breast in the same way, then season the breasts on both sides with a little salt and plenty of black pepper.

Dip a pastry brush in the oil and brush over the base of a large nonstick frying pan. Place the pan over a medium heat, and quickly fry the prosciutto. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Now add the chicken and cook for 2 -3 minutes, on both sides, until nicely browned and cooked through. Remove from the heat and leave the chicken in the warm pan to rest.

While the chicken is cooking, prepare the salad. Arrange the lettuce in a large serving bowl and scatter over the tomatoes.

Toast the slices of ciabatta and tear them into bite-sized pieces, and then to the bowl.

Break the prosciutto into shards. Now combine the bread, prosciutto, lettuce, tomatoes and the parmesan in the serving bowl. .

Put the cooked chicken breasts on a board and cut them into thick strips. Scatter these over the salad and toss everything together lightly.

Spoon over half the dressing and serve while the chicken is warm.

Original recipe Hairy Bikers