Turn a typical Caesar salad into something really special by adding juicy roast chicken.
Ingredients
- Large, 1.7kg free-range chicken
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges
- 6 smoked streaky bacon rashers
- 3 thick slices white bread or a small ciabatta loaf, cut into 1.5cm cubes
- 1 cos lettuce, roughly torn into pieces
- Handful rocket leaves
- 4 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- ½ tsp Dijon mustard
- 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 50g Parmesan or Grana Padano, roughly grated
Method
- 1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan180°C/gas 6. Place the chicken in a large roasting tin, rub the oil all over it and sprinkle with a little sea salt and plenty of ground black pepper. Squeeze over the juice of 2 of the lemon wedges and roast for 1¼ hours.
- 2. Add the bacon to the roasting tin and cook for a further 10 minutes until the bacon is crisp and the chicken is cooked and golden.
- 3. Remove the chicken and bacon from the tin and set aside on a board. Add the bread to the roasting tin and toss well with the pan juices. Roast for 8-10 minutes until golden.
- 4. Roughly chop the bacon, together with the chicken leg and thigh meat, into pieces (reserve the chicken breasts for the soup, overleaf). Place the cos lettuce and rocket in 4 serving bowls, then top with the chicken, bacon and croutons.
- 5. Whizz the anchovies, garlic and Dijon in a small food processor until mixed. Pour in the extra-virgin olive oil and squeeze in the juice from the remaining lemon wedges. Toss the dressing through the salad and sprinkle with the grated Parmesan.
Nutritional info
Per serving: 573kcals, 32.5g fat (9g saturated), 50.1g protein, 21g carbs, 2.4g sugar, 2.6g salt
Chef's tip
If you cook a whole chicken to make the chicken Caesar salad, you can make the roast chicken and summer vegetable soup as well. If you just want to make the salad, roast 6 chicken thighs, slashed, in the same way, for 15-20 minutes. For a creamy blue cheese dressing, swap the anchovy fillets for a little Dolcelatte.