Caesar Salad: A Classic Simple Recipe With Chicken And Crackers At Home And Other Original Dish Options

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Caesar salad: we prepare classic and original recipes at home

What do modern housewives value most in salads? Intense taste, nutritional value, beautiful appearance. But nowadays, not rich in a lot of free time, the speed of preparation also plays an important role. And of course, the health and body benefits! If you combine all these qualities in one dish, many will immediately recall the famous Caesar salad. This wonderful light snack can be seen on the menu of almost all cafes and restaurants, and we will learn how to cook Caesar salad on our own at home.

Content

• 1 Dish history

  1.1 How Caesar Cardini created his salad

• 2 Our time: what is Caesar made of and with what is served

  2.1 Calorie and nutritional value table

• 3 Cooking Caesar salad at home: simple and original recipes

  • 3.1 The classic recipe with chicken and croutons
  • 3.2 Video recipe for traditional Caesar salad with chicken
  • 3.3 With Chinese cabbage
  • 3.4 With shrimps
  • 3.5 Video: Cooking Caesar with Shrimp
  • 3.6 With fish
  • 3.7 Video: Three quick cooking options for Caesar salad
  • 3.8 Video: Jamie Oliver's Useful Caesar Option

History of the dish

Looking at the name of this salad, one would like to say that it is dedicated to the famous ancient Roman emperor Caesar, a great politician, warrior and conqueror of women's hearts. And the composition of the dish hints at Mediterranean cuisine, which can also speak in favor of this version. But the real story is much more curious and closer to us in time. The Caesar salad so popular now was invented about 90 years ago, and it got its name from its inventor, Caesar Cardini.

Caesar Cardini - creator of the popular Caesar salad

And it was like this …

In the 20s of the last century, Prohibition was in force in the United States - the strictest ban on the distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages. And as you know, the forbidden fruit is sweet, and also profitable for those who are not afraid to take risks in pursuit of luck. These people included an American of Italian descent, Caesar Cardini, the owner of Caesar's Place in the Mexican town of Tijuana, which is located near the border with the United States. This location of the hotel and restaurant was extremely convenient: Prohibition was not introduced on the territory of Mexico, and Americans from the areas adjacent to the border flocked to Caesar's Place in order to spend an evening or two without denying themselves cheap drinks.

Caesar's Place, hotel-restaurant of Caesar Cardini, received guests around the clock

The establishment was full of alcohol at any time of the day, profits flowed like a river, the fame of the hotel with a restaurant quickly spread further than the surrounding area. And one day something happened that should have happened …

On July 4, 1924, on the Independence Day of the United States, it was not just anybody who gathered at Caesar's Place, but Hollywood stars and the bigwigs of the film business. And it just so happened that the institution is full of booze, as always, but there is almost nothing left of the food in the kitchen. By nightfall, grocery stores are already closed. Cardini could not afford to hit his face in the dirt. And like any enterprising person, he found a simple way out of the situation: he made a salad himself from what was left in the kitchen!

The guests of the restaurant were delighted with the served dish. And Caesar Cardini decided to introduce him to the menu, which became another highlight of his establishment. Of course, the name for the dish suggested itself.

How Caesar Cardini created his salad

There was little food, and even less time. So Cardini took a salad bowl, rubbed it well with garlic from the inside, put the romaine lettuce leaves in it, chopped them coarsely beforehand, and poured it with high quality olive oil. Then he hammered in eggs, boiled according to his mother's recipe: they must be kept in steep boiling water (while not allowing it to boil), and then removed from the water and left to cool for 10-15 minutes.

Caesar salad dressing eggs should be soft-boiled

Such soft-boiled eggs will become the basis for salad dressing. After that, Cardini added grated parmesan, fresh lemon juice and herbs such as tarragon and basil. Then went to the bowl, fried in olive oil, slices of white bread and Worcestershire sauce - just a few drops. Mix everything thoroughly so that the eggs and butter combine and envelop all the products involved, put them on portioned plates and serve.

Over time, Cardini himself made small changes to his work, for example, he began to add croutons to an already mixed salad. And his brother Alex used to add anchovies to the dressing. But whatever the variation, the salad soon became incredibly popular far beyond Tijuana.

Our time: what is Caesar made and served with

Now each restaurant has its own special recipe for Caesar salad, which can differ significantly from the classic one. The original cooking method and the main products remain unchanged, but the chefs can add:

• bacon;
• ham;
• turkey;
• shrimp;
• tuna;
• fillet of pike perch;
• chopped herring fillet;
• cancerous necks;
• pincers of the Kamchatka crab.

Supplements to the appetizer are often:

• cheese;
• walnuts;
• tomatoes;
• Bell pepper;
• cucumbers;
• corn;
• raisins;
• pineapples;
• olives;
• potatoes;
• onion;
• oranges.

Even sour cream, hand-made mayonnaise, cream with mustard and soy sauce are often used as a dressing. But we already know that a classic salad should be seasoned with a mixture of soft-boiled egg, fresh quality olive oil and Worcestershire sauce. Of course, you will want to experiment and make your own sauce. In the salad recipes presented below, we invite you to familiarize yourself with the original methods of preparing dressings.

Worcester sauce is a must in Caesar dressing

Calorie and nutritional value table

Serving size	100 g
Kilojoules	787 kj
Calories	188 kcal
Protein	7.62 g
Carbohydrates	6.26 g
Sugar	1.23 g
Fats	15.07 g
Saturated fat	3.631 g
Monounsaturated fat	9.035 g
Polyunsaturated fats	1.677 g
Cholesterol	44 mg
Cellulose	1.4 g
Sodium	393 mg
Potassium	202 mg

Cooking Caesar salad at home: simple and original recipes

Many years have passed since Caesar Cardini treated his guests to a snack from what was at hand. Since then, the salad has been loved by many chefs, and each of them tries to bring something of their own, special to the dish. There are several ways to prepare this wonderful snack.

Classic recipe with chicken and croutons

The easiest way to make a salad according to the classic recipe is to add a tomato to its composition: this will add brightness and flavor to the appetizer. For this recipe you will need:

• 150 g chicken fillet;
• 1 medium tomato;
• 2 slices of white bread or loaf;
• 4-5 lettuce leaves.

Instead of a regular tomato, you can use a few small cherry tomatoes.

You can season the salad with a special ready-made Caesar salad sauce, according to your taste. But we propose to prepare the dressing yourself by taking the following products:

• 2 tbsp olive oil;
• 1 tbsp lemon juice;
• mustard to taste;
• 2 pinches of sesame seeds.

The indicated amount of ingredients is calculated for 1–2 servings of the dish.

1. Prepare groceries so that they are all at your fingertips. Rinse chicken breasts and dry with a tissue. Boil chilled chicken eggs hard-boiled.

   

   For cooking you will need bread, salad, chicken or breast, eggs and tomato

2. Cut the fillets into small pieces about 0.5 cm thick. Fry them until golden brown. Using very little vegetable oil. Better yet, grill it.

   

   Chop and sauté chicken fillet

3. Cut the white bread slices into cubes. They do not need to be fried, but dried to a light crunch in the microwave or oven.

   

   Dry the slices of white bread in the oven

4. Peel the tomato, cut it into neat thin slices. If you are using cherry tomatoes, you can cut them in half and leave the smallest ones whole.

   

   Cut the tomato into neat wedges

5. It's time to build. Lettuce leaves should be washed and dried. Cover the bottom of the plate with them, then, in layers: tomatoes, croutons, peeled and cut eggs, fried chicken pieces.

   

   Place prepared foods in layers in a salad bowl

6. Preparing the dressing will not take long. It is enough to mix the products for it into a homogeneous mass. Pour it over the salad and add sesame seeds on top. They are not required for this recipe, but when combined with vegetables they add a spicy flavor to the salad.

   

   Add dressing to salad and sprinkle with sesame seeds

Video recipe for traditional Caesar salad with chicken

With Chinese cabbage

Lightness is important in an appetizer, which means that we cannot do without puffed and low-calorie Peking cabbage. In this recipe, she will replace lettuce leaves for us. Take the following foods:

• 1 chicken breast;
• 150-200 g of Chinese cabbage;
• 6 pcs cherry tomatoes;
• 50 g of hard cheese;
• 3 slices of white bread;
• 2 quail eggs;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• 1 pinch of salt.

For the sauce you will need:

• 2 chicken eggs;
• 2 tsp dijon mustard;
• 50 g olive oil;
• 1-1.5 tsp lemon juice.

From these ingredients you will make 2 servings of salad.

1. Prepare food: quail eggs should be boiled, chicken breast and vegetables washed and dried.

   

   Peking cabbage, tomatoes, eggs, cheese, mustard, croutons will be needed for cooking

2. Remove excess fat and film from chicken fillet. Then cut it into oblong thin slices.
3. Heat oil in a frying pan, send the pieces of breast there. Season with salt and fry for 10 minutes until lightly golden brown.

4. Peel the top leaves of the Chinese cabbage and chop finely.

   

   Chop Chinese cabbage finely to replace lettuce

5. To prepare the dressing, immerse the chicken eggs for no more than a minute in boiling water. Remove, let cool, break into a deep plate. You will see that the yolk is completely runny, and the white has set slightly. Whisk a little, adding mustard and fresh lemon juice. Mix well.
6. Now add 50 g of olive oil and a little salt to the dressing. Beat the mixture with a blender.
7. Cut white bread into small cubes, send to brown in the oven. After that, it is advisable to fry them in vegetable oil, adding chopped garlic. Pour very little oil into the pan so that the croutons do not turn out to be greasy.

8. Place the chopped napa cabbage leaves in a suitable bowl. Add chicken fillet. Pour over the sauce and mix.

   

   Peking cabbage and fillets in a bowl with sauce

9. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half, put in the salad and stir again.

   

   Add the halved cherry tomatoes

10. Grate the cheese using a fine grater.

11. Put the finished salad from a bowl into portioned plates, add the remaining ingredients to each: quail eggs, cut in half, crackers, and grated cheese on top.

    

    Add quail eggs, croutons and cheese to portioned plates

Your Chinese cabbage appetizer is ready, enjoy!

With shrimps

Fans of Mediterranean cuisine could not ignore such a wonderful dish as Caesar. It is enough to add seafood (in our case, shrimp) and a few more specific ingredients to the appetizer, and you can feel yourself on the Mediterranean coast! True, this recipe will have to work hard: the shrimp salad takes longer to cook than the traditional method.

For the salad itself you need:

• 1 bunch romano salad
• 30 g grana padano or parmesan cheese;
• 10 raw shrimp - king or tiger;
• 1 tbsp. l. liquid honey;
• 1–2 tsp lemon juice;
• 1 tbsp. l. olive oil;
• 1 pinch of salt;
• 1 pinch of ground pepper.

To make croutons, take:

• 3 slices of a loaf without crusts, preferably a little stale;
• 2 tbsp. l. olive oil;
• 1-2 cloves of garlic;
• ¼ h. L. dry provencal herbs;
• 1 pinch of salt.

We will make the sauce from the following products:

• 1 chicken egg at room temperature;
• ¼ h. L. mustard;
• 1 tsp lemon juice;
• 20 ml olive oil;
• 40 ml of refined vegetable oil;
• 4 pieces of anchovy fillet (or 2 sprat sprats);
• 4-5 drops of Worcestershire sauce (or 3-4 drops of balsamic vinegar with 2 drops of Thai fish sauce);
• salt and ground pepper.

Let's start cooking.

1. Defrost the shrimp first and rinse thoroughly in cold running water. Then clean them by removing the shells and removing the heads from the intestinal vein. Dry the shrimp with a paper towel, place in a plate, cover with honey, olive oil, drizzle with lemon juice, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix well and leave the shrimp in this marinade for half an hour.

   

   Defrost, rinse and marinate the shrimp

2. When the time is up, transfer the meat to paper towels to dry off any excess marinade. Meanwhile, heat a little oil in a skillet. Fry the shrimp for 2 minutes on all sides. You will determine readiness by the fact that the meat has lost its transparency and became dull.

   

   Fry the shrimp until they are dull

3. The fried shrimp can be removed from the pan and set aside for now.

   

   Fried shrimp can be set aside for a while.

4. Now let's make croutons. To do this, you need to count and chop finely (but not squeeze out with a press) the garlic, add it to a cup of olive oil. Let it brew for about 1.5 hours.

   

   Prepare garlic oil

5. Heat the finished garlic oil in a frying pan, after catching the pieces of garlic from it. Fry the small cubes of bread in it. Spread the resulting croutons on a baking sheet, season with salt and dry Provencal herbs and send to dry in the oven at 180 ° C. If you have an airfryer, you can do it in a couple of minutes.

   

   Saute bread slices in garlic oil

6. It's time for the salad dressing. Put an egg in salted boiling water and leave for 1–2 minutes to soften. Let it cool in cold water, then break up and place the egg white and yolk in a suitable bowl.

   

   Shrimp Caesar Souche Base - Soft Boiled Egg

7. Add lemon juice and mustard to the egg, beat well with an immersion blender. Stir the olive oil and vegetable oil, pour a little into the mustard-egg mixture, continuing to wield the blender. Your sauce should be as thick as mayonnaise.

8. Rinse and pat dry anchovy fillets with paper towels. Do the same with the sprat if you are using it.

   

   Prepare fish fillets

9. Chop the fillets with a sharp knife, trying to achieve a homogeneous mass.

   

   Try to cut the fish as small as possible

10. Add the fish mass to the sauce. Mix thoroughly with a fork.

    

    Combine fish with sauce and stir

11. Now whisk the sauce with a blender again, adding the drops of Worcestershire sauce and salt. Please note that many of the ingredients used already contain salt, so try the dressing.

12. Let's start assembling our salad. Rinse the lettuce leaves well and leave them in a bowl of cold water for 1 hour to make them crisper. After that, the leaves need to be dried, pick them as large as possible with your hands and put in a dry bowl. Add sauce, stir well.

    

    Stir the lettuce into the prepared sauce

13. Take the plate where you will be serving the salad and rub it liberally with a clove of garlic. Place the leaves mixed with the sauce and croutons on top of them. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Arrange the shrimp nicely, add a little more sauce on top.

    

    Rub the inside of the salad bowl with garlic and put the salad in it

It is better to serve shrimp salad right away, otherwise the croutons may get wet from the sauce.

Video: Cooking Caesar with Shrimp

With fish

Someone thinks fish is tastier and healthier than meat, even chicken, and for someone Thursday is fish day. In any case, you can make some adjustments to the salad, thereby giving it a touch of Russian cuisine. We suggest you add red fish and pine nuts to it. So you get Siberian Caesar!

You will need:

• 400 g of red fish;
• 100 g lettuce;
• ½ wheat loaf;
• 50 g parmesan cheese;
• 2 eggs;
• 1 tsp dijon mustard;
• ½ lemon;
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic;
• 1 tsp Worcester sauce;
• 10 cherry tomatoes;
• 2 handfuls of pine nuts;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

Red fish can be boiled, lightly salted, smoked or grilled.

1. Prepare the fish: remove bones, skin. Cut the fillet into slices, sprinkle with lemon juice, season with pepper and salt.

   

   Cut the fish fillet, sprinkle with lemon juice and salt

2. Put the fish in the fridge to marinate and cook the croutons in the meantime. Cut the flesh of the loaf without the crusts into small cubes, spread on a baking sheet, drizzle with oil and salt. Send to the oven and dry until golden brown.

3. Remove fish from refrigerator, brush with oil. If it's raw, grill it, for example. Lightly salted fish can be used without additional processing.

   

   Grilled fish great for Caesar salad

4. Rinse and pat dry the lettuce leaves. Pick them up with your hands.

   

   Lettuce leaves should not be cut, but torn by hand

5. Grate the Parmesan on a fine grater.

6. For the preparation of the sauce, we will take whites and yolks. But you will have to beat them separately. Add the juice of half a lemon, garlic, ground with salt and pepper, and mustard to the protein. Begin to stir, gradually adding the whipped yolk. When the mixture is smooth, whisk it, gently pouring in the olive oil and adding the Worcestershire sauce.

   

   Whisk the yolks and whites for the sauce separately.

7. Add part of the dressing and half of the Parmesan cheese to the lettuce, stir. Lay out fish pieces, croutons beautifully, pour over the rest of the dressing, top with grated parmesan and pine nuts, garnish with cherry halves.

   

   Pine nuts will give Caesar salad with fish a special flavor

Video: three options for instant Caesar salad

Video: Jamie Oliver's version of the useful Caesar

We hope we helped you diversify your family cuisine, and Caesar salad recipes will take their rightful place on the family and festive table. Please share in the comments with us your ways of making Caesar salad and dressings for it. Bon Appetit!