This Crispy Chicken Caesar salad is a weeknight dream. Easy, extremely craveable, and ready in about 20 minutes. Get your LMNT sample pack free with any purchase at https://DrinkLMNT.com/BrianLagerstrom
Crispy Chicken Caesar Salad INGREDIENTS: Chicken Cutlets: ▪4 chicken breast filets (6 oz each) ▪Salt (for brining the chicken) ▪2 cups all-purpose flour ▪4 large eggs ▪150g (1c) panko breadcrumbs ▪150g (1 1/4c) grated parmesan cheese ▪3g (1/2t) salt (for breading) ▪3g (1/2t) black pepper ▪100g (1/2c) neutral oil for frying (e.g., avocado, peanut, or canola)
Salad mix: ▪4-5 heads of little gem lettuce (or 2 heads of romaine) ▪1 bunch dino kale (lacinato), stems removed, thinly sliced ▪1 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced
Quick Caesar Dressing: ▪200g (3/4c) mayonnaise (preferably homemade or Duke's) ▪15g (1T) Worcestershire sauce ▪30g (1/4c) grated parmesan cheese ▪15g (1T) anchovy paste ▪5g (1t) Dijon mustard ▪20g (1 1/2T) olive oil ▪2g (1/2t) black pepper ▪3g (1/2t) salt ▪15g lemon juice (Juice of 1/2 lemon) ▪5g/1 garlic clove, pressed or minced
INSTRUCTIONS:
Prepare the Chicken Cutlets: 1. Sprinkle both sides of the chicken breast filets with salt 2. Place the salted filets in a freezer bag and pound them gently with a sturdy saucepan until they are about 1/2-inch thick. 3. Set the pounded cutlets aside to dry brine while you prepare the salad.
Prepare the Salad Greens: 4. Cut the little gem lettuce in half, then chop into 1-inch chunks. Place the chopped lettuce in a large salad bowl. 5. Thinly slice the kale and add it to the bowl with the lettuce. 6. Using a mandoline or a sharp knife, thinly slice the fennel bulb and add it to the bowl. 7. Wash the greens in cold water to refresh them and remove any dirt, then drain well.
Make the Caesar Dressing: 8. To make the dressing, stir all ingredients together until well combined.
Bread the Chicken Cutlets: 9. Set up a breading station with three shallow plates or trays: one for the flour, one for the whisked eggs, and one for the breadcrumb mixture. 10. On the first plate, spread out the flour 11. Whisk the 4 eggs until smooth, then put on the second plate/tray 12. Mix together panko, parmesan, 3g salt and black pepper and spread out on third tray/plate. 13. Dredge each chicken cutlet in the flour, pressing firmly to ensure it adheres, then shake off any excess. 14. Dip the floured cutlet into the egg mixture, ensuring it is fully coated, then let any excess egg drip off. 15. Press the cutlet into the breadcrumb mixture, ensuring it is completely coated with the crumbs and cheese. Press down to adhere the mixture well.
Cook the Chicken Cutlets: 16. Heat 100g (1/2 cup) of neutral oil in a large non-stick pan over medium heat. Once the oil reaches 350°F (175°C), carefully place two breaded cutlets into the pan. Fry for about 2 1/2 minutes per side until golden brown, moving them slightly to ensure even cooking. 17. Transfer the cooked cutlets to a wire rack or paper towel-lined plate to drain excess oil. 18. Repeat the frying process with the remaining two cutlets.
Assemble the Salad: 19. Toss a few handfuls of the salad greens with a generous sprinkle of grated parmesan and 2-3 large dollops of the Caesar dressing together in a bowl to coat the greens. 20. Place a crispy chicken cutlet on a plate and top with a generous portion of the dressed salad. Finish with a little extra dressing, grated parmesan, and fresh cracked black pepper.
CHAPTERS: 0:00 Intro / quick brining the chicken 1:07 Prepping the greens 2:03 Making the speed caesar 3:08 Dredging the chicken 4:48 Quick-shallow frying the chicken 5:25 Staying hydrated 6:27 Finishing the chicken 7:07 Assembly #food#salad#chickensalad
Hey, what's up?
Today, I'm gonna show you a 20-minute crispy chicken Caesar
that's perfect for a craveable weeknight dinner.
In this video, I'm gonna show you all the mistakes
that people make when it comes to making chicken cutlets
and exactly how to fix them.
And I'm also gonna show you a two-minute
from scratch speed Caesar dressing
that you can bust out super fast
anytime you want a good Caesar.
To get started, I'll grab four six-ounce
chicken breast fillets.
Breast fillets, if you haven't heard of them,
are just chicken breasts that have been sliced horizontally
to create two thinner breast pieces.
Next, I'll sprinkle on a modest amount of salt
on both sides of the breast.
This will act as a quick dry brine
that will not only season the meat,
but more importantly, the salt will help the meat
hold onto its water during cooking,
which will make the meat a lot juicier later on.
Next, I'll slide one of these salted breasts
into a freezer bag, then I'll grab a sturdy saucepan
and pound it 10 to 12 times in the thickest part
of the breast to turn it into a cutlet.
Pounding these thin fillets into a thinner cutlet
is gonna give us more surface area,
which means the chicken can hold more breading.
The final cutlet should be about a half-inch thick
and evenly flat throughout.
And once I've got all four of these breast fillets
pounded into cutlets, I'll set them aside to dry brine
while I grab the greens for the Caesar salad.
For this salad, I'm using little gem head lettuce,
raw fennel, and lastinado kale.
To prep the lettuce, I'll cut it once in half,
then turn 90 degrees and chop it down into one-inch chunks.
Next, I'll take one bunch of kale
and run my knife through it.
This stuff is fibrous AF, though,
so make sure to cut it super thinly.
That fiber's gonna bring some nice structure to the salad,
but if it's cut too thick, it's gonna be punishing to chew.
Behind the kale, I'll take one medium bulb of fennel
and slice it thinly on my mandolin.
Of course, a knife would totally work
if you don't have a mando,
but make sure to cut it as thin as possible.
Raw fennel just doesn't work in a salad when it's thick.
Okay, once my greens are all cut up,
I'll need to wash them to remove any dirt or whatever,
but also to refresh them.
In transit or on the shelves of the grocery store,
produce loses a lot of moisture,
and that makes it less crunchy in the salad.
So for head lettuce, kale, and other shaved raw vegetables,
I always hit them with cold water
to refresh them before eating them raw.
Once I've got these greens sorted out,
next, I need to make the dressing.
First, I'll combine 200 grams of nice-tasting mayo.
In this case, I mean Duke's.
There we go.
Then in goes 15 grams of wort,
30 grams of grated Parmesan,
then 15 grams of anchovy paste.
By the way, chovy paste is a nifty little ingredient
that was tailor-made for Caesar dressing.
It saves me the hassle of having to drain and chop anchovies
and it tastes almost as good as whole anchovies.
Almost.
That was one of the more brutal ones.
The texture is unforgivable.
Next, in goes five grams of Dijon mustard,
20 grams of olive oil, two grams black pepper,
three grams salt, then the juice of half of a lemon,
and one garlic clove that I'll smash
through my garlic press.
Next, I'll jump in with a spatula
and just stir everything to combine.
I'll mention that this is a little bit more
of a rustic Caesar, as in the anchovies and the cheese
aren't gonna be 100% smooth
like they would be in a store-bought dressing
or the pureed version that I showed you guys
three weeks ago in my salad dressing 101 video.
But having a slightly more rustic texture
doesn't matter at all.
This dressing still tastes amazing
and it's insanely easy to make.
Next, let's bread the chicken cutlets.
For that, I'll drop a couple of cups
of all-purpose flour onto a plate
or a little baby sheet tray.
Then I'll whisk up four eggs
and drop those onto a second sheet tray.
These are step one and two
of the classic three-step breading system.
Step three is a seasoned breadcrumb mix.
To make that, I'll combine 150 grams
of chunky panko breadcrumbs
with 150 grams of Parmesan cheese,
specifically the crumbly grated stuff,
not shredded because that won't stick to the cutlet.
Then I'll add in three grams of salt
and three grams of black pepper
and then give everything a few toss tosses
to get it all mixed together.
And now we've got chicken Parmesan breading basically,
as in 50% cheese, 50% crumbs.
To get this breading stuck to the chicken,
I'll grab one cutlet with a fork
then drop it into the all-purpose flour
and press it down a little bit
to get as much stuck to the surface as I can.
The flour creates a starch bond
between the egg protein and the meat.
Without it, the breading would slough right off.
Next, I'll scoop this chicken out of the flour,
shake it off, then drop it into the egg mixture
and flip it around two or three times
to make sure that every bit is coated with the egg.
And once it's got this whole thing swimming in egg wash,
I'm gonna lift it up and thoroughly drain off
any excess eggs.
Once this is in the breadcrumb mixture,
I'm gonna toss it a few times
to get a good base layer of crumbs stuck to the meat.
Then I'll scoop some breading on top
and press it down to compact it a little bit
and to make sure that every little bit of egg
has some panko cheese stuck to it.
Bare spots are the enemy
because not only are they not crispy,
but they also let the chicken juices flow out,
which will create steam during the fry,
which will make the breading release from the meat.
Once I got all four of these cutlets breaded up,
I'm gonna move them over to a sheet tray.
Then I'll grab a large nonstick pan
and drop it on the stove over medium heat.
Once that's hot,
I'll add in six to seven glugs of neutral oil
or about a half cup or a hundred grams worth.
I'm using avocado oil, by the way,
but peanut or canola would also work fine.
Now, before I shallow fry these,
I'm just gonna dip in my instant read thermometer.
And as you can see, it's around 350 F.
That's the ideal temp.
Next, I'm gonna use some tongs
to carefully and deliberately drop two cutlets
into the oil away from my body
to prevent any oil from splashing onto my body.
Shallow frying is significantly lower risk than deep frying,
but it's still half a cup of very hot oil.
So we need to respect it and stay frosty
when dropping stuff into it.
Now, I'm gonna let these fry on the first side
for about two and a half minutes
while I quickly thank Element for sponsoring this video.
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When I'm not in your phone making hyper palatable foods,
I try to eat a pretty healthy diet and stay active.
For me, that means going hard at the gym
a couple of times a week and using my infrared sauna.
When I'm sweating out there, though,
I don't just drink water to stay hydrated
because when we sweat, we lose both water and sodium,
so we need to replace both to stay hydrated.
So I supplement with Element.
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Shout out to the orange, grapefruit,
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Mm.
And if you're a fan of sparkling water,
which you probably are,
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After 2 1⁄2 minutes of shallow frying,
I'm gonna come back and take a little sneak peek
underneath this chicken, and as you can see,
it's beautifully golden brown.
So I'm gonna flip these cutlets over,
then fry them on the backside for 2 1⁄2 more minutes
or until the cheese crust on both sides
has reached a godly level of browning.
Next, I'm gonna move these over to a wire rack
on a sheet tray or a paper towel-lined plate
to drain off any excessive oil
and to let these rest while I drop the other two cutlets.
When I cut into one,
you can see that the ratio of breading to meat is high,
which is awesome, and the breading is stuck on perfectly,
thanks to the dry brine
and the proper three-step breading process.
To put it all together into a medium bowl,
I'll drop a few handfuls of my salad mix,
then a generous sprinkle of grated Parmesan,
then two to three large dollops of my speed Caesar.
I'll give everything a quick toss-toss,
then I'm gonna throw a whole bunch of this salad
on top of my warm, juicy cutlet.
Then I'll top it with a little bit more dressing,
some more Parmesan cheese,
and then a few cranks of fresh-cracked black pepi.
And that's a chicken Caesar salad
where the crouton part is actually fried chicken.
It's crunchy, it's salty, it's cheesy,
and very fresh from the juicy little gem
and the fragrant fennel.
If you guys want another delicious,
creative weeknight meal that you can bust out
in less than 30 minutes,
then check out this video for spicy noodle stir-fry.
It's an Asian dish,
but uses a noodle that you might not expect,
and it is mucho delicious.
I'll see you there.
Now, let's eat this thing!
